Every Super Bowl, fans of all kinds gather to support one of the biggest sporting events of the year. Some fans like me are truly just excited for appetizers and commercials. This year around 50 companies aired commercials during the Super Bowl and we had some interesting ones to say the least. While I wish I could sit here and talk about all 50, I will be highlighting the commercials that stood out to me. The commercials had range; some used their 8 million dollar ad for good, some used it for comedy and some used it for awareness.
Memorable ads
The first commercial that stood out to me was Novartis’s breast cancer campaign called, “YourAttentionPlease.com,” which highlighted how important early diagnoses are and how ending the stigma around breast cancer can save lives. Comedian Wanda Sykes, a breast cancer survivor, starred in this ad, as well as actress Hailee Steinfeld. This commercial was executed beautifully. It started off by showing how common it is for people to stare at cleavage, highlighting a male cashier staring at a customer’s breasts, then shifting the narrative saying that we need their attention on breast cancer, not just on breasts.
Another important ad that was shown was Nike’s “So win” campaign highlighting women in sports. Nike’s first Super Bowl commercial in nearly 30 years was used to show off women like Caitlyn Clark, A’ja Wilson, Sabrina Ionescu, Juju Watkins, Jordan Chiles, Aryna Sabalenka, Sha’Carri Richardson and Sophia Smith. The ad was narrated by Doechii. This ad was powerful, highlighting the double standards women face in sports, as they have to work two times harder. I think these ads are more than necessary.
This year we had many cameos from celebrities and influencers; Poppi alone featured Jake Shane, Alix Earle and Rob Rausch. Ray-Ban Meta showed an ad starring Kris Jenner, Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pratt. Snoop Dog was shown in an anti-hate ad. Glen Powell starred in the RAMS ad as Goldilocks. The Haagen-Dazs ad featured the Fast & Furious cast. Lots more were shown throughout the night that it was almost impossible to keep track.
Off-putting ads
We saw many off-putting commercials to say the least. Sometimes off-putting is the way to go because it’s attention grabbing, memorable and show stopping. Sometimes it’s a little too much; my personal ranking of the “weirdest” commercials starts with Coffee mate’s new cold foam ad. A LOT of tongue was shown. It’s shown twisting around to a jingle about cold foam, sung by Shania Twain. It wasn’t too weird, but as I sat there anticipating a life changing halftime show, I was met with a dancing tongue; I was scared. I can’t say that the ad is inefficient because I am truly curious on how good this cold foam must be!
Next up is Tubi’s ad, which cannot be as bad as their ad last year that showed the TV changing channels, which upset and scared a lot of Super Bowl fans. In this ad, the main character is a man with a cowboy hat shaped head, yes his head is shaped like a cowboy hat, all skin. Many people had different shaped hats under their skin, which was very off-putting, but kind of sweet? He finds a bar full of people wearing cowboy hats and feels at home and comfortable with them. This was all to say that Tubi (the app) has so many movies and you’re bound to find your movie, but wow! The whole time it kind of made my head hurt and made me feel uncomfortable.
Another ad I unfortunately couldn’t leave off of this list is Kanye West’s ad promoting Yeezy.com, which has since been taken down. He took a very lazy approach, by recording his video from a dentist chair, saying that he spent all of his advertising money on his new teeth and to go check out his website, Yeezy.com. He spent half of the commercial saying, “Ummmmm, Ummm.” Later that week, he got his website taken down for posting swastikas, so the ad didn’t do too much to help him.
The Hellmann’s mayo ad consisted of a lot of moaning like Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal from “When Harry met Sally.” They recreated this iconic scene, but this time around, Meg is very loudly moaning as the mayo was just too good apparently. It came to a close by showing Sydney Sweeney saying she’ll “have what she’s (Meg) having.”
Lastly, I cannot end this article without mentioning Doritos; they are historically known for their unforgettable Super Bowl advertisements. This year, they hosted a contest saying, “Create a better Super Bowl ad and you could win $1 million.” Dylan Bradshaw and Nate Norell won this contest with their commercial where Dylan fights off a UFO to keep his Doritos. The commercial ends with Dylan and the alien sharing the Doritos; the chips brought them together!
The editing and execution was really well done and the platform Doritos has given these two men is unimaginable. Overall, I wasn’t disappointed, but there was an overwhelming amount of discomfort and I think I liked that. It kept me on my toes and intrigued. I can’t wait for next year!