The best and worst Super Bowl 2022 commercials

Close It was the Crypto Bowl! No, wait, it was the Health-and-Wellness Bowl! Or maybe it was the EV Bowl! Er, actually, it was the Celebrity Bowl! OK, sure, it was all of those things—at least if you subscribe to the theory that three or more of the same sort of commercial in the Super Bowl makes for a trend—but mostly it was the Incrementally-More-Fun-Than-Last-Year Bowl. Marketers still, of course, had to grapple with plenty of pandemic restrictions and uncertainty as they produced this year’s crop of Big Game ads, but it seems as if pretty much everyone just collectively decided to go with the flow and not let the recurring darkness of real life intrude on the commercial entertainment. Thank God (or Zeus and Hera, if you’re BMW). More Ad Age Super Bowl coverage Watch all the Super Bowl 2022 commercials The best and worst Super Bowl ads, reviewed See all of Ad Age's 2022 Super Bowl news and analysis The increased entertainment value (and decreased earnestness) came, in part, via absurdist humor (thanks, Pringles!), an adorable robot dog (Kia) and a ton of perfectly cast celebrities (Lindsay Lohan for Planet Fitness, Jerod Mayo for Hellmann’s, Larry David for FTX). Not to mention celebrity pairings both expected (Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd for Lay’s, Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost for Amazon Alexa) and unexpected (Arnold Schwarzenegger and Salma Hayek Pinault for BMW). OK, so maybe it was the Celebrity Bowl more than anything else. Thank you, rich-and-famous people, for your service. All that said, this is Ad Age’s annual Super Bowl Ad Review, so let’s forget, for a moment, about the overarching trends and the bigger marketing lessons. We’re here to talk about the commercials on their own merits and demerits. Let the postgame quarterbacking begin. First Quarter BMW, “Zeus and Hera” Agency: Goodby Silverstein & Partners Arnold Schwarzenegger is Zeus and Salma Hayek Pinault is his wife Hera in this charming BMW spot. The couple has decided to retire to Palm Springs, California, and while Hera seems to be adjusting nicely, Zeus doesn’t quite know what to do with himself. It doesn’t help that his friends and neighbors keep reminding him of his glory days by asking him to deploy his thunderbolt-throwing ability for mundane tasks that are, frankly, beneath a god. (“Yo, Zeus! A little juice!,” a fellow golfer calls out to Zeus from his running-on-low golf cart. Zeus resentfully obliges.) Fortunately, Hera is attuned to her hubby’s funk—she is (or was) the goddess of marriage, after all—and knows just what to do to snap him out of it: buy him a new BMW iX. “I figure you could use a little pick-me-up,” she tells him. “All-electric?!,” he says with such delight that it’s hard not to share his joy. “All-electric,” Hera confirms. Schwarzenegger and Pinault are lowkey great here, and the production grace notes—the costumes, a (CGI) mini-winged pet Pegasus named Peggy, the use of Eddy Grant’s “Electric Avenue” as the closing soundtrack—are terrific too. More from Ad Age: “Watch BMW’s Super Bowl with Arnold Schwarzenegger as an aging Zeus View Ad Bud Light Next, “Zero in the Way of Possibility” Agency: Wieden+Kennedy NY But the most incongruent thing of all in this oddball mashup of an ad may be the product itself: Bud Light Next, a new zero-carb brew. Yep, this thrillingly trippy art project is, go figure, nothing more than a commercial for a lighter-than-light beer. More from Ad Age: “See the NFT cameo in Bud Light Next’s Super Bowl ad” Even more from Ad Age: “Prank Bud Light Next website gets taken down” View Ad E-Trade, “Off the Grid” Agency: MullenLowe For advertising nerds, the comeback of Super Bowl icon the E-Trade Baby is the ad equivalent of Deion Sanders, Brett Farve or Reggie White swarming back onto the gridiron. So we were excited for this commercial, until we realized we were blinded by nostalgia. What we forgot—as, seemingly, did E-Trade—was that the market has changed radically since the infant savant made his Big Game ad debut in 2008. The original premise was that E-Trade made online investing so easy a baby could do it, but now digital trading is part of our everyday lives. Putting the baby in this commercial is rather like featuring Alexander Graham Bell in a spot for iPhone 13. All that