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We’ll cut to the chase: We loved some of the Super Bowl LVII commercials. Some. But not enough of them. Nowhere near enough of them.
Arguably, the biggest problem with this year’s batch of Big Game ads was not so much the lack of ideas, but the overreliance on a single idea: that you can bludgeon viewers into paying attention through the power of celebrity.
Read: Ranking the Top 5 Super Bowl 2023 ads
Spot after spot was packed with blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em famous folks. Celebrity-on-celebrity action in service of ... what, exactly? Star-power brinkmanship? Shameless flexing? A way to say, “Hey, we can not only blow $7 million on 30 seconds of airtime, but we can afford unlimited payroll”?
Most likely, though, the tactic was about simple distraction. As in, “Maybe if we cram in half a dozen famous faces, nobody will notice that our ad is, creatively speaking, a nothing burger.”
Last year, Ad Age dubbed Super Bowl LVI “The Celebrity Bowl”—and, we quipped, “Thank you, rich-and-famous people, for your service.” Call Super Bowl LVII “The Way-Too-Many-Celebrities Bowl.” This year, for the record, we have no inclination to quip. Instead, we’ll just offer a curmudgeonly admonishment: Enough already.
Anyway, since this is Ad Age’s annual Super Bowl Ad Review, let’s forget for a moment about our overarching critique. As always, we’re here to talk about the commercials on their own merits and demerits. (There were, after all, some very good ads that just so happened to have celebrities in them.)
Let the postgame quarterbacking begin.
In keeping with a timeless tradition—playing off a famous movie—Rakuten enlists one of pop culture’s consummate consumers for its Super Bowl spot—Cher Horowitz, played by Alicia Silverstone in 1995’s “Clueless.” Silverstone appears in character, reprising some rad outfits as well as a debate with her big-screen nemesis Amber (Elisa Donovan), in which she regrets being ignorant about how Rakuten allows her to shop and save. What the spot does well is communicate what the shopping app is about, and it employs a character that fits the product. The cameo from designer Christian Siriano and the kicker—Silverstone is asked whether she’s too old for high school—are cute. But that’s about as far as it goes. We’re pretty clueless about why it’s worthy of the Super Bowl. Watch: Debating the Super Bowl commercials
Welcome to QR Code Bowl, as blockchain-based game developer Limit Break gives away 10,000 free Dragon series NFTs. By scanning the on-screen code, gamers score tokens to use for the upcoming fantasy game DigiDaigaku. It’s clear they didn’t spend a lot of time on creative or craft, but will that matter to gamers? Given the number of brand partnerships in this game, we’d like to have seen FanDuel or DraftKings take bets on how long it takes this offer to swamp the Twitter mentions of the company’s CEO, which is where the QR code directed. See also: How QR codes could flood Super Bowl marketing
In Michelob Ultra’s Big Game ad, a bunch of famous folks—including Serena Williams, Brian Cox, Nneka Ogwumike, Jimmy Butler, Alex Morgan, Tony Romo and Canelo Álvarez—are deployed to reenact scenes from the greens of Bushwood Country Club, the fictitious course from the 1980 comedy classic “Caddyshack.” There’s a lot going on in this 60-second spot, but unfortunately none of it is particularly funny, in part due to the miscast Cox, who brings a bit too much angry energy (à la his Logan Roy character on HBO’s “Succession”) to his rivalry with Williams. In the end, the seismic effects of a Michelob Ultra bottle’s cap twist (a hoary beverage-ad bit) helps Williams triumph over Cox on the course—and then the brand serves up its current tagline: “It’s only worth it if you enjoy it.” Yep, we know. Don’t remind us.
Related: Super Bowl marketing has a real problem
Once again we are climbing Paramount’s peak—familiar terrain—following the stars of the streaming service as they scale the symbolic summit. The campaign’s focus on its “mountain of entertainment” has been a refreshing change from most streaming-service commercials, but with this execution, we’re beginning to wonder if the air is getting a bit thin up there. Much of the charm of the earlier ads was in the surreal interplay of real and animated characters—mixing Beavis and Butt-Head, Gayle King and Jeff Probst, for example. This time, the plot reduces them to an ancillary role to focus on Sylvester Stallone, who is suspended from a Mount Rushmore-style carving of his countenance in the rock. The “Tulsa King” is seen hanging from his own nose, suspended like the world’s biggest booger, before the mountain “sneezes,” plunging him hundreds of feet into the snow. With his daughters and various characters looking on, Stallone shouts to his carved image “Gesundheit!,” which responds with “Thank you.” It’s silly and childish and might draw a few guffaws after a few beers, but we know Paramount+ can do a lot better.
It’s great to see a brand actually do something fun with a celeb, rather than just throwing them a half-baked script and praying for a miracle. Ben Affleck manning the drive-through at a Dunkin’ in Medford, Massachusetts, is priceless for so many reasons. First of all, the memes involving Affleck and Dunkin’ go back years. He’s been photographed a number of times scowling as he struggled to carry his Dunkin’ order—which proved he’s a real customer, but also framed him as a cranky lout worthy of ridicule. This ad, though, flips the script. Turns out he can laugh at himself! (That he looks like he just rolled out of bed only makes it better—seems he’s legitimately not as worried about his image as you might expect.) Beyond that, the footage of the surprised customers is, of course, gold. The thick Boston accents, including Affleck’s own, lend a nice authenticity. And the arrival of his wife, Jennifer Lopez, at the end is the perfect kicker—the one person who’ll keep making fun of him no matter what. Sure, David Letterman pioneered the celeb drive-through gag 30 years ago. But this is a hilarious revival of the format—and a nice swan song for Anomaly on the account. We have a winnah!
