It’s not hard to sit through a Super Bowl’s worth of commercials and tease out some trends. As a whole, the creative was a notch above last year’s. The humorous moments felt genuinely funnier without a shred of meanness (though, not everyone hit their marks, of course). It was also a more inclusive batch of ads: We saw what were most likely the first drag queens in a Big Game ad. Ellen and Portia’s marriage was taken at face value. Jonathan Van Ness put the pop in Pop-Tarts. And Lil Nas X bested Sam Elliott in a dance duel. 

Car commercials seemed to be having something of a renaissance. Hyundai brought the funny; Porsche the panache.

There was, as ever, nostalgia: MC Hammer and Molly Ringwald (and a Rolling Stones cover) provided cozy associations. Of course, the problem with cozy associations is that they can be lazy. There was an exhausting number of movie flashbacks, remakes and references. If Hollywood is out of ideas, don’t assume adland is where you’ll find new ones. 

Lastly, this was the first Super Bowl with two presidential ads in it. As commercials, neither took big chances, but one may prove more effective than the other (see below). 

Without further ado, here’s our batch of Super Bowl ad reviews, listed  by quarter and scored from one to five footballs.

One caveat before you kick off: This is all subjective—and we’ll probably second guess all of these by next week anyway. (Maybe.) If you want to refresh your memory, you can watch all the ads here.
 

First Quarter

NFL, "Next 100"
72andSunny
Score:

A gleeful update to last year's jubilant "NFL 100" spot (the one where a roomful of all-stars trash a banquet hall), "Next 100" takes the love of the game outside—and across the country. Real-life 13-year-old football prodigy Maxwell "Bunchie" Young is a kid playing a friendly game of neighborhood football when he breaks ahead of the pack. Trailed by his pals, Bunchie is cheered on by hall of famer Jim Brown, who watches from a park bench and tells him to "Take it to the house." Bunchie blasts past the end zone and keeps going. And going. And going. A who's-who of past and present gridiron greats encourage him to "take it to the house" as he runs through fields, through New Orleans, through New York. We see Alvin Kamara and Drew Brees. Joe Montana takes potshots at Jimmy Garoppolo. Bunchie pauses to pay tribute at a statue for the late Pat Tillman at Cardinals Stadium. There are sight gags and gag-gags. Ultimately, on the shoulders of the entire NFL, Bunchie arrives in Miami. Here the pre-recorded commercial comes to an end and, right at the top of the game, Bunchie runs onto the field at Hard Rock Stadium on live TV with the next generation of greats. Football is bigger than the NFL or any single player. And this commercial manages to be larger than life without being hackneyed.

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Quibi, “Bank Heist”
BBH LA
Score:

A bank heist goes awry when the getaway driver is too distracted watching a Quibi video while he’s waiting for his accomplices. “I’ll be there in a Quibi,” he says, delighted by the “quick bite” content he’s watching on his phone. The video platform, from Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, doesn’t launch until April, when it plans to offer original content that can be consumed in 10 minutes or less on mobile, like when you’re on line at the bank … or waiting for your accomplice bank robbers. Selling a service that doesn’t exist yet is an uphill battle, but the ad, which shifts in tone from dramatic heist-y action to entertaining goofiness, is a titillating tidbit. Time will tell if Quibi itself delivers.

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Snickers, “Snickers Fixes the World”
BBDO New York
Score:

Move over Coca-Cola “Hilltop” ad, here comes something Snickers-ier. After a decade of a “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” messaging, the candy brand has decided it’s not mere individuals who need the candy bar in these troubling times. They’d like to give the world a snack. Individuals of every creed and color join in song to bemoan the state of things: Grown men routinely ride scooters; people are naming their babies after produce. “The world is out of sorts (so messed up!). We need to fix it quicker,” they sing in perfect harmony. “We have a dumb idea (so dumb!). We’re going to feed it Snickers.” A helicopter lowers a gigantic Snickers bar into a humongous hole in the ground, effectively feeding the planet. A pair of influencers fall in and actor Luis Guzmán (so random!) rejoices: “It’s working!” Will this go down in history as a generation-defining ad? No, but it’s the commercial we deserve.

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Hyundai Sonata, “Smaht Pahk”
Innocean
Score:

Hyundai’s automated parking feature is not called “smart park,” but you wouldn’t know it by watching this spot. Here, the car’s Remote Smart Parking Assist gets truncated to the Bostonian shorthand “smaht pahk." This 60-second spot for the 2020 Sonata sedan stars four celebrities with links to Boston: actors Chris Evans and John Krasinski, “Saturday Night Live” alum Rachel Dratch and Red Sox legend David Ortiz. Krasinski is shown using “smaht pahk” to squeeze into a tight space as Evans and Dratch deliver a Beantown play-by-play, including rattling off the names of Boston landmarks as only a native would—like the “Gahden” and Boston “Hahbah.” The jittery repetition makes an old joke more funny than annoying, and the use of the Boston anthem “Dirty Water” by the Standells as outro music might be this commercial's most inspired detail.