said, the commercial is cute, showing a business suit–clad team descending from a helicopter to convince our hero to abandon his off-the-grid existence and save the investing public. We just hope it’s not too late, baby, for you to draw young investors away from millennial-friendly services like WeBull, Stash and Robinhood. More from Ad Age: “Listen to music from Super Bowl 2022 commercials” View Ad Toyota, “Brothers” Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi LA & Dallas We’re very happy that this Toyota ad, which premiered during the Winter Olympics, is also getting Super Bowl airtime. It dramatizes the story of brothers Robin and Brian McKeever, cross-country skiers from Calgary, Canada, who persevered in training together even after Brian began to lose his eyesight as a teenager. Given how moving the story (portrayed by young actors) is, it’s easy to discount the craft on display—the artful cinematography, the expert editing, the propulsive violin soundtrack. But all the elements work seamlessly together, creating an engrossing movie-like experience in a mere 60 seconds. And the quiet revelation (via on-screen type) that the McKeever brothers went on to win 10 Paralympic medals together (with Robin serving as Brian’s sighted guide) has chill-inducing impact given that it’s paired with a shot of the actual brothers, now in their 40s. More from Ad Age: “Super Bowl ads show limited diversity and inclusion progress” View Ad More Ad Age Super Bowl coverage Watch all the Super Bowl 2022 commercials The best and worst Super Bowl ads, reviewed See all of Ad Age's 2022 Super Bowl news and analysis Avocados From Mexico, “Coliseum Tailgate” Agency: GSD&M Avocados From Mexico’s Big Game spot is pure fun and silliness, packed with the snappy one-liners we’ve come to expect from the brand. This year’s commercial transports us to the Roman Empire, where a spirited tailgate party is in full swing. There, the rowdy Barbarians and the snooty Romans finally bond over tasty avocado-based snacks and piles of guacamole. But this détente doesn’t come easy: The Barbarian couple is at first resentful; the husband taunts fans of the opposing team that he and his family rode “three months in an oxcart” to see his team “destroy” the Romans. (His wife pipes in, “Yeah, we made great time.”) Peppered within are visual references to eliminated teams—togas and animal skins inspired by the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills uniforms. But it’s the acting that really makes this spot sing, and the cameo at the end from Andy Richter as Julius Caesar is just the kicker it needs with his avocado endorsement: “You know, they also taste great on salads,” he says. “I love salads.” More from Ad Age: “How Avocados From Mexico is using the Super Bowl to acquire first-party data” View Ad Squarespace, “Everything to Shell Anything” Agency: In-house This is a cute ad, cutely done, with a cute performance by superstar Zendaya. At the core of all that compounding, over-the-top cuteness is a simple storyline: “Sally sold seashells by the seashore,” as André 3000 explains in voiceover, “but the seashells didn’t sell so well, so Sally set up a seashell store on Squarespace. Soon, her seashells started selling ...” and so on and so forth. Sally, naturally, then decides to branch out from just seashells to all manner of seashell-related accessories, snacks and experiences (she’s a lifestyle marketer, it turns out), which sets the stage for a subsequent slew of s-words. What stands out here is that Zendaya has just one word of (cute) dialogue—“Shucks,” she says, in response to a compliment—which has the effect of foregrounding the spot’s third star (beyond Zendaya and André 3000): the excellent, playful art direction. More from Ad Age: “Zendaya sells seashells in Squarespace’s Super Bowl commercial” View Ad DraftKings, “Fortune: Life’s a Gamble” Agency: VaynerMedia With the exploding number of sports betting apps out there, DraftKings is wisely differentiating itself with a character: the sensuous and adventurous Goddess of Fortune. DraftKings pulls out all the stops with an adrenaline-packed narrative featuring Fortune “making it interesting” by performing dangerous feats such as catapulting out of a blimp and hitching a ride with an Evel Knievel look-alike. But despite all the antics, it’s not that interesting—it’s