See also: Read more about this campaign here
Ben Stiller puts his comedic chops to work for Pepsi Zero Sugar in this spot, which draws back the curtain on ad puffery, asking viewers whether he truly loves the product, or whether he’s putting on an act. Along the way, we watch him take off on some of his well-known films such as “Zoolander” and “There’s Something About Mary” as we see him in full CGI glory battling a monster in chainmail, “proposing” to Rachel Dratch (who accidentally kicks him in the face) and faking a friendship with an R2-D2-type droid. Not only is this commercial a great fit for the game, with a good use of a big-name celebrity and laugh-out-loud scenes, but Pepsi’s challenge (“The only way to know is to try it for yourself”) slyly works on another level. The #RealOrActing hashtag is sure to extend the campaign’s life as TikTokers and Instagrammers test out the brand—and their own thespian skills.
See also: Read more about the campaign here
Temu, the online marketplace, whipped up a colorful and energetic 30-second spot for the Big Game, but we’ve seen this concept—practically the same spot, in fact—a hundred times before. The idea that you can “shop like a billionaire” feels a little hyperbolic, to say the least, even as we watch our heroine gleefully ordering discount stuff—and lots of it. The spot likely goosed some app downloads, but we’re guessing this won’t have the longer-term brand effect that Temu was surely hoping for. See also: Temu makes surprise Super Bowl debut
It’s not easy to be lighthearted about menopause, but Astellas gives it a shot in this unbranded commercial that sends viewers to WhatsVMS.com. In the spot, an on-the-street reporter polls women about so-called “vasomotor symptoms,” which, we are told, are hot flashes and night sweats due to menopause. The responses are mildly amusing, like “a K-pop band?” And one woman, when told it is related to menopause, guesses the initials stand for “very malicious sweat.” We’ll give the company credit for acknowledging that women are a big part of the Super Bowl audience, but honestly, when the game is this close to kickoff, we’re more interested in hot sauce than hot flashes.
See also: How to remove the stigma of menopause in the workplace
What do a slew of bloopers from an ostensibly botched commercial featuring Bradley Cooper and his mother have to do with T-Mobile? Nothing. This spot features some mildly amusing repartee between the actor and his mom, and a few chuckles when she disses his T-Mobile shirt, calling him a clam and a flamingo, but overall this seems like a shallow exercise. It’s saved somewhat by the closer, in which he tries to direct her, saying he was “nominated nine times” before she shuts him down with a zinger: “Yeah, but you never won any.” The connection, we’re informed by the voiceover, is that the carrier has won “the most national awards”—of what kind, we aren’t told. But whatever they are, we are assured that they “just might make us America’s best network.” Or, we guess, it might not. See also: T-Mobile considers buying Ryan Reynolds’ Mint Mobile
This exercise in how-many-celebrities-can-you-fit-into-a-30-second-spot is a mishmash blur that almost obscures the message: Everyone (of legal betting age, in allowable states and without a gambling problem) gets a free bet on the game. The spot, which the company said was partly the result of ad-libbing, mainly consists of baseball’s David Ortiz, rapper Ludacris, wrestler The Undertaker, skateboarder Tony Hawk, football Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith and hoops greats Julius Erving and Lisa Leslie, trading barbs about Kevin Hart’s height. Hart’s manic energy has served DraftKings well in past ads, but in this spot he’s simply the butt of a worn-out joke. But hey, that Tony Hawk does a mean bird call.
See also: Molson Coors and DraftKings partner for Super Bowl ad
Rémy Martin got one of the world’s great endorsers, Serena Williams, to front its Super Bowl campaign. But her manifesto-style speech in this 60-second spot—a truncated version of Al Pacino’s pep talk from “Any Given Sunday”—sadly falls flat. The spot opens with the tennis GOAT striding down a tunnel beneath a stadium before addressing football players in a locker room. “I don’t know what to say, really,” she begins—just as Pacino did. From there, things get disjointed. Along with the football team, we see a group of dancers, some restaurant staff in a kitchen, and some random dudes on horseback. Is she addressing all of them with her exhortations to find the “edge” that separates winning from losing? And what’s the connection to cognac here? (Unfortunately, for all her talents, it also goes without saying that, on the acting front, Williams is no Al Pacino.) “Any Given Sunday” fans—and/or Serena Williams fans—may feel a brief jolt of excitement watching this, but the disconnect between speech and product is palpable. And those who haven’t seen the film—well, they might wonder what it is they just saw.
See also: Serena Williams' ad legacy
The E-Trade baby has been inappropriately mature ever since he was born, so of course he’s the best man at a wedding in the brand’s 2023 Super Bowl spot. This time, we actually get three babies, including the couple tying the knot. The stroller line is funny, though the newlyweds’ guffawing reaction might be even funnier. The metaverse quip feels phoned in, though. And while we would have liked to see the tots cutting up on the dance floor, Evian-style, that surely wasn’t in the budget. (Whether a brand should be joking about child marriage in the first place is probably a question that’s best left unasked.) In all, this is a better showing from E-Trade than last year, when it brought back the baby after a decade away but failed to do much with him. But it still feels like a nostalgia play—not the best look for a future-focused brand.
See also: The real story behind the E-Trade baby
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The award for getting the most out of a celebrity—quite literally—for this year’s game goes to Squarespace and its multitude of Adam Drivers. The actor’s dawning realization that Squarespace is “a website that makes websites” soon leads to an amusing slice of sci-fi existentialism—as Driver, after walking through a desert to confront a glowing orb in the sky, multiplies into dozens of clones. (If you like Adam Driver, this is a delight—though some viewers may remain partial to Ryanville, the town full of Ryan Reynoldses from Hyundai’s 2016 Super Bowl spot.) “It’s the singularity,” Driver declares, as all the Adams get sucked into a black hole. Epic and silly at once, it’s fine Super Bowl material—miles better than the weird live Snickers stunt Driver did for the 2017 game.