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Walmart, “Famous Visitors”
Publicis Groupe’s Department W
Score:

Walmart’s first Super Bowl commercial is a super-charged version of last year’s pre-game ad about the “out of this world” convenience of curbside pickup, this time starring space and time travelers from the movies. It’s a licensing bonanza that aims to help Walmart defend itself against Amazon. There are characters from Disney’s “Star Wars” and “Toy Story" plus extended appearances from NBCUniversal properties, including "Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” and “Back to the Future.” Scenes from or allusions to the films “Arrival,” “Blade Runner,” “Star Trek,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “The Lego Movie,” “Mars Attacks,” “Marvin the Martian” and “Men in Black” also pop up. All of these famous critters united by scooping up orders at Walmart. It's a lot to cram in to 60 seconds, but it did remind us to update our Netflix queue.

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President Donald J. Trump,”Criminal Justice Reform”
Score:

President Donald Trump held the second of his two 30 second Big Game spots until the last minute in an apparent attempt to have some kind of answer to Michael Bloomberg’s campaign ad. Bloomberg’s spot focused on gun violence. Trump used his 30 seconds on criminal justice reform by highlighting the release of Alice Marie Johnson from prison. Johnson had served 21 years if a life sentence for nonviolent drug offenses and was a cause celebrate of Kim Kardashian West, who had advocated for her release. “Thanks to President Trump, people like Alice are getting a second chance,” Trump’s Super Bowl reelection ad states. “Politicians talk about criminal justice reform. President Trump got it done. Thousands of families are being reunited.” The messaging strikes many critics as disingenuous, especially given the Trump administration’s incarceration of migrant children at the border, and considering that Johnson was only granted clemency a week after West pleaded her case directly to him in a 2018 White House meeting.

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Hulu, "I'm Not Going Anywhere"
Score:

We were actually watching the game on Hulu Live tonight, so we're a fan of the service. But can we please for the love of all that is good and holy just have one Super Bowl where we don't have to look at, or think about, Tom Brady, like at all?

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Tide, “Stains Can Wait”
Woven
Score:

In a all-too-familiar retread of 2018’s “It’s a Tide Ad” in which “Stranger Things” star David Harbour appeared in a series of Tide ads disguised as other ads, here we have Charlie Day (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) grappling with a stain on his shirt. It’s a four-part ad that starts out as a conventional commercial before, like “It’s a Tide Ad,” it barges into other commercials, including Bud Light’s “Dilly Dilly” world and a “Wonder Woman” trailer. It’s executed well enough and Day exudes manic likability. The message is that now you can do your laundry later and not need to worry about the stain setting. But by the time he pops up in the third head-fake ad, the end can’t come soon enough.

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Porsche, "The Heist"
Cramer-Krasselt
Score:

In a thrill-a-minute (literally) narrative, this 60-second ad portrays a multi-Porsche high-speed chase through the German countryside. It kicks off when a baddie steals the new electric Taycan model from the Porsche Museum. It flies into high gear when a motley crew of museum security staffers hop into different models from over the years to playfully chase down the purloined Porsche. The commercial, titled “The Heist,” emphasizes both speed and the automaker’s German heritage, and is Porsche’s first Super Bowl spot in 23 years. It’s also not your typical car ad. It turns out the carjacker is a fellow security staffer and this is a game of tag they routinely play. The tagline, “Finally an electric car that steals you,” gives the e-car category a jolt. Can we be the baddie next?

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Cheetos Popcorn, “Can’t Touch This”
Goodby Silverstein & Partners
Score:

In what is sure to be a fan favorite, Cheetos taps MC Hammer to promote a new product (Cheetos Popcorn) and more importantly to embrace one of the brand’s biggest shortcomings: Cheeto dust. Every time our commercial’s hero is asked to perform an unpleasant task—do some paperwork, help move a couch, hold a crying baby—Hammer pops out from nowhere to exclaim “You can’t touch this!” Alas (and conveniently) our hero’s hands are too messy to do anything useful. It’s a breezy celebration of selfish gluttony and it’s just funny enough.

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New York Life, “Agape”
Anomaly
Score:

The ancient Greeks had four different words for the four different types of love, New York Life tells us. Philia (friendship), storge (brotherly love), eros (romantic love) and agape (love as an action). Somehow the ad evokes all four feelings in 60 quick seconds, focusing mostly on agape, which “is the most admirable.” We see teens shaving their heads in solidarity with a cancer-stricken teammate, a son bathing his elderly father and more. New York Life, now in its 175th year, is launching its new “Love as an Action” campaign with this spot. And in so doing, it doesn’t just tug the heartstrings. It nearly rips them out of your chest.