just a montage of reckless behavior (which is probably not the best message for a gambling app). Inexplicably, former Jets quarterback Joe Namath gets not one but two cameos, leaving us pondering how a 78-year-old retired athlete who does direct-response spots for Medicare personifies risk (maybe it’s the nail-biting choice of Part A or Part B?). More from Ad Age: “Watch DraftKings’ daring Super Bowl commercial” View Ad Rakuten, “High Stakes” Agency: In-house Cash-back shopping app Rakuten’s Big Game ad relies on the sight gag of an impossibly posh, vaguely villainous poker player—portrayed by “Ted Lasso” actress Hannah Waddingham—betting an absurd assortment of her personal belongings in lieu of chips. Her designer high heels and Roomba are matched, improbably enough, with identical offerings, but when Waddingham puts her TV on the line, her perky opponent says, “I see your 4K smart TV, and I raise you the cash back I got by buying all this with Rakuten.” (Cue the screen of her phone, which shows a Rakuten Cash Back balance of $278.) Somehow concluding that she’s been bettered (by $278? go figure), the furious Waddingham instantly folds. It’s a dopey conceit for an ad—and a confusing one, given that it’s running amidst other spots for apps that involve actual (online) betting. But Waddingham does her best to redeem the narrative, comedically chewing the scenery here alongside her fancy hairless cat. Kitty, by the way, ends up riding one of the Roombas—which, come to think of it, is the only logical thing that happens in this needlessly convoluted commercial. More from Ad Age: “It’s the Super Bowl of first-party data as brands sharpen personalization with Big Game buys” View Ad Polestar, “No Compromises” Agency: Forsman & Bodenfors Electric vehicle brand Polestar’s Big Game commercial is supposed to be a no-bull, anti-advertising ad, if you believe the words that appear on screen, including “No epic voice overs,” “No punchlines,” “No empty promises,” “No blah blah blah,” etc. Except those words pop up next to a sensual, dramatically-lit, slow-motion reveal of the Polestar 2—a product striptease straight out of the visual playbook of the hype-masters at Apple. And while there is indeed no “voice over” (nor hyphens, nor copy editors, apparently), there is an electronic-music soundtrack with a rapidly escalating, get-the-party-started beat that’s straight out of the aural playbook of superstar DJs. Plus, interleaved with the anti-ad sentiments are not-so-subtle disses of the competition, including “No dieselgate” (a reference to the VW emissions scandal of 2015) and “No conquering Mars” (take that, Elon!)—and shading your rivals is, of course, a time-tested hype-generator for thirsty celebrities (and brands) everywhere. So what we actually have here is an anti-hype ad that’s pure hype. More from Ad Age: “Behind the Super Bowl electric vehicle ad blitz” View Ad Expedia, “Stuff” Agency: Anomaly Let’s face it, the Super Bowl is a celebration of consumerism (and sometimes football), so within this context, Expedia’s spot promoting connection over capitalism has real stopping power. This commercial is brilliant on two levels: Its sentiment is spot-on for a nation climbing out of a pandemic that has forced many to rethink their values and re-prioritize relationships and experiences. But it also drives home that message with subtle parodies of famed Big Game commercials. Our narrator-turned-philosopher Ewan McGregor (who is known for, among other things, travel experience programs such as “The Long Way Around”) reminds us of what’s really important in life as he strides by live commercial sets producing spots that look suspiciously like those for Budweiser (a horse and a dog in a stable), Bud Light (dueling knights reminiscent of the brand’s “Dilly Dilly” brigade) and a crew of floating astronauts (which could be from any one of a host of Super Bowl spots, none of which we can remember now—and that’s the point). Says McGregor: “I doubt that any one of us will look back at our lives and think ‘I wish I’d bought an even thinner TV, found a lighter light beer or had an even smarter smartphone.’ Do you think any of us will look back on our lives and regret the things we didn’t buy”—and as he opens a stage door and steps out onto a sun-drenched beach—“or the places we didn’t go?” Bravo, Expedia. This spot is so good it almost makes us forget that you, too, are selling something. More from Ad Age: “Why the 2022 Super Bowl makes sense for travel brands” View Ad Meta, “Old Friends, New Fun” Agency: Anomaly Meta’s Big Game ad is supposed to be a paean to the possibilities of the metaverse, but it ends up being a real downer. It follows the sad fate of an animatronic dog, Howlin’ Harry, who was the lead “singer” for The Cometeers, the house band at a local restaurant/arcade called Questy’s until it went out of business—a drawnout narrative arc that sets a somber tone. Relatively late in the ad some random guy straps a VR headset on poor Harry’s head, which allows him to virtually escape his depressing current role (he’s been repurposed as a mannequin at some sort of science museum) and relive his glorious past. Other denizens of the metaverse join him in recreating the Questy’s experience as we hear Simple Minds’ “Don’t You Forget About Me,” a song Howlin’ Harry and The Cometeers used to perform back in the day. Four words pop up on screen: “Old friends. New fun.” (Oy vey.) What Meta and the makers of this ad are forgetting about is all the workers who lost their jobs at Questy’s, the customers who loved going there for a literal night out, and, most of all, the sheer joy of IRL socializing—which the normal human beings among us (unlike the Mark Zuckerbergs of the world) actually value more than ever, having endured way too much physical isolation during various pandemic lockdowns. More from Ad Age: “Meta's Super Bowl commercial depicts old brand's new life in the metaverse” Even more from Ad Age: “Inside Meta’s Super Bowl commercial for the metaverse” View Ad T-Mobile, “Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus Help 5G Phones’ Dreams Come True” Agency: Panay Films Dolly Parton stars in this T-Mobile Super Bowl spot that initially seems like it’s for some sort of noble cause-marketing initiative. “When I see a problem,” Parton says, “I’m going to fix it. America’s got a serious problem, and I’m gonna get it off my chest.” Cue the sight gag: The country great pulls a smartphone out of her bra and proceeds to tell us about “5G phones trapped on limited 5G networks.” Tragic! “But you can make a difference,” she adds—by switching to T-Mobile, of course. The spot borrows from the look, feel and sound of direct-marketing charitable appeals, right down to the “Do it for the phones” tagline Parton delivers near the end. The whole thing is terribly silly—but the joke is elevated by the unexpected casting of a national treasure. (Miley Cyrus makes a cameo appearance at the end as a teaser for the other ad in this series; see below.)More from Ad Age: “Listen to music from Super Bowl 2022 commercials” View Ad Carvana, “We’ll Drive You Happy” Agency: In-house Some brands try to push the advertising art form (such that it is) with their Super Bowl ads. Carvana is not one of those brands. Instead, it serves up an entirely unremarkable spot featuring a woman who won’t shut up about how happy she is with her Carvana car-buying experience. (So, yeah, it’s a TV commercial about word-of-mouth marketing, basically.) She’s operatically self-absorbed and entirely unable to read a room (she raves about Carvana at her workplace, at her son’s workplace, at her son’s wedding, etc.). With its tagline, “We’ll drive you happy,” the brand seems to be accepting some responsibility for having triggered this woman’s crisis, but it’s obvious she was a basket case even before she encountered Carvana. On the bright side, unlike a lot of people in her life (including her clearly miserable son), you can get away from her— after just 30 seconds. Or sooner, if you can find the remote fast enough. More from Ad Age: “Chatty mom hypes Carvana experience in used-vehicle brand’s first Super Bowl ad” View Ad Hologic, “Her health is her wealth” Agency: Che Creative Hologic, a medical technology company centered on diagnostics for women, brings us Mary J. Blige in a spot that shows her going about her daily life—acting and recording and working out—while visibly distressed about something. It’s only when we see her later, vulnerable and scared, in the doctor’s office that we realize she is waiting for a medical test result. When her physician comes in and tells her everything is OK, Blige is palpably relieved. The tagline, read