See also: David Lee brings emotional punch to Squarespace
On its face, the idea of Super Bowl ads for Jesus is absurd. Does He need the publicity? Wouldn’t He view the Big Game—and 21st century consumerism generally—as a bacchanal of excess, an affront to His teachings of moderation? Maybe so. But modern Christianity is a business, too, and for The Servant Christian Foundation—a group with deep pockets that’s been working for a year already to rebrand Jesus—a Super Bowl buy makes a certain kind of sense. In any case, creatively, they came to play. The 30-second “Be Childlike” spot—the first of two ads from the group tonight, from the agency Lerma/—certainly stands out. It’s all about love—innocent, childlike love. As Patsy Cline’s “If I Could See the World” plays, we’re treated to adorable images of kids being kids—i.e., loving fully and unconditionally, not yet jaded by the hardships of adulthood. “Jesus didn’t want us to act like adults,” the on-screen text says at the end. The overall message here is a nice one—and a welcome dose of cuteness amid the game’s mostly comic spots. But it’s encumbered by the weight of Christianity’s not-so-tolerant history, as well as the murky motives of those backing the campaign financially. Creatively, the work is decent. Whether it’s really as sweet as it appears remains to be seen. See also: How the Jesus Super Bowl commercials were received
Avocados are healthy and taste good, but could they have prevented the damnation of all humankind back in the day? Debatable. Still, the conceit provides a fun setup for Anna Faris as Eve, alongside Eduardo Esquivel as a hunky Adam, in the Avocados From Mexico Super Bowl spot—which imagines if Eve never ate the apple, leaving humans blissfully naked right up to the present day. The problem is, the ad flirts with spectacle and humor without fully embracing either. Naked New York City, now known as the “Big Avocado,” isn’t much to look at—at least in the limited glimpses we get in the 30-second version (a 60-second cut will run online). And the only real one-liner, “Now that’s a tourist attraction,” is a B at best. Interestingly, the same agency here, Lerma/ in Dallas, also made two Big Game spots for the Servant Christian Foundation—so they’re definitely leaning into the religious themes. With this one, though, we have to deem it paradise lost.
See also: Avocados From Mexico axes ChatGPT Super Bowl plans
This isn’t the exact same commercial Dexcom aired on the 2021 Super Bowl—which was its first time on the big stage—but it sure feels like it. The glucose monitoring brand has brought back pop star Nick Jones, one of the most famous people in the world with diabetes, for another 30-second spot whose creative, once again, feels a little pedestrian for the occasion. The ad introduces Dexcom’s G7, a next-gen system that allows diabetics to monitor their glucose levels continuously in real time, rather than use finger sticks. While an important technology to highlight, we just wish there were a more interesting way to tell that story. Dexcom, though, will tell you if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it—last year’s spot did wonders for sales, and this one may do the same among the 5 million diabetics (more than 60% of whom still don’t use continuous glucose monitoring at all, according to the company) expected to tune in to the game.
See also: Dexcom returns to the Super Bowl
This 30-second spot is a companion piece to Michelob Ultra’s main 60-second Big Game commercial (see first quarter, above). It shares the same locale and some of the cast of the longer spot, but it’s more about selling content than beer, because it's actually a co-promotion with Netflix. Tony Romo, Rickie Fowler and Alex Morgan are on hand to banter about Netflix’s new docuseries “Full Swing.” Unfortunately, Morgan stumbles over her key line (“Tony, are those ... tears?”), which makes you wonder how many takes the director suffered through before settling on this comedic clunker. The QR code at the end, though, delivers a quiet, dignified performance.
There’s been plenty of speculation about what Molson Coors would do with its Super Bowl commercial after setting up a Coors Light vs. Miller Lite theme in the teasers. What a delight, then, that it turns out to be neither—but only after an epic “Everything Everywhere All at Once”-style showdown between the brands. The Droga5 production is wonderfully paced, as our protagonists, two buddies in a bar, battle it out in eye-popping fashion with everything from ice chips to ninja coasters as weapons. CGI can ruin ads like this, but it’s extremely well-done here—and the snazzy camera work puts you right in the action. Blue Moon (another Molson Coors brand, natch) hijacking the ad at the end—frankly, it’s perfect. And if you add in the gamification elements from the teaser phase (a fun partnership with DraftKings), this is one of the more impressive campaigns of this Super Bowl season.