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Olay, “Make Space for Women”
Badger & Winters
Score:

Finally a Super Bowl ad that passes the Bechdel test with flying colors. In fact, this spot features nothing but women. It kicks off with actor Busy Philipps, comedian Lilly Singh and astronaut Nicole Stott slow-motion strutting, action-star-style, aboard their Olay rocket ship. Katie Couric says: “Is there enough space in space for women? [Pause to let that sink in.] Who wrote that? Are people really still asking that question?” It's a great line from female-owned Badger & Winters. Turns out there's plenty of space out there. “When we make space for women, we make space for everyone,” says Taraji P. Henson from mission control. The spot concludes with a promise to donate $1 to Women Who Code for every tweet directed @OlaySkin with the hashtag #MakeSpaceforWomen.

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Second Quarter

Google, “Loretta”
In-house
Score:

Google, remember that I’m not crying; there’s just some dust in the air. In a 90-second spot that feels half as long, Google’s third consecutive Super Bowl spot is a tear-jerker that highlights Google’s intuitive interface. Here, an elderly man types in “how not to forget” and then asks to see pictures of his late wife Loretta through the years. He tells Google to remember that she hated his mustache and loved going to Alaska. Google uploads his memories to the big cloud in the sky and movingly plays them back for him at the end. (Of course, we’re all outsourcing our memories and broader knowledge to some extent in these information-overloaded times.) Here’s hoping Loretta’s data stays safe up there.

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Squarespace, “Welcome to Winona”
In-house
Score:

Squarespace is no stranger to lavish, self-referential Super Bowl ads (in its 2015 spot, actor John Malkovich screams at another man named John Malkovich for taking his domain name). Here we have Winona Ryder, who at least for us was not instantly recognizable as Winona Ryder, evoking the opening scenes in “Fargo.” Lying on her back on a highway snowbank at the entrance to a Minnesota town, she is approached by a cop who asks her what she’s doing. (Mercifully no one attempts the famously flat accent.) She is making a website, she says. (In the snow? Oh Winona, how adorkable!) It’s not a self-contained ad so much as a prompt to visit a landing page that purports to be Winona Ryder’s own website. Turns out she was born in, and named after, this real-life town called Winona, but you don’t get any of that from this quirky ad. You only get ... confused.

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Verizon
McCann
Score:

Last year Verizon’s Super Bowl commercial reunited a crash survivor with his first responders in a way that felt natural and aligned with the brand. This year Verizon wants you to know that 5G is coming and it will be amazing! But, hold your horses, this isn’t really about 5G. It's about first responders again. (Cue heroic Harrison Ford-narrated speech about heart and grit with sweeping music.) Wait, maybe it's about 5G too after all! Someday, first responders will benefit from using 5G in the field. Verizon’s 5G, to be specific. It’s a well-intentioned spot that tries to have its cake and eat it too.

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Mtn Dew, “Zero Sugar, As Good as the Original”
TBWA
Score:

The “Heeeeere’s Johnny” door-axing moment in “The Shining” has become such a cultural touchstone that invoking it in an ad risks coming off as somewhere between lazy and cliché—at best. But in this spot featuring the masterly Bryan Cranston, one suddenly wishes for an entire “Shining” remake starring Walter White. The craftsmanship of the commercial—the look and feel is uncanny—heightens a potentially easy gag. And we’re happy any time Tracee Ellis Ross simply shows up, much less effortlessly channeling Shelley Duval. What does Mountain Dew have to do with “The Shining?” Nothing. The hallway tsunami of fluorescent green soda in lieu of blood is a nice nod to the brand, and while the sight gag of Cranston as the creepy murdered twins is logically nonsensical, well, so is “The Shining” itself. As long as we’re dream-casting this remake now, how about Donald Glover in the Scatman Crothers role?

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Avocados from Mexico, “Avocados from Mexico Shopping Network”
Energy BBDO
Score:

Avocados from Mexico continues its string of wacky Super Bowl spots starring a non sequitur celeb with this ode to home shopping channels. Here, “buying stuff for your avocados totally isn’t weird!” says the too-chipper hostess before handing things off to Molly Ringwald. The “Sixteen Candles” star leverages her ’80s cachet to gamely walk us through some of the merchandise on “sale”: a Baby Bjorn for your little green guy, a chip-shaped pool floaty, a bike helmet for your fruit’s noggin. It’s cute enough. Then back to the host, who delivers the only actually funny line of the spot, “Shop now and we’ll throw in Molly!,” catching Ringwald visibly off guard. (A fun Easter egg: The phone number for the Avocados From Mexico Shopping Network connects to a working line that offers some surprises.)

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Planters, “Tribute”
Vayner Media
Score:

Planters made headlines when it appeared to have humorously killed off Mr. Peanut in a teaser commercial last month. Now, with this ad we get his funeral. “He spent his life bringing people together,” Wesley Snipes says as he delivers the eulogy. “I know he’d be happy that we'’e all together now.” By “all” he means other mourning brand mascots like Mr. Clean and the Kool-Aid Man, who sobs “Oh yeah" in agreement—and sheds a tear that lands on freshly dug soil that sprouts a ... new baby Mr. Peanut. The baby nut chirps like a dolphin for nearly five seconds, which by our estimates cost Planters $933,000 in media spend, and then says “Just kidding, I’m back.” Look, if you’re going to kill your mascot just do it. This feels like a cop-out. Also, fine—we kind of want some peanuts now.