by Blige: “Making your health a priority is real love. Hologic. The science of sure.” This commercial seems wildly out of place amid a game-day slate packed with laughs, but Hologic does score on two fronts: First, it’s found a mass audience for a relatively unknown brand, and second, it’s reaching women, who compose a big chunk of the Super Bowl audience. We suppose it’s a necessary message given that many Americans avoided regular medical screenings during the pandemic. But all that said, this spot really stresses us out. More from Ad Age: “Hologic makes Super Bowl debut with women’s health message” View Ad Subscribe to Ad Age now for the latest industry news and analysis. Second Quarter Uber Eats, “Uber Don’t Eats” Agency: Special Group US When it comes to Super Bowl ads, Uber Eats delivers. This spot executes its strategy—to show that the brand brings you more than just food—in flawless fashion. The beauty of this spot isn’t the sight gag of people heartily digging into dishwashing detergent, diapers and kitty litter, but the spot-on casting. The fantastically zany Jennifer Coolidge and Nicholas Braun (Cousin Greg from “Succession”) in particular bring this spot home, while Gwyneth Paltow sampling her own vagina candle is mind-bogglingly meta. Hopefully, the superimposed warnings not to actually eat the products actually work—but we wonder if the plan all along was to secretly encourage a TikTok challenge given the ad’s use of the Capone “Oh No” song so ubiquitous on the platform. But if that’s the case, we can forgive Uber Eats. Maybe, as Coolidge says, it “just got so excited.” More from Ad Age: “See people eat all the wrong things in Uber Eats Super Bowl ad” View Ad Frito-Lay Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and Doritos, “Unleash Your Flamin’ Hot” Agency: Goodby Silverstein & Partners This spot has all the ingredients for a Big Game ad: great music, engaging animals and the substantial star power of Megan Thee Stallion and Charlie Puth. But neither performer is actually shown, despite the fact that they presumably don’t come cheap. Instead, Thee Stallion takes the form of an animated songbird and Puth is presented as an animated fox. The critters themselves are adorable and appealing— hey, who doesn’t love a sloth?—and the use of Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It” is entertaining. But this is a case of the brand overpromising with its teaser ads, which show the actual artists bewildered by orange-dusted animal footprints in their trailers. Frito-Lay’s message is clear: These snacks are flamin’. The ad itself? Not so hot. More from Ad Age: “Frito-Lay comes in hot with Cheetos-Doritos Super Bowl commercial” View Ad T-Mobile, “Miley Cyrus Sings a Song for 5G Phones” Agency: Panay Films This spot is a companion piece to T-Mobile’s other faux-cause-marketing Big Game commercial starring Dolly Parton (see above)—which is why Parton appears at the start to give some advice to her protégé (and godchild): “You’ve got a voice, Miley. Use it. Do it for the phones!” Cue a scene of a recording session for a song titled “Do It For the Phones,” a “We Are the World”-style anthem. The absurd charitable appeal here is more clear if you’ve also seen Parton’s spot, but just in case, some on-screen messages—“VERIZON PHONES NEED YOUR HELP” and “A&T PHONES NEED YOUR HELP”—pop-up to drive home the point that phones that are not on T-Mobile’s network need to be rescued from their inferior 5G service. What really makes the ad work is how much Cyrus commits to her role and the song, shamelessly belting out T-Mobile talking points (“faster speeds nationwide!”) as if this were one of her actual love songs. It’s enough to make us want to buy a ticket to a Miley Cyrus concert just so we can holler “Do It For the Phones,” “Freebird”-style. More from Ad Age: “Listen to music from Super Bowl 2022 commercials” View Ad More Ad Age Super Bowl coverage Watch all the Super Bowl 2022 commercials The best and worst Super Bowl ads, reviewed See all of Ad Age's 2022 Super Bowl news and analysis Caesars Sportsbook, “Sit Down Dinner” Agency: Ten6 This is one hell of a dinner party: Julius Caesar (JB Smoove) and Cleopatra (Halle Berry) are entertaining the first family of football (Eli, Payton, Archie and Cooper Manning). Around the table they exchange the usual pleasantries and some witty