See also: Behind the Molson Coors ad strategy
Heineken and Marvel Studios teamed up for this 30-second promo that stars Paul Rudd as his Scott Lang/Ant-Man character. Lang gets home from a long day of ant-ing and just wants to crack a beer. But there’s a note on the fridge from Hank Pym (if you’ve never seen “Ant-Man,” at this point just go ahead and skip to our next review) warning him not to give alcohol to the other ants. But this isn’t a problem, because the fridge is stocked with alcohol-free Heineken 0.0. The “No shrinking and drinking” line is funny (though we kinda wish it were a “Don’t shrink and drive” theme instead) and Rudd also scores with his “Your eyes are bigger than your thorax” zinger. In the end, the always funny and charming Rudd is a welcome presence, and with “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” coming out this Friday, the timing couldn’t be better. See also: Publicis expands Heineken agency Le Pub to more markets
For those waiting breathlessly to see what M&M’s wrought by hiring Maya Rudolph to “replace” its colorful spokescandies—a mildly interesting stunt reported as real news in some outlets—now we know. In the brand’s Big Game spot, the “Bridesmaids” actress sweetly sings the praises of Ma&Ya’s, a disgusting new candy-coated “chewy, chunky” clam bite. It ends with Red M&M holding up a sign that reads, “Help!” There’s not a lot to say here besides “Yuck!”—and that covers both the (supposed) candy and the spot. But just when we thought our long national nightmare was over, a five-second bumper interrupted the second half, in which the announcer declared, “Tonight’s game on Fox is sponsored by M&M’s—we’re back!” If you were still paying attention after the game, you also saw that M&M’s used yet another commercial to close the loop on this inane stunt, which it said was meant “to create a world where everyone feels like they belong through the power of fun.” To do so, they've been reshaping the social voice of the spokescandies to become more inclusive (though apparently not toward clams). That presumes viewers are invested enough in the characters to follow their feeds and know their stories. For folks sprawled on the couch watching football with Budweiser and Doritos, that’s a lot to ask. See also: How M&M's wrapped up its Super Bowl campaign
Nothing flashy here—just good old-fashioned storytelling about the love we have for our dogs, delivered in subtle, heartstring-pulling style by director Goh Iromoto. The spot—which follows a girl’s journey from pre-teen to young mom, and her enduring connection to her pup throughout—is beautifully shot. Everything’s bathed in a warm glow, and the camera work, including a bunch of shots from dog’s-eye level, is top-notch. The evocative visual storytelling is nicely enhanced by the music: the soulful 2022 track “Forever” by Lee Fields (which the main character, in another nice touch, ends up humming at the end). Super Bowl commercials are often so fixated on spectacle and comedy, it’s nice to see a 60-second ad that takes its time with an earnest message that isn’t treacly. Bonus points for the straightforward yet effective end line, “Nothing matters more than more years together.”
See also: Farmer's Dog takes top slot in USA Today's ad meter
Wait, where have we seen this before? Oh, yeah, the first quarter. Pepsi’s doubling down on its great-acting-or-great-taste theme with another well-loved jester, Steve Martin. Beginning with him posing as a plastic surgeon performing a nose job on “Miss Hastings,” who is revealed to be a dog, our protagonist acts out frustration, disappointment and “joy,” the latter after he wins a board game. (“Eat it, Kyle!” he shouts at a young boy. “You’re all losers!”) Somehow, though, this ad doesn’t quite live up to its predecessor. Maybe it’s because we now know what to expect, or maybe it’s because Martin is a better comic than an actor. And for those who disagree with that last assessment, all we can say is “Excuuuse me.”
See also: Inside a TikTok creator's fake, viral Pepsi ad
Amid all the frantic, effects-laden, celebrity-packed noise of Super Bowl spots comes this joyous 45-second interlude. The setup is simple: A man in a tracksuit, wearing headphones, limbers up and cuts loose to “The Safety Dance” in front of a fountain, blissfully oblivious to passersby. It’s a quirky and welcome respite from ads trying too hard, and it’s fitting because it builds on the tax preparer’s theme of “Don’t do your taxes,” which urges consumers to let TurboTax do the work while you enjoy whatever you find fun in life.
Jeep takes us on delightful romp through the animal kingdom as critters cut loose doing “The Electric Slide.” This isn’t just a commercial, it’s also a single—Jeep is releasing the bouncy remake of “Electric Boogie,” from Shaggy and the song’s originator Marcia Griffiths, on streaming services after the game. This is a spot made for the ad-ranking charts: It offers 60 seconds of pure entertainment with elephants, giraffes, bees, frogs, snakes, sloths and more busting out their best moves as Jeep’s hybrid electric vehicles whiz by. While intended as a sequel to Jeep’s “Earth Odyssey” ad last year, this spot more than holds its own and will, no doubt, inspire social media users to boogie down as intended. In a Super Bowl bereft of Clydesdales and puppies (the three-hankie Farmer’s Dog spot aside), Jeep’s menagerie more than fills the void. We’ll even forgive the appearance of a charging station in the middle of nowhere because of that gamboling goat.
See also: Shaggy on making Super Bowl music for Jeep
This spot has all the ingredients for a perfect Super Bowl commercial. It’s got big-name celebrities, an absurdly funny premise that actually relates to the product, just the right amount of scenes, and a laugh-out-loud surprise payoff. As it opens, we see rapper Jack Harlow in the studio, struggling to come up with a new sound, when he is captivated by an unlikely instrument—a triangle that just happens to be the shape of a Dorito. Against the advice of Missy Elliott, Harlow takes up the triangle, and three-sided mania sweeps the world. Models on catwalks strut in triangle-inspired fashions. Men sport triangle-shaped hairdos. Dogs are groomed with tri-cornered designs. The symbol for the British pound is redesigned as a triangle. Music shops run out of the instrument and offer cowbells instead—bringing to mind the classic “Saturday Night Live” skit. But for all his efforts, at the close of the commercial Harlow is unexpectedly beaten to the Triangle Player of the Year Award by music legend Elton John. For our money, this 60-second spot will rank high on all those Super Bowl ad-ranking charts, and for good reason.
See also: Doritos preps late night menu in DTC play
From 2010’s “Parisian Love” to last year’s “Seen on Pixel” (and four other spots in between), Google has always leaned into emotion for the Super Bowl. So, it’s nice to see them tweak the playbook. This year’s 90-second spot starts out as you’d expect—poignantly, with an orchestral version of “Unchained Melody” and on-screen text about how our camera phones preserve our memories. But then it does a 180. Suddenly, Missy Elliott’s “We Run This” is blaring, and we’re off on a rollicking product demo about how the Pixel 7 phone can “fix” our pics—by removing unwanted people and reducing blur. Pooping dog? Skeevy poolmate? Tongue-wagging toddler? Gone in the push of a button. You can get rid of exes, too! This is nifty tech indeed, and Amy Schumer, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Doja Cat soon show up to give it a try. The funny thing is, we actually don’t need more encouragement from Big Tech to fix what isn’t perfect in our lives—yet the infectious energy here leaves us defenseless. Sure, we’ll take a Pixel! (Can it remove the Pringles ad from this game, though?)