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Hard Rock, “The Hype”
VaynerMedia
Score:

Someone has stolen Jennifer Lopez’s bling cup as she’s getting ready in her Hard Rock suite. Directed by Michael Bay, this cameo-studded ad is about as big-budget and low-concept as you might expect. As J. Lo chases down the suspect through the Miami property, we get an adrenaline-packed tour of the giant guitar-shaped hotel. The thief rappels down the building, scoots across the pool (and dodges a pineapple projectile tossed by Pitbull), stomps through the restaurant, and even interrupts a Little Steven concert. Hey, this hotel looks snazzy when people aren’t hurtling through the lobby! The big reveal: the thief is A-Rod! No, wait, that’s a mask! It’s DJ Khaled, who just wants to be her hype man! (Thirsty flex, even for you, Khaled.) At only 60 seconds, we'll happily rewatch this Bay content before queuing up “Pearl Harbor” again.

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Hyundai Genesis, “Going Away Party”
Innocean
Score:

It's not often you see the luxury car segment going for humor, much less succeeding. But in this commercial, new-money power couple Chrissy Teigen and John Legend scoff at old-money Establishment. Legend throws a going away party for “old luxury” and its tropes, like “woman who claims she hasn't had any plastic surgery” and “lady who goes to Asia once and suddenly thinks she’s spiritual.” Young luxury, on the other hand, laughs at itself, as do the charming stars of this ad for the first-ever SUV from Genesis. “Somebody had to make luxury fun,” Legend says. Surprisingly, it works.

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Coke Energy, “Show Up”
Wieden & Kennedy Portland
Score:

Famous people: They’re just like us! Turns out Marty Scorcese doesn’t like going solo to parties either. In a 60-second ad to plug its new energy drink, Coke shows us what happens when Scorcese’s wingman Jonah Hill accidentally stands him up. The whole world (for some reason) waits to find out whether Hill will come through for the man who directed him in “Wolf of Wall Street.” The suspense is irritating! The whole world (for some reason) is relieved when Hill comes through with the help of Coke Energy! Mostly, the whole world is just glad this goes down quicker than “The Irishman.”

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Pop-Tarts, “Pop-Tarts Fixed the Pretzel”
MRY
Score:

Oh to have been in some Midwest man-cave when this ad, featuring “Queer Eye” star Jonathan Van Ness giving Super Bowl snacks a fab makeover, swished onscreen. A defeated and drably dressed woman “struggs” to snack on her pretzels when Van Ness appears to proclaim “Pop-Tarts fixed that for you!” In an instant, everything from the woman’s snack to her gray sweatsuit gets a snap makeover. “From ho-hum to so yum,” he snaps. Pop-Tarts is trying to reposition its toaster pastries as a snack food with its first Big Game spot. Sadly, we're watching our figure.

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Pringles, “Pringles Rick and Morty Commercial”
Grey
Score:

For “Rick and Morty” fans biding their time as they wait for the second half of season 4, this spot comes as sweet relief. For everyone else, it might just be upsetting. That’s OK, though, for Pringles—a brand that knows its target audience. Here we have the titular Rick watching TV with Morty’s sister Summer when a Pringles commercial about flavor stacking comes on. Meta! An excitable Morty bounds in eager to try stacking as many flavors as possible, leading Rick to realize that they are themselves trapped inside some dystopian parallel-universe Pringles ad (spoiler: Morty is a bot impostor and everything goes haywire). Previous Super Bowl spots from Pringles have been more conventional (read: not very good) ads that played up the idea of combining Pringles flavors. The good folks at Adult Swim, the network where “Rick and Morty” will ultimately air the rest of season 4, have delivered along with Grey—and we’d love this ad completely if we didn’t suspect it may have delayed the show’s return.

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Sabra, “How I ’mmus”
VaynerMedia
Score:

What do feuding “Real Housewives of New Jersey” co-stars Teresa Giudice and Caroline Manzo have in common with drag queens Kim Chi and Miz Cracker ... and rapper T-Pain? They’re all in Sabra’s poppy, colorful Big Game ad—and they don’t seem to care if you know who they are or not. Taking a hipper-than-thou approach to promoting a hummus that’s having a moment, VaynerMedia’s spot is rife with self-references: Scary Spice makes an appearance, and so does Chester Cheeto and [checks notes] Kombucha Girl. All of it is in service of coining a catchphrase: “This is how I ’mmus” ... as in “This is the individualistic way in which I choose to enjoy hummus.” The spot is cute, will be lost on some, and “how I ‘mmus” sounds, well, kind of gross.

