Following the Super Bowl on Feb. 8, many fans across the country weren’t afraid to express their disappointment online. As far as Sunday Super Bowls go, it wasn’t that interesting a game to watch. The whole game was essentially a beat-down of the Patriots.
Seahawks fans are left somewhat happy with a win that was perhaps too easy, and Patriots fans (like me) are mourning a crushing loss. There wasn’t a lot of that “edge of your seat” feeling.
To make matters worse, the Super Bowl commercials this year seemed to have fallen flat. What used to be full of life, creative concepts, and funny skits turned into boring storytelling, overreliance on celebrity appearances, and AI-generated content. So, which was a bigger disappointment: the Patriots’ loss or this year’s Super Bowl ads?
Football Letdown
Starting with the gameplay, it seemed that the Patriots just kept making bad play after bad play. A lot of postgame commentary pointed to the Patriots’ lack of a strong offensive line, which was the deciding factor of the game.
Even though the Patriots played some of the top defenses during the playoffs, they fell short when it came to getting through the Seahawks’ defense and scoring points. The New Englanders’ offensive line had two rookies on it, who, in comparison to the seasoned Seattle players, seemed outmatched and inexperienced.
In short, the Patriots’ offensive line couldn’t keep the pocket clean for their No. 10 quarterback, Drake Maye, and the offense never found a rhythm. Not only did they not score any points until the fourth quarter, but Drake Maye also turned the ball over a whopping three times to the Seahawks, twice by being intercepted, and once with a fumble.
Not only was the Seattle defensive line hard for the Patriots to push through, but the Patriots also failed against the Seahawks’ offense. The Patriots often had to do something called “Rush-5” or “Rush-6,” meaning that they had five or six people in the opposing quarterback, Sam Darnold, rather than the usual four.
This was because the Seahawks’ offensive line was effective in defending their quarterback. This left more opportunity for the Seahawks’ receivers, like Kenneth “K9” Walker, to stay open.
The Patriots had such a miserable game that their quarterback’s former endearing and silly nickname of Drake “Drake Maye” Maye is being replaced with Drake “The Schedule” Maye.
This is because not only did the Patriots have the easiest schedule leading up to the playoffs in the past 10 years, but also because them defeating the Broncos is largely believed to be pure luck: if it weren’t for the ankle break of the Broncos’ starting quarterback, they likely would’ve gone on to the Super Bowl, and their offensive line may have stacked up more fairly against the Seahawks.
Ads falling flat
Moving on to the ads, I’d go as far as to say that not only were they boring, but even unsettling. Looking back on past Super Bowls, advertising used to be fun, quirky skits selling Dunkin’, beer, or cars. Instead, it seems that now every other ad is selling some version of AI, Ozempic, or online gambling and cryptocurrency. These ads aren’t exactly entertaining or easy to understand, either.
For example, one ad opened with a Backstreet Boys karaoke moment… and somehow ended as a Coinbase cryptocurrency ad, leaving viewers confused. It was unclear how the cryptocurrency was different from the rest of the market, or what remote relevance the Backstreet Boys have to it.
Something else unsettling was the Svedka commercial, which featured robots indulging in the vodka brand and dancing at a club with humans. This ad was particularly hard to watch, as it started with an up-close image of a creepy grin from the Svedka ‘fembot.’ Something about the dancing of the robots felt deeply disturbing; this later made sense when Svedka revealed that all the animation for the commercial was made with AI.
Not only was the artificial intelligence (AI) animation off-putting to watch, but it took away an opportunity for a real, human artist to animate the ad and earn some money, which is especially disappointing, knowing that a big corporation like Svedka would be able to afford to pay animators.
Many Instagram commenters were also put off by the amount of AI featured in the Super Bowl ads, leaving quips such as “Can we go back in time?” or “This commercial sucks.” It also leaves us wondering if we really want to “live in a world surrounded by that crap.”
The Ring doorbell ad has also raised eyebrows online. Framed as an ad where the company claims that its sensors can aid in finding lost dogs around your own neighborhood, many commenters are claiming that this is just a form of government surveillance.
Besides the unsettling ads we witnessed on national television, most of the ads that weren’t unsettling in some ways were simply boring or relied on a celebrity appearance to seem interesting. In common, those ads had no real entertaining plot, the way they used to.
In a Super Bowl that was primarily disappointing to watch, the only part of the game I can say I truly enjoyed watching was the halftime show. So, between the Patriots and the ads, which one was the bigger let-down?
As someone who grew up outside of Boston, running around an elementary school gym with a cardboard cutout of Tom Brady, I have to say that I’m pretty bummed about the defeat. Still, football is football, and you must take the losses with the wins.
What’s harder for me to let go of is the ads. To me, the lack of creativity in this year’s Super Bowl commercials is indicative of something much worse: a deteriorating creative culture that’s being replaced with algorithm-chasing and artificial gloss.
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