See also: Google releases ChatGPT rival AI to early testers
Uber’s Big Game spot is both incredibly annoying and diabolically effective. It has one job—to make you indelibly aware of its Uber One membership program—and it accomplishes exactly that with help from Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is charged with producing a hit song for the brand’s Super Bowl commercial. (Yes, this is advertising about advertising.) Cue a succession of artists—Montell Jordan (“This Is How We Do It”), Donna Lewis (“I Love You Always Forever”), Kelis (“Milkshake”) and Ylvis (“What Does the Fox Say”)—who arrive at Diddy’s studio to attempt fresh takes on their past hits, with altered lyrics that lay out Uber One’s value proposition. Nothing really clicks until Haddaway shows up and belts out an adaptation of his 1993 dance-pop banger, “What Is Love,” complete with the chorus, “Uber One, Uber One saves me, saves me, way more.” (Dear God, make it stop.) The song is, of course, now ruined for all eternity. In the end, Uber essentially confesses to its crime in a written statement—er, tagline—that appears on screen: “Uber One: One membership to save on Uber and Uber Eats. Get that stuck in your head.” Clearly, we have no choice. See also: 'Diddy’ remixes famous songs for Super Bowl ad
This co-branded spot from General Motors and Netflix has the somewhat thankless task of announcing corporate news: a deal to integrate the automaker’s electric vehicles into the streamer’s programming. Thankfully, they got the right man for the job—Will Ferrell, who could make an insurance webinar entertaining (and probably has). The actor, who starred in GM’s Big Game spot two years ago, returns with his trademark quips and physical humor as he himself is integrated, along with the cars, into “Army of the Dead,” “Bridgerton,” “Love Is Blind,” “Queer Eye” and “Stranger Things” with comically mixed results. It’s not entirely clear why you’d want to advertise this deal in the first place. (Isn’t product placement supposed to be advertising by osmosis, not something you flag to the world?) But as a brand-building exercise for both companies, it’s upbeat and effective. And we’ll take Will Ferrell in anything. These are 60 seconds we’d happily watch again. See also: GM and Netflix join forces with Super Bowl ad
Danny McBride is legit hilarious (binge “The Righteous Gemstones,” if you haven’t already) but he’s largely wasted in this underwhelming campaign for Downy Unstopables. The fact that “Danny” sounds like “Downy” isn’t an idea—it’s a coincidence. Yet it’s the core of the concept here. To pump it up, they have McBride get loud for laughs, cruising around suburbia on a buggy, shooting Unstopables at people and yelling stuff like “Sniff this!” McBride, last seen in the Big Game in Tourism Australia’s fun fake movie trailer in 2018, has a few amusing moments but can’t truly elevate the material. Also, the opening line, “I was wrong about Downy Unstopables,” is an odd choice—begging the question, for those who didn’t see the teasers (i.e., almost everyone), of what McBride disliked about the product initially. For a brand that’s all about freshness, this spot just doesn’t pass the smell test.
See also: See how ChatGPT would write Super Bowl ads
Pringles unwisely reprises its hand-stuck-in-the-can gag from last year and misses the mark. During the 2022 Super Bowl, we found ourselves oddly invested in the coming-of-age story of a hapless soul who experiences life’s milestones—from falling in love, to the birth of his child, to his ultimate demise—with a Pringles can affixed to his hand. A big reason that ad worked was the score: Lionel Richie’s haunting “Stuck on You,” which ridiculously romanticized the relationship between man and can. This year’s version shows a grandfather assuring his grandson that Pringles paw “happens to the best of us,” an excuse to show surgeons, bowlers, judges, air traffic controllers and game show contestants with their hands lodged in Pringles cans. And don’t get us started on “little cousin Timmy,” the fetus in utero. One can only feel sorry for Meghan Trainor, shown petting her poodle with Pringles can-hand. The musical theme for the spot is Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best,” but we beg to differ.
WeatherTech returns to the Big Game with its usual made-in-the-USA message, and once again employs some overwrought drama. Various naysayers deliver terse dismissals of the brand’s past plans: “You want a loan to build a factory in America?” a banker says. “You can’t do that.” A construction foreman is equally condescending: “Nobody builds factories in the U.S. anymore. You can’t do that.” But of course, WeatherTech did, as we hear in the voiceover (“WeatherTech has been proving them wrong for over 33 years”) and see via montage (factories, factory workers, an American flag being unfurled in a factory by a factory worker, etc.). In its Super Bowl 2022 spot, WeatherTech deployed a faux SWAT team to rapidly install the brand’s floor mats and other accessories in a vehicle, protecting it against unseen enemies: dirt, moisture, salt and more. This time we see another set of enemies: Wall Street types and their co-conspirators, who have been encouraging offshoring for decades because, well, investors tend to reward companies that slash costs and improve margins. In other words, WeatherTech is railing against one of the ultimate made-in-the-USA products: free-market capitalism. Sacrilege!
As Skittles taught us long ago, absurdism in ads can be awesome. But this little slice of oddvertising from Hellmann’s/Best Foods, featuring Mini Jon Hamm and Mini Brie Larson, sadly doesn’t amount to much. It ties itself in knots early on just trying to explain the Hamm-and-Brie pun, which has limited charm to begin with. After that, the ad has nowhere to go—and so, non-sequitur-ly, it throws in Pete Davidson. The ending is also confusing. Now Jon and Brie are life-size and hanging with Pete at a party? Did Pete imagine the whole thing? Will Hellmann’s, which put Jerod Mayo in last year’s Super Bowl spot, ever get over its love of puns? So many questions. Rather than a panini, what they’ve whipped up here is a celebrity salad—and not a very appetizing one. We agree with Jon ... the whole thing, indeed, is just weird.