banter. (When Caesar asks, “Which one of you legendary quarterbacks is gonna pass me the gravy?,” Cooper reaches for it, only to be admonished by Caesar: “I said legendary.” Eli complies.) This spot doesn’t accomplish much—beyond reinforcing the Caesar’s brand name with some high-priced continuing characters, and mentioning that the Caesars Sportsbook app offers live in-game betting. But maybe it doesn’t need to. More from Ad Age: “Watch: Caesars Sportsbook unveils its Super Bowl commercial” View Ad Wallbox, “Can #Supercharged Seth embrace electricity again?” Agency: The David Agency We’re not sure how Wallbox figures electrocution is funny, but we’re not amused. The point of this ad is to demonstrate that even poor Seth T., who we are told was actually struck by lightning and now (sagely) tiptoes around wall sockets, isn’t fazed by the electric car charging device Wallbox. The intimation is that if Seth is OK with it, why should we be afraid? Hmmmm. Until now we hadn’t even thought about car charging devices being dangerous. Thanks for warning us, Wallbox. More from Ad Age: “Behind the Super Bowl electric vehicle ad blitz” View Ad Rocket Mortgage, “Dream House” Agency: Highdive This seeming spot for Barbie Dreamhouse goes off the rails fast when a perky grown-up, played by Anna Kendrick, extols the features of the diminutive residence and then claims that “Barbie found out about this Dreamhouse with an alert from Rocket Homes!” That appears to be news to the main child in the ad, who says, skeptically, “She did?” Kendrick somewhat condescendingly explains, “Well, it’s a supercompetitive market”—a cue to introduce some supposed other dolls in the Barbie multiverse: Better Offer Betty, Ca$h Offer Carl and House Flipper Skipper, who are brought on set (and voiced) by other kids. Suddenly the adult is acting like a petulant child: “You vultures! You’re gonna start a bidding war!” Yes, this is not only a case of Rocket Mortgage/Rocket Homes imitating a Barbie commercial, but art imitating life. Fortunately, though, Kendrick regains her bearings and ends up reassuring all the kids: “Don’t worry, Barbie has a Verified Approval that shows that her finances are backed by Rocket Mortgage!” And of course the losing bidders are all able to find their own perfect homes with a little help from Rocket Homes. Which leaves everyone happy—except us, to be honest, because we were secretly rooting for House Flipper Skipper (“Let’s tear it to the studs!”) to win the Dreamhouse bidding war. More from Ad Age: “Listen to music from Super Bowl 2022 commercials” View Ad Michelob Ultra, “Superior Bowl” Agency: Wieden+Kennedy Michelob Ultra brings back a “Big Lebowski” vibe with its spot set in the bowling alley we’d least like to compete in, given that it’s a favorite haunt of sports legends who eat 300 scores for breakfast. Fabled quarterback Peyton Manning, golf great Brooks Koepka, soccer standout Alex Morgan and ballers Jimmy Butler and Nneka Ogwumike are primed for competition at the Superior Bowl—until tennis superstar Serena Williams coolly strides in. Steve Buscemi, who played Donny in the movie, knowingly nods from behind the bar. Then comes the tagline: “It’s only worth it if you enjoy it.” Say what? Do we regularly drink beer we don’t enjoy? Should we just not drink beer at all? Should we enjoy getting our ass kicked by a dream team of superior sports stars? It appears that somewhere in there AB InBev is trying to make a point that Mich Ultra is better than other low-carb beers, but it’s lost on us. And even worse, the spot brings to mind another light beer campaign set in a bowling alley with athletes—rival Miller Lite’s classic “Tastes great, less filling.” More from Ad Age: “Serena Williams is a fierce bowler in Michelob Ultra's star-studded Super Bowl ad” View Ad Michelob Ultra Organic Seltzer, “Caddy” Agency: Wieden+Kennedy We’re back at the Superior Bowl. Golfer Brooks Koepka is deciding what to order. His caddy suggests Michelob Ultra Organic Selter because it has “zero sugar and zero carbs.” Koepka: “Zero?” Caddy: “Yeah, zero.” Koepka: “Oh, really?” Caddy: “Yeah, really.” Koepka: “Zero? Caddy: “Zero.” Caddy: “And did I mention it’s organic?” Did we mention there are zero reasons to watch this ad?More from Ad Age: “Listen to music from Super Bowl 2022 commercials” View Ad Turkish Airlines, “We Are