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TurboTax, “All People are Tax People”
Wieden & Kennedy
Score:

What unites us all as Americans? It’s not our politics, nor is it necessarily our values. It’s taxes! TurboTax is looking to bring the world together through dance (and taxes) with a music video that features a diverse cast from all corners of this great nation jigging to the same refrain: “All people are tax people.” Kudos to TurboTax for trying to make something dreadful fun. Because the spot is fun. It’s an homage to New Orleans-style bounce music (which probably doesn”t unite Americans) and is directed by Prettybird's Calmatic, who’s perhaps best known for helming the video for the hit “Old Town Road” (see also: the Doritos Super Bowl spot staring Lil Nas X). A humble suggestion: Do dentists next!

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Hummer, “A Quiet Revolution”
Leo Burnett Detroit
Score:

Hummer, the polarizing General Motors brand, will be returning as an electric truck this year, instead of an infamous gas guzzler. In its Super Bowl spot, GM boasts that Hummer’s electric motors will produce up to 1,000 horsepower, enabling it to go from zero to 60 miles an hour in three seconds. But it really leans into the soundlessness of all that thrust and torque (with no mention of other environmental benefits). “Pure dominance” looks like LeBron James shattering a backboard in the spot, but sounds like—you guessed it—nothing. The commercial is all machismo: a dark, monochromatic palette that is all about power. And, uh, quiet Hummers.

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WeatherTech, “Lucky Dog”
Pinnacle Advertising
Score:

This is not your typical Super Bowl commercial. For starters, it never once mentions WeatherTech or shows any of its products. It’s a love letter from WeatherTech founder David MacNeil to his dog Scout—and the staff at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that saved Scout’s life last year. Told from the point of view of Scout himself (who starred in last year’s WeatherTech Super Bowl ad), the ad explains why he’s such a lucky dog, thanks to the treatment he received. “I’m a cancer survivor,” Scout tells us over shots of him in the hospital. “Had a tumor on my heart and only a 1 percent chance of survival.” The spot ends with a healthy Scout flouncing on the beach and a call to donate to the vet school. The ad itself lacks much in the way of punch or power, but the impact it could potentially have on cancer research for animals—and ultimately humans—is far bigger than a 30-second Super Bowl ad spend.

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Michelob Ultra Pure Gold, “6 for 6”
FCB
Score:

Less than one percent of our farmland is organic, according to Michelob, and some quick Googling appears to back up that surprising statistic. The beer brand wants to do its part: “Pick up a six-pack,” the ad promises, “we’ll help transition six square feet of farmland to organic.” Brand purpose may be all the rage, but the marketing battlegrounds are strewn with failed attempts at glomming onto causes. Finding a way to have some positive impact on the world in a way that’s authentic to your brand’s DNA—and isn’t just a marketing gimmick—is easier said than done. With this idea, Michelob seems to have struck the right balance, and announces it in a spot that is packed with pleasingly symmetrical visuals. A vast improvement over last year’s awful ASMR-themed spot starring Zoë Kravitz.

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Quicken Loans, “Comfortable”
Highdive
Score:

This visuals of this ad are so distracting that it took a few viewings to really grasp that it’s for Quicken Loans’ Rocket Mortgage. Jason Momoa drives up to his incomparably lovely home and expresses a universal sentiment: “It’s my sanctuary. It’s the one place I can let my guard down,” he says as he takes off his shoes. Who doesn’t relish that feeling? Then things take a turn for the delightfully weird. “It’s where I can just kick back and be totally comfortable in my own skin,” he adds as he peels off his famously beefy arms to reveal scrawny limbs. He unlatches his torso like a bra to expose a reedy, concave chest. Then he plops on his couch to take off his wig. It’s so jarring—and, yes, funny—that, again, the brand is almost completely overshadowed. At least the link between the message behind the gag (home is comfy!) and the product (mortgage loans; yawn) exists, which is more than we can say for a lot of other ads.

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Third Quarter

Mike Bloomberg for President, “George”
Score:

Presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg’s Super Bowl spot does not go after the sitting president he hopes to unseat, but rather the entrenched problem of gun violence in America. The commercial tells of the deeply personal loss of Calandiran Simpson Kemp, whose 20-year-old son was fatally shot in 2003. “I just kept saying, you cannot tell me that the child I gave birth to is no longer here,” says says in the ad, which reminds viewers that “2,900 children die from gun violence every year.” Putting a human face on the epidemic of gun violence is powerful and heart-wrenching. But as a single-issue ad (unlike President Trump’s sweeping Super Bowl spot), one wonders if it will get much done for Mayor Mike's run.

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Reese's Take Five, “Rock”
McGarryBowen
Score:

It's always a bit risky to use your $5.6 million half-minute to play up the fact that nobody knows who you are. That’s the gimmick with this Reese’s spot: The folks who haven’t heard about it are literally living under a literal rock or have literally been raised by literal wolves. The gag gets old literally about five seconds in. It is almost saved by a visual punchline that effectively makes you think of something you’re almost not supposed to say on TV (cue the guy with his head literally up his own ass).