See also: Top 5 food and beverage ideas from from early 2023
A Trojan horse is as good a metaphor as any for cybersecurity threats. (“Trojan” is even the name for certain types of malware.) But this spot, for first-time Super Bowl advertiser CrowdStrike, is curiously low-energy despite its epic setup. As a group of invaders huddle inside the wooden structure, the dimwits atop the castle walls debate whether to let it in, thinking it’s a gift. Thankfully, they have Charlotte in IT, who uses CrowdStrike to identify threats. And sure enough, this horsey is one threatening beast, and it’s soon sent rolling off toward the cliffs. The production values here are strong—the spot looks great—but the plainness of the idea is hard to overcome. For us, this one’s a neigh.
The NFL’s 2023 Super Bowl spot is a triumph on many levels—conceptually, creatively, culturally. But let’s begin with what it’s not: yet another ode to masculinity. Today’s NFL knows if it’s going to grow, if it’s going to survive, it needs to change—it needs to be more inclusive. And to its credit, it’s doing so willingly, even gleefully, at least in the marketing. Watching Diana Flores, quarterback of the Mexico women’s national flag football team, sprint, leap and charm her way through 90 seconds of nonstop mayhem couldn’t be more entertaining. The fake “live” interview at the beginning is a fun way in. And the stunts, gags and inspired cameos —Billie Jean King, MrBeast, Davante Adams in a parrot suit—add just the right amount of Nike-ness to the proceedings.
And while, yes, the whole thing feels incredibly progressive, it’s also just good business as well. Amid growing concerns around the safety of the game, the NFL needs flag football, it needs more women, and it needs more fans of color. This work exuberantly speaks to all three. The NFL had a big hit a few years back with its centenary Super Bowl spot—“100-Year Game”—which was also great fun, but very traditional and almost entirely male. This spot, built entirely around a Hispanic woman (this is Flores’ first ad), shows how much the brand has evolved since then. It’s a joy to see.
No doubt Workday is hoping that, come Monday, office workers everywhere will be high-fiving Jane in HR and William in finance and calling them rockstars. We’ll give points for the absurd juxtaposition of Ozzy Osbourne, Paul Stanley, Joan Jett, Billy Idol and Gary Clark Jr. with office drones—“Oswald” in a tie as a desk jockey is worth the price of admission alone. But it’s a pretty expensive cast and a pretty expensive gamble at 60 seconds, especially given that Workday recently had extensive layoffs. We’re willing to bet a lot of viewers will remember the rock gods, but will they recall the name Workday? And while Jane and William might be Super Bowl stars for the day, their colleagues faced with their Workday financial reports and performance reviews may be less likely to give them a standing ovation. See also: Jim Jenkins on directing five rockstars in Workday's ad
After “Dilly Dilly”-ing its way through a few Super Bowls, then pushing Bud Light Seltzer in a couple of games, Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Bud Light is back with something completely different—and it’s a welcome shift. The spot stars Miles and Keleigh Teller (and their dog Bugsy) dancing to the sounds of “hold” music from initially frustrated Keleigh’s customer-service call. The Hollywood couple (his turn in “Top Gun: Maverick” earned him an “SNL” hosting gig this season) are undeniably charming, and there’s a quiet, aspirational relatability to their situation—the way they manage to find joy in life’s mundane moments. Some viewers will miss Bud Light’s usual slapstick fare, but if COVID taught us anything, it’s that sometimes you have to make your own fun. We’ll see if this new platform of “easy enjoyment” moves product after 13 straight years of sales declines for the brand.
See also: Watch Bud Light’s first ad from Anomaly
There’s nothing particularly creative about this 30-second spot from 72andSunny that shines a light on the NFL’s community-giving programs. But there doesn’t have to be. What we have here is a straightforward, extremely well-made communication about the league’s contributions to various causes. While not flashy or Super Bowl-y in the traditional sense, it’s well-written and compelling—the “We see you” refrain is powerful in its simplicity—and the performances by the NFL stars are uniformly touching. In terms of its on-air spots, the NFL got everything just right tonight.
Spoiler alert: He missed it. Rob Gronkowski was a great NFL tight end, but he proved to be a terrible placekicker in FanDuel’s live ad from Wieden+Kennedy. (It was actually hard to see whether the kick went through or not—but he certainly hooked it pretty good.) Having your star fail at the challenge you’ve been PR-ing for weeks is not a great look, and Gronkowski immediately sank to his knees in humiliation. But FanDuel immediately announced that it didn’t matter! FanDuel users can still log in tomorrow and get a cut of free bets—the same prize they were offering if he’d made it. Which seems to suggest there was nothing really at stake here in the first place. Disappointing. (Live Super Bowl ads are generally weird. Remember the Snickers one from 2017 with Adam Driver?) Advertisers, maybe let’s just stick to the script going forward?
Parents everywhere will relate to the seemingly minor mistake—which is actually an epic disaster—that kicks off Kia’s 60-second spot. A couple arrive at a mountain resort for some R&R with their infant. But Dad’s forgotten the baby’s binky! It goes without saying the holiday will be restful for precisely no one without it, so Dad peels out in his Kia Telluride X-Pro to go fetch it. For “Binky Dad,” the quickest route home is largely off-road—a fun enough way to show the ruggedness of the vehicle. But then the spot enters cartoonland, where the media gets wind of our hero and begins to follow the mission in real time. The ensuing breathless drama is a bit cheesy for our taste, and the “twist” ending isn’t a surprise either. Kia is trying something new with “alternate endings” to the ad on TikTok, but the spot itself travels too much of a well-worn road.
