Well, Brady got his 7th ring. Yay? The game didn’t quite live up to the hype, but neither did all the ads. Good days and bad days for the players, good ads and bad ads from the companies.

This game was a little lack-luster. Maybe it was too over-hyped. Don’t get me wrong though. It wasn’t the Patriots vs. Rams game that was a snooze fest, but eh? The game was disappointing, especially rooting for the Chiefs. But, let’s go to the ads. I care about them more anyways (as long as Philly’s not in the Super Bowl).

I went out of my way to not watch or read about any of the Super Bowl ads. I wanted to come in with new eyes. There was a concerted effort for more diversity, which is good. However, I won’t focus on that here. I’ll preface with the fact that I wanted to laugh, be inspired, and have a good time. That does impact my judgment of these ads.

Here’s the rundown of the game…minus the sports lol. (Note: these were the ads presented to me in Philly. I also excluded ones that didn’t stand out. That said, this is still a dense post.)

This is a REALLY long one. I don’t expect you to read it all. I suggest the Table of Contents or good old Control-F/Command-F to find what you want.
The winners I suggest checking out are:

Contents hide
1 Pre-game – Regional
2 1st Quarter
3 2nd Quarter
4 Half-time – Regional
4.1 The Weeknd
5 3rd Quarter
6 4th Quarter
6.1 Share this:

Pre-game – Regional

Did you catch it? Too long of a blink or looking down at those wings and you you would’ve missed it. This was beautiful. Topical, inspiring, attention grabbing.

“Vince Lombardy” returns! Inspiring and doesn’t cross the line of too sappy.

Progressive. What was this? I could see why that would be funny, but a bit of a miss for me – and my family.

H.E.R guitar riff in the America the Beautiful? Hello. Thank you Jay-Z for your musical expertise.

1st Quarter

Rockstar Energy teamed up with Goodby Silverstein & Partners and Lil Baby. They spotlighted different people and their individual talents. It teeters on the sappy measure but doesn’t go over.

Amanda Gorman, National Youth Poet Laureate, visits our screens again to celebrate essential workers.

This was a cool feature of this Super Bowl. From Biden’s address to a lot of the ads, frontline workers are at the forefront. This was a nice tough. Honorary captain, Susie Dorner, is an ICU nurse in the COVID ward and the coin flipper for Super Bowl LV.

Dan Levy, a friend to many in our quarantine, apologizes to M&M. This was cute, comical, and clean from BBDO New York, directed by Matt Aselton of Arts & Sciences.

Clever doesn’t really cut it does it? Jeff Probst leads a star studded cast up the Paramount mountain for Paramount+. But, do we expect less from Droga 5 though?

Daveed Diggs tells us to shop local with our friends from Sesame Street. But, DoorDash has had some issues with its tip policy. Does it make up for that? No. But, you should shop local. Also I like Daveed Diggs, so I don’t mind putting it in this.

Doritos, Matthew McConaughey, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, and director Damien Chazelle come together for an ad that’s funny regardless – but a good metaphor for 2020. We’ve been feeling flat too. Life used to feel fuller. It’s a bit Snickersy, playing as the junk food fix. But the CGI, the metaphor, the quirkiness? It makes up for it.

Will Ferrell, Kenan Thompson, Awkwafina. What a lineup. GM and McCann Detroit/McCann Worldgroup give us a refreshing ad that’s on par to what a Super Bowl ad should look like.

Grey for Pringles gives us distracted stacking. Cute expansion of the stacking ads, but it’s kind of stupid and too long for the point.

Bud Light legends come together to save the day. I liked it all coming together while still adding some newer faces like Post Malone.

Chipotle and Venables Bell & Partners asks if burritos could change the world. I like that it highlights all of Chipotle’s eco-friendly measures. But, you’re still a big corporate company. Changing the world? Kind of strong, no?

You could win $1,000,000 if you can count. Or if you replay this ad enough times. Mountain Dew created a smart ad that forces people to replay the ad. A million’s cool. Probably only a fraction of what you paid for the spot though lol.

Nick Jonas goes on a rant about the lack of tech for diabetes. It’s not mind-blowing but it has leather jacket clad Nick Jonas. Also, it’s not a boring Pharma ad. That’s all Dexcom needs.

I’ll preface this with: it’s a good message. I liked the clever sentence structure that changed for each candidate. But, I personally wasn’t in the mood. It was too sappy for my liking 😅.