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SodaStream, “SodaStream Discovers Water on Mars”
Goodby Silverstein & Partners
Score:

There are signs of water on Mars and a brave crew of astronauts sets out to investigate. In a taut 30 seconds, the team makes history for discovering a real-life puddle of H20: News headlines blare and Bill Nye the Science Guy celebrates. But with the swift pump of a SodaStream, another astronaut chugs down the now-carbonated liquid and looks visibly refreshed. When admonished that it was the Mars water, he replies “Oh! I thought it said Mark’s water.” It's witty and original in a way that we’ve come to expect from Goodby and company. It also marks an effective departure from previous messaging, which pitted SodaStream against Big Cola. Now it’s just about the bubbles. Refreshing even in space.

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Pepsi, “Zero Sugar. Done Right”
Goodby Silverstein & Partners
Score:

Pepsi is taking a plain-as-day shot at Coke with this spot featuring Missy Elliott and H.E.R. remaking the Rolling Stones classic “Paint It, Black.” The ad begins with H.E.R and an army of red clones singing the lyric “I see a red door, and I want it painted black.” They are all holding a red “Cola” can that is an obvious stand-in for Coca-Cola. She then busts through a red-colored wall into a black-shaded scene. Joined by Elliott, the two put their own twist on the Stones tune as they pick up Pepsi’s mantra as a challenger brand. “I'm in my own lane/Unapologetic and I do my own thang/Got my own brain,” Elliott raps. Purist fans of Mick and Keef may scoff. But that’s OK, Boomer.

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Amazon Alexa, “Before Alexa”
Droga5
Score:

It’s a simple premise executed with simple silliness: As celebrity super-couple Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi prepare to leave their house together, DeGeneres idly wonders what life was like before Alexa (as if we lack the ability to recall anything prior to 2014). A flashback through the ages—Victorian England, the Elizabethan times, the Old West, the Middle Ages, all the way up to the Nixon White House—shows us just how horribly (and ridiculously) awry things used to go when we had to rely on our less-capable human assistants. Of course the historical playback is as “fake” as the headlines peddled by the flashback newsie: The Nixon gag is especially annoyingly inaccurate in the current truth-challenged climate. Still, it does some Forrest Gump-like work toward explaining how so much of those famous tapes went undeleted. At 90 seconds long, though, this trip through non-history is a slog.

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Kia, “Tough Never Quits”
David & Goliath
Score:

The Las Vegas Raiders’ Josh Jacobs has a conversation with his younger self in Kia’s Super Bowl ad, which highlights a childhood that included a stint of homelessness while in middle school. “Josh, it’s going to be hard growing up homeless,” present-day Jacobs says. “But you’ve got to believe in yourself, be tougher than the world around you.” They arrive at the football field where Jacobs played as a kid and he tells his younger self to “push yourself to be someone and I promise someday you will.” While the sentiment is moving (and a bit banal), clearly Jacobs turned out pretty great without his future self’s pep talk. And the viewer is not left with an indelible idea of what the ad was for. Still, as part of the campaign, Kia has pledged to donate $1,000 for every yard gained during the game to relevant charities as part of its new “yards against homelessness” initiative.

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NFL, “Inspire Change”
72andSunny
Score:

The National Football League tackles the politically charged issue of police shootings of black men with an ad that amps up its social justice messaging in the wake of the Colin Kaepernick controversy (but does not feature Kaepernick or mention him by name). The ad features retired player Anquan Boldin sharing the story of his cousin, Corey Jones, who in 2015 was shot and killed by a plain-clothes Florida police officer while Jones was waiting for roadside assistance. The commercial is a tonal 180-degree flip from 72andSunny’s exuberant ad for the league last year. It features a dramatic re-enactment of the shooting and marks the most hard-hitting message put out by the NFL since it began pouring more energy into its “Inspire Change” initiative a year ago. But critics have complained that, for all of the League's good work on progressive issues, its ongoing silence around Kaepernick is deafening.

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Doritos, “Cool Ranch”
Goodby Silverstein & Partners
Score:

A duel of sorts worked famously well in 2018 when Doritos pitted Peter Dinklage against Mountain Dew’s Morgan Freeman in a ferocious rap lip sync battle. Now Doritos is back with a revamped Cool Ranch flavor to pit America’s favorite young cowboy against America’s favorite old cowboy in a CGI-enhanced dance-off. Lil Nas X Rides into town to the strains of Ennio Morricone’s whistle-y theme to “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” He finds himself face-to-face with Sam Elliott (and his iconic mustache), who locks eyes with the young rapper over a bag of new Doritos Cool Ranch chips. “Make your move, cowboy,” Elliott says. And Lil Nas X does. Cue his Grammy-winning “Old Town Road.” The ensuing dance battle—the highlight of which is a move by Elliott’s own ’stache—should probably have been 20 percent more absurd. But the call-to-action at the end, complete with a #CoolRanchDance hashtag, ensures that there will be more user-generated moves to come online.