Peanuts are meant to be roasted, right? So Planters brings a cavalcade of “Comedy Central” roasters to poke fun at Mr. Peanut. The result is Jeff Ross, along with comics Natasha Leggero, Frank Castillo, Atsuko Okatsuka, Yameneika Saunders, David Lucas and Sarah Tiana, leveling G-rated gibes at Mr. Peanut (“What do you eat at parties, people?”). Planters said it worked hard to be as inoffensive as possible with the jokes, but they’re also just not funny—except for Mr. Peanut’s closer, a reference to Planter’s ill-conceived 2020 Big Game ad: “That was brutal. I wish Planters had killed me off again.” A word of advice: If you want to do a proper roast, hire Wendy’s.
Kudos to PopCorners for gleefully likening its product to methamphetamine! Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul's chemistry is palpable as they reenact scenes from “Breaking Bad.” It’s fun seeing them back in the RV—Mr. White typically impatient and patronizing, Jesse Pinkman as unhinged as ever—and doing a deal with Tuco Salamanca (Raymond Cruz) that’s a lot less stressful than last time around. Borrowed IP is hit-or-miss for the Super Bowl. Yes, tapping into existing fandom creates an instant connection, but you can just as easily piss people off if you get it wrong—plus, the product can seem peripheral. Here, PopCorners found the sweet spot, honoring the spirit of the show (they even got Vince Gilligan to direct) while making the product central to the story. As Tuco would say, the whole thing is “Tight! Tight! Tight!”
See also: Read more about the campaign here
Well, wasn’t this just lovely? In the middle of the most American of sporting events—indeed, one of the most American-est days of them all—we get an ode to Canada! And not just an ode—a loving litany of everything our neighbors to the north have done for the world. Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl (born in Warren, Ohio, by the way) is our eminently likable guide. Look, he says, at the Canucks and all they’ve accomplished. They’ve produced some of the greatest musicians and comedians ever. Plus, they invented peanut butter, the paint roller, poutine, the walkie-talkie, the battery, the egg carton, the list goes on. Oh, and they also invented ... football? (It’s true!) Plus, the brand itself, Crown Royal, evidently the Canadian-est of Canadian whiskies, doesn’t even show up until 52 seconds in. How adorably Canadian of them! This spot is more like a gift than an ad, and we’ve never been so happy that Anheuser-Busch InBev finally gave up alcohol exclusivity on the game. Hell, let’s start a rumor that Canada invented whisky, too.
See also: Crown Royal gets Super Bowl ad in Diageo's Big Game debut
Celebs upon celebs upon celebs—it’s a theme of this year’s Super Bowl, and DoorDash gives us three more famous faces in 30 seconds to promote its grocery delivery service. We have celebrity chef Matty Matheson (who also plays a handyman on Hulu’s culinary series “The Bear”), Raekwon The Chef from Wu-Tang Clan and Nickelodeon’s Tiny Chef. That the latter is stop-motion animated at least offers some variety, but it still feels like there are too many cooks in the kitchen (er, grocery store). We’d need to watch the spot a few more times to absorb all the ping-pong-y dialogue—but we’d rather not. In the cluttered landscape of the Super Bowl, having this many ingredients just doesn’t make for the tastiest dish.
See also: DoorDash and Marvel turn delivery people into superheroes
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Trying to cram a big personality and a multi-location concept into 30 seconds is tough. The Booking.com Big Game spot with Melissa McCarthy falls prey to this conundrum. McCarthy is one of the funniest, most likable people on the planet, yet this spot tries to do too much with her too quickly. It ends up feeling rushed, which isn’t the best vibe for a travel brand. (Don’t we take trips mostly to relax?) Compare this to McCarthy’s Kia spot from the 2017 game; with 60 seconds to play with, Kia was able to make much better use of her genius. (There is, for what it’s worth, a two-minute version of the Booking.com ad, where Melissa gets more of a chance to shine.) It is nice to see Zulu Alpha Kilo’s New York office come out of the gate with a big opportunity like this. Shame they couldn’t get a :60. See also: Behind travel brands’ Super Bowl plans
Disney’s 100th anniversary is coming Oct. 16 and the company is celebrating all year long. Its 90-second “Disney100” Super Bowl spot is formulaic but still effective enough: We’re hit with a montage of scenes from Disney films, TV series, stage productions and theme parks, along with shots of fans embracing, and even cosplaying, their favorite characters IRL—all reminding us of the company’s deep, cultural significance. “For 100 years our passion has been storytelling. From one generation to the next the greatest stories live forever,” the on-screen text says, adding: “You made this dream come true.” The audio from Walt Disney himself is a nice touch, humanizing the otherwise rather lofty message. At a difficult time for the company—which is restructuring and suffering layoffs—this feel-good piece will be a shot in the arm for Disney fans and employees alike.