All Connected” Agency: Whale This spot starts out like a Nat Geo documentary, with the sonorous Morgan Freeman mesmerizing us with a geography lesson about a time, 300 million years ago, when there was no Africa, Asia, Americas or Europe—only a super-continent called Pangea. While he speaks, land masses magically slide back together, seas crash into one and sandy deserts appear to converge. As the strings in the soundtrack slowly mount to a crescendo, Freeman continues: “Today, there is still a force connecting those divided by distance, reversing millions of years of rifting. Making far feel close.” What is this mystical force that can change the planet? This God-like entity that has the power to unite our world and turn back millions of years of history? Turkish Airlines, of course. How overwrought, overthought and vainglorious. It’s also a commercial completely unworthy of Morgan Freeman. More from Ad Age: “Morgan Freeman stars in Turkish Airlines Super Bowl spot” View Ad WeatherTech, “Special Ops: Fit Crew” Agency: Pinnacle Advertising WeatherTech’s ad has been the one predictable thing about the Super Bowl: For the last nine years, it’s always been there, and it’s always been boring. And weirdly, there is some comfort in that—for both the viewer and the company, which must be seeing some success from a formula for which it continues to shell out millions of dollars. But wait, hold the CupFone: This year, WeatherTech is departing from its flag-waving factories and earnest workers and getting a bit fancy. Its Big Game spot shows a special ops team swooping in from helicopters and underwater bunkers on a mission to outfit a vehicle with WeatherTech’s “laser-measured floor liners, no-drill mud flaps, cargo liner, BumpStep, seat protector and CupFone.” While we appreciate the military precision with which WeatherTech aims to preserve and protect our car’s carpet from the scourge of mud, the backseat from the despair of pet hair and the heroism of the BumpStep (what the heck is a BumpStep anyway, and what does it safeguard?), the execution of this ad just doesn’t work. It comes off like “Toy Story” without the parody. But, hey, it’s still boring. There’s always that. More from Ad Age: “The social media power of Super Bowl commercial celebrities” View Ad Gillette Labs, “A Quick and Easy Shave” Agency: Grey Is this a commercial for a razor or a Disney movie? This spot for Gillette Labs with Exfoliating Bar uses the wonderful world of CGI to show that “you can shave as quick as you wash your face.” It portrays an average guy zip-a-dee-doo-dahing through his grooming routine as shaving cream magically appears on his mug and the razor flies into his hand. A towel bar obligingly bends to accept his tossed-off wipe and a dress shirt flies across the room to affix itself to his body. Amid this action, rhumba-style music plays, oddly accented with high-pitched warbling reminiscent of a Disney princess. His toilette perfected, our fully exfoliated protagonist stands before a door, which mystically melts away, and he strides into what appears to be a bar. We get it: This razor offers a speedy, dead-skin-cell-free shave. But Gillette, this is the Super Bowl. Is this really the best ad a man can get? More from Ad Age: “Gillette is back in the Super Bowl for first time in 16 years” View Ad General Motors, Silverado EV, “New Generation” Agency: Commonwealth/McCann This one gives us chills. Actress Jamie-Lynn Siegler, who played the daughter of mobster Tony Soprano in “The Sopranos,” recreates his ride from Manhattan to New Jersey in the HBO series’ iconic opener. It’s done with eerie precision, thanks in part to Chevy and its agency working with “Sopranos” creator David Chase and Phil Abraham, director of the show’s title sequence. But while the scenery is familiar—the gritty turnpike, the belching smokestacks, Satriale’s Pork Store—this ride is different. For one, the driver is a woman. Rather than smoking a stogie, she’s eating a lollipop. And the car, which in the original series was a 1999 Chevy Suburban, is now the Chevy Silverado EV, which Siegler charges up before embracing her “brother,” Robert Iler, who played A.J. in the series. The message is clear and smartly delivered: This is not your father’s Chevrolet. More from Ad Age: “It’s the Super Bowl of first-party data as brands sharpen personalization