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Heinz, “Find the Goodness”
Wieden & Kennedy
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Here’s a clever way of getting the most out of your $5.6 million media spend: With this commercial, Heinz is actually airing four spots at once, all arranged in a grid. This spot is meant to “reward” multiple viewings (another clever ploy) but none of the four spots are particularly rewarding. In each of the four little vignettes, which all run simultaneously, protagonists enter a creepy and unfamiliar dining situation looking visibly unsettled. We see folks arriving at a spooky diner, meeting a girlfriend’s evil-looking parents, moving into a haunted house, and eating at what appears to be a restaurant on another planet. Everyone is put at ease when they realize a bottle of Heinz awaits them at the table. Heinz is always there! And if someone serves a meal with ketchup, they can’t be totally horrible ... Right?

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Michelob Ultra, “Jimmy Works it Out”
FCB
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Anyone who’s ever swung a kettle bell will relish the image of Jimmy Fallon flinging one through a gym window mid-pelvic thrust. “Working out suuuucks!,” the late night host confides to his gym buddy John Cena. Know what doesn’t suck? Drinking beer! Here Michelob does a pithy job of showing the light-hearted side of exercise as it continues to position its Ultra brew as a lower-carb and -calorie option. Tough sell, but OK. The spot is loaded with sports celebrity cameos and, of course, the Roots. Cena pushes Fallon, a well-documented imbiber, to enjoy his exercise. We get to enjoy his good-natured suffering. The end.

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Little Caesars , “Sliced Bread”
McKinney
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Sometimes a cliché provides the perfect punchline. When a woman orders Little Caesars pizza to her home and declares it “the best thing since sliced bread,” all hell breaks loose at “Sliced Bread Headquarters.” An underling interrupts the video game-playing Sliced Bread CEO (Rainn Wilson) to say “We've got a problem: There’s a new best thing.” Try as they might to innovate in the face of disruption (“sparkle bread” and “pet bread” are among the pitches), sliced bread’s numbers remain in free fall—as does Wilson’s hygiene. Ultimately, his fate is sealed and time is a flat circle. In the final scene, our hero is now a chipper Little Caesars delivery guy. It’s a delightful, tight little spot that actually smacks of oddball originality.

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Bud Light/Bud Light Seltzer, “#PostyStore”
Wieden & Kennedy New York
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In a spot that will no doubt please fans of Post Malone and “Herman’s Head” alike, here we are given a glimpse of what goes on in the pop star’s mind as he deliberates between Bud Light, his go-to, and Bud Light Seltzer, which he’s never tried before, at a bodega. This sets off a fight between two men (both with Post Malone face tats) inside his brain. They wrestle over a giant joystick in the brain’s command center, which throws the actual Post Malone into possessed “All of Me”-style flailing that ultimately trashes the entire store. Finally, a woman (also with face tats) in his brain weighs in reasonably: “Guys, guys, we are incredibly rich. Let’s get both.” It’s a familiar set-up, most recently seen in Pixar’s brilliant “Inside Out.” But Malone plays along gamely, a mega-star who has no qualms about laughing at himself, and the pacing is on point. Kids, just don't attempt this at your own neighborhood bodega.

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Fourth Quarter

Microsoft, “Be the One”
McCann New York
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Katie Sowers loved football from the first moment she saw it. As a child she wrote, “I hope someday I will be on a real football team.” Then she wanted to be a coach, but being a girl, but there was never a woman she could point to as a role model. So she blazed her own trail. In this commercial for Microsoft's Surface tablet, the product takes a backseat to Sowers’ incredible story: Today she is an offensive assistant coach for the San Francisco 49ers, and is coaching in the Big Game itself. “We have all these assumptions about what women do in life and what men do,” she says over footage of her coaching. “All it takes is one and then it opens the door for so many.” The spot concludes with a montage of girls and young women who, thanks to Sowers, have an open door. Among the most powerful spots we’ve seen this game.

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“Groundhog Day”
Highdive
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The gang’s all back together in this recreation of “Groundhog Day" for Jeep. As much as we’re a little fed up with all the movie nods in Super Bowl ads this year—and as tired as we might be of stories about Bill Murray’s endless offscreen antics, like showing up unannounced at birthday parties and karaoke bars (maybe we’re just jealous)—it’s hard not to love this tribute to one of the all-time great movies. And Jeep makes it work with the tagline: “No day is the same in a Jeep Gladiator.” Here’s a funny-fuzzy commercial we wouldn’t mind being stuck in for a few more go-’rounds.

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Donald J. Trump for President, “Stronger, Safer, More Prosperous”
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“America demanded change. And change is what we got,” this ad begins. While you may have your quibbles with the first statement, the second is irrefutable. Like him or loathe him, Trump has released a 30-second spot with flag-waving messaging that has historically resonated with voters: In his first term, he has made the country “stronger, safer and more prosperous than ever before”; the ad ends with Trump at a rally saying, “And ladies and gentlemen, the best is yet to come.” Accurate? Some would say not. Effective? Probably.