See also: Disney outlines measurement strategy
Talk about an ad that’s on-brand: This spot is as unpretentious as it gets. We’re heading for the mountains of Busch, where our flannel-shirted guide tells us it takes three things to survive—food, drink and shelter. Out of the “shelter” tent pops Sarah McLachlan, who launches into her somber spiel for the ASPCA (“For just dollars a day, you can help helpless animals find shelter…”) with a wolf by her side. It’s just the kind of quick payoff that works amid the noise of the Super Bowl—a surprise, easy-to-identify joke—and it’s unlikely to offend animal lovers, who guiltily look away from the PSA as soon as they hear the strains of McLachlan’s “Angel.” So yes, the ad is on-brand, but this spot is just average. See also: Behind AB InBev’s Super Bowl strategy
Just as the 30-second “Be Childlike” spot did earlier in the game, The Servant Christian Foundation’s second Super Bowl ad, the 60-second “Love Your Enemies,” hews to a Big Game strategy that’s rare but often effective—that quietly provocative is better than loudly frivolous. But where the first spot was all about love, this one is mostly about pain. It rejects the blithe escapism of most Big Game ads in favor of a sad yet recognizable portrait of America today—stark black-and-white photos of people in relentless conflict with each other, with no clear way out. (Many of the photos are explicitly political, as well as racially charged—the ad pulls no punches.) Once the spot has our attention (the music track, “Human” by Rag'n'Bone Man, is captivating too), we get the call to action. Again, this is where it gets tricky. The message—that we should love one another—is unassailable. Yet the messenger will give some viewers pause. The work will surely stir debate, but much of it will be about whether those funding it actually practice the tolerance they preach. See also: How the Jesus Super Bowl commercials were received
How meta! NBCUniversal’s Peacock uses a commercial in the Super Bowl, broadcast on Fox, to promote its original series “Poker Face” by referencing other Super Bowl commercials. We open with Natasha Lyonne, in character as Charlie Cale from the series, watching the Chiefs-Eagles showdown with a friend. She’s impressing her barstool buddy with her uncanny ability to tell when someone’s lying. One by one, she picks apart the spots—the friends in the beer ad are actually enemies, the kid in the Google Pixel spot is really 19 years old and—spoiler alert!—the M&M’s characters were never going to disappear. Then comes a promo on the tavern’s TV for “Poker Face.” “I’d watch that,” her companion says. “That’s true,” she remarks. It won’t win any Cannes Lions, but the premise fits—Lyonne’s character solves mysteries thanks to her uncanny ability to sniff out falsehoods. And the commercial stands out among the usual parade of promotional clip-jobs by making an effort to fit in seamlessly with other spots in the game.
Ram Trucks, whose proud history at the Super Bowl includes 2013’s majestic “Farmer” spot, bafflingly decided to scrape the bottom of the barrel this year and make 60 seconds of sex jokes. This one-note pharma parody is built around a fake medical condition called “premature electrification”—the reluctance to drive electric vehicles because of performance concerns. The joke has limited charm to begin with. But across a full minute, it’s interminable and cringey. Plus, the comedy feels out of place on the family-friendly Super Bowl telecast (even if some kids may be in bed by the fourth quarter) and actually obscures the message around what looks like a cool product: the Ram Rev electric pickup. When it comes to Stellantis brands, we much preferred the Jeep spot earlier in the game. This one was not what the doctor ordered.
See also: Stellantis buys Super Bowl ads for Jeep and Ram
Ah, Snoop Dogg. The essence of cool. Friend to brands everywhere. The kind of guy you approach when you have no real concept and just want to draft off a well-liked celebrity’s aura. Never the most creative Super Bowl advertiser, Skechers simply has Snoop model its Hands Free Slip-ins—with a few broadly comic vignettes thrown in, all set to Snoop’s tune “Who Am I? (What’s My Name?).” Howie Long (piloting a plane for some unknown reason) and Tony Romo (himself a longtime Skechers-er) show up to give the Dogg support. But it’s—who else?—Martha Stewart who gets prime placement at the end. Seeing Snoop’s longtime BFF (and his co-star from a T-Mobile Super Bowl ad in 2017) admonish him for his office etiquette finally had us smiling—at the 29-second mark. Too little, too late?
In a Super Bowl ad lineup filled with celebrities, dumb jokes and ill-advised live field-goal attempts, it turns out all you really need to charm literally everybody watching is a dog. And not even a well-behaved dog! Amazon’s “Saving Sawyer” is a lovely bit of storytelling. We have a family here that clearly loves their pooch, but they’re also just distracted by life, as we all are—homework, cooking, screens, the hustle and bustle of getting through the day. They pay attention to Sawyer, but it’s not enough. He wants more. So he begins to act out—chewing up everything in the house—to the lilting sounds of the Nancy Adams track “Love.” The family’s solution? It’s a great misdirect at the end, as we think they’re buying Sawyer a crate to contain him—but the crate’s actually for a new playmate, another dog they’re adopting. Simple, emotional, warm, with a twist ending—there are a lot of echoes of John Lewis advertising here, in the best way. (See: “Buster the Boxer” meets “Monty’s Christmas.”) Let this be a lesson to Super Bowl advertisers everywhere. You don’t need celebrities when you actually have an idea.
Who knew Zach Braff and Donald Faison went to Rydell High? T-Mobile borrows some big-time equity from the musical “Grease,” including its star John Travolta, in promoting its home internet service. Turning the lyrics of “Summer Nights” into a call to action, Travolta croons “Tell me more” as the “Scrubs” stars literally sing the praises of T-Mobile (“One cord’s all you need” and “Don’t you worry about speed”). It’s corny but fun, and the tune is sure to catch viewers’ attention. The timing seems strange, given the death of Olivia Newton-John just six months ago, but even without his co-star, Travolta is a delight, effortlessly reprising a role from ’78 (though without the ducktail). The final shot, of a “Spectfinity” truck driving away, is definitely on-brand for the feisty “uncarrier.” But given T-Mobile’s colorful logo, we can’t help but think the lack of pink ladies is a miss. See also: Phone hotlines make a comeback
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Tim Nudd is Creativity editor at Ad Age.
Undersized Lower Mantle Judann Pollack (Judy) is executive editor of Ad Age. She joined Ad Age in 1985 as editorial assistant, along the way fielding pretty much every position on the masthead, including reporter, Chicago bureau chief, New York bureau chief, features editor, executive editor and managing editor-international.