Drake from State Farm? It has the star power with a backing idea that’s just as powerful. Nice job, The Marketing Arm.

2nd Quarter

Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade reminded us that 2020 was a lemon of a year. Sure, it was a little insensitive but it made me laugh. But even better? A dude with a sign sponsorship. That was the best part.

Scotts Miracle Grow had celebrity filled ad with VaynerMedia. But it was kind of stupid? There was too much going on.

Sketchers I think was trying to be funny. Idk. I liked the old-school burst sticker things.

Tracey Morgan tells us why pretty sure isn’t enough in an ad from Highdive. The Chicago agency does it again with a great Super Bowl concept.

Toyota and Saatchi & Saatchi give us a vignette of Jessica Long, a Paralympic adopted by an American family. I really liked this. You might wonder why this doesn’t cross the line of sappy while the Indeed ad does. I guess I’m over the sad pandemic ads. I want to be uplifted.

A young boy trains to become the best around. The association to E-trade was a little too loose. Honestly, I forget it.

Hellman’s has Amy Schumer as a Fairy Godmayo. Sorry, Wunderman Thompson. It was kinda stupid and not the memorable kind of stupid.

Turbo Tax I remember had fun facts and a song. The details aren’t memorable but Wieden+Kennedy delivered the point.

Jason Alexander is brilliantly Jason Alexander in the Tide ad with Woven Collaborative. He gives us face. He gives us funny. He gives us a great ad.

T-Mobile has Adam Levine set up Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton not hearing her requests due to bad cell service. It’s funny, but it also says that something good can come out of bad cell service. Maybe not a homer, but a good RBI. Oops wrong sport.

Half-time – Regional

A cute ending on top of Mount Paramount for Droga 5.

Lenny Kravitz and Stella Artois reminds us to invest our 2.5 billion heartbeats. Counting heartbeats was a different yet artful way of measuring our time. It worked.

Cure Auto Insurance has a crude double entendre that was funny but had too loose of a connection with car insurance.

Reddit comes again, now when people are watching. Twitter was watching. Immediately, people said they won the Super Bowl.

The Weeknd

I thoroughly enjoyed his performance. He had the production, the choir, the backup dancers, the orchestra – everything. I’m a bit of a baby so it did kinda hurt my eyes but it is called blinding lights lol.

Skull Shaver’s back! Not the best ad but so on brand.

THREE Insurance’s ad was comical but a little common with insurance ads. We get it. It’s covered.

3rd Quarter

Verizon had Samuel L. Jackson play a god in this CGI universe. I’m not a gamer so I give it an “eh” for me. But, McCann, it was done well and probably reached the audience it wanted to reach.

No, a lot of people won’t understand the reference to the generation past show. But, I liked it despite it. Uber Eats made fun of the usual ad tropes you see. I give The Special Group a 3.5-star rating.

T-Mobile and Pinay Films bring Black-is star, Anthony Anderson, and his mom to the stage. It was funny but had too much going on.

Serena Williams and Michelob Ultra team up with a message about being happy. Admittedly, I had to rewatch it to remember what was in it, so maybe it’s not the most memorable ad by Wieden+Kennedy.

Tracey Morgan here again for Rocket Mortgage. It’s funny, but I liked the first one better.

Cheetos, Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher, Shaggy, Goodby, and Silverstein, & Partners is a roster you think will be perfect. I thought it was cute but could’ve used a better ending.

I love Squarespace’s insight of working 5 to 9 on your side projects, but you really had to pay attention when watching during the game to get the point.

4th Quarter

This was a local ad for Inspira Health, but I loved the creative idea using Operation to show their careful precision in minimally invasive surgeries.

Corona adds Bad Bunny to their ad with Snoop Dog. It hit the mark for me.

Cadillac brought back Edward Scissorhands. I didn’t watch the movie, so I guess I don’t really have an opinion .

Anheuser-Busch’s ad probably would’ve done better without the VoiceOver.

Jeep brought in Bruce Springsteen to tell people to meet in the middle rather than stay a divided country. I thought it was a nice message. Read the YouTube comments and you’ll see how it’s hard to make a statement like this.

Michelob Ultra Organic Seltzer gave us a hilarious regional ad, here, playing on fakes.

Robinhood had a rollercoaster past week or so. So, this was a nice message, but I’m not sure if it covered everything it should’ve covered. But, it probably didn’t have the budget needed for that last minute pivot.

Michael B. Jordan as Alexa is perfect and a winner.