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Facebook, “Facebook Groups: Rock!”
Wieden & Kennedy Portland
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Facebook’s first Big Game ad is devoted to a new feature it has yet to monetize: Groups. All of the Groups highlighted in the spot are honest-to-goodness Facebook communities, all dedicated to different expressions of the word “rock,” from rock climbers to rocking chair enthusiasts to fans of Rocky Balboa. Beautifully shot, the ad artfully shifts from one Group shot to the next. It’s part of a broader campaign the social network is running around promoting personal communities over the main News Feed, which has proved to be fraught territory in recent years. The punchline is a surprise cameo from Sylvester Stallone himself in Rocky garb atop the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in yet another invocation of yet another famous movie moment. (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was perhaps unavailable for some other gag?) If you can’t beat ’em, rock ’em.

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Audi e-tron, “Let it Go”
72andSunny
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In one of the more head-scratching mashups in a minute we see Maisie Williams, best known for her role as Arya in “Game of Thrones,” driving away from a polluted intersection while singing “Let it Go” from Disney’s 2013 hit “Frozen.” Two great tastes that taste … a little weird together (also, those of us with tween and teenage daughters had been lulled into a complacent belief that we’d never have to hear this song again). The tagline, “Let’s drive to a more sustainable future,” emphasizes the auto brand’s commitment to the environment. The Disney cover soars as Williams, a real-life advocate, picks up speed. Count us in—at the very least because we’ve seen what Arya can do with a dagger.

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Discover , “No We Don’t Charge Annual Fees” and “Yes We’re Accepted”
The Martin Agency
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In a duo of 15-second ads, Discover takes the relying-on-celebrity-affinity crutch to its logical conclusion. No goofy cameos here. No recreating famous movie scenes. The Martin Agency just spliced in clips from much loved movies and TV shows of stars appearing to answer the questions “Does Discover charge annual fees?” and “Do you take Discover?” (The answer to the former is “no” and the latter is “yes” for those keeping score at home.) There are a few good-looking regular folks sprinkled in for good measure … and a little confusion. Here is an ad that completely relinquishes any pretense of even trying to accomplish something original. Must have been liberating on some level.

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Budweiser, “Typical Americans”
David Miami
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Never bet against rugged American individualism. Budweiser is back in the Big Game with a safe sentiment delivered with a twist: The brew takes the slur “typical American,” embraces it and flips it on its head. Some of the typical Americans’ typical behavior highlighted here includes showing off how strong they are, how competitive they can be, how they think “they can save the world.” Ah, but the sneering vocal track is paired against moments of public and private heroism, showing all of us typical folks how great we are—every one of us—whether we’re firefighters, returning troops, protesters or athletes with a disability. It’s all one big tent here and doesn’t that make you feel great to be a Bud-drinkin’ American?

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T-Mobile
Panay Films
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“Black-ish” star Anthony Anderson switches his real-life Mama, Doris Hancox, to T-Mobile. “It has the only nationwide 5G,” he tells her. She decides to fact-check this claim by calling him from everywhere, all the time. Turns out it works in the parking garage, at the aquarium, at the beach, and even—wait for it—at the club. It’s funny when old people do young things! Speaking of waiting for it, while T-Mobile may technically have the most 5G coverage of the carriers at this stage, there won’t be any real practical application for years. So, cute commercial, but like most 5G messaging out there, mostly just hype. Still, we wouldn’t mind getting a call from Doris at the club.

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Toyota, “Heroed”
Saatchi & Saatchi
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Toyota turns the classic action movie trope on its head three times in a row: expendable hero sacrifices him- (or her-)self in order to save others from certain death (by chemical meltdown, alien attack, Old West siege). “There's no room! Go without me!” But each time the hero saves the group in this bait-and-switch ad, a woman pulls up in her roomy Highlander SUV and offers refuge. The fourth scenario? Slightly less heroic. A teen melodramatically lets his friends take the last cab on a rainy night. The woman pulls up to save the day—it’s his mom! He sees the other strays she’s scooped up along the way and marvels: Again? “Go wherever they need you,” Super Mom says. If the ad is meant to convey action and comfort at once, it does exactly that—and entertains along the way.

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Procter & Gamble, “When We Come Together”
Grey Midwest
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First of all, a question: Is Mr. Clean attending this party at Sofia Vergara’s house before or after Mr. Peanut’s funeral? Is this the afterparty for the funeral? Just trying to get a handle on the chronology in this parallel brand universe. The premise of the ad, to the extent it has one, is that Vergara throws a party and everything goes horribly awry when the chili literally hits the fan, spraying gunk literally everywhere. Thank goodness all of P&G’s brands are able to assemble like some even-more-corporate Avengers to clean up the catastrophe: Rob Riggle shoots Bounty out of his groin! Mr. Clean does his thing. For some reason, the scatalogically-obsessed Charmin bear is singing about its butt and Busy Phillips is talking about Olay again. Isaiah Mustafa is “impossibly dry” thanks to Old Spice and oh my god why is this happening? What is P&G, an umbrella corporate entity, trying to accomplish with this mishegoss? Any attempt at some kind of cohesive messaging is even further muddied by the recurring Tide ads that have run throughout the game in “surprising” places. Tide is, of course, another P&G product, and instead of keeping things clean this spot just remains a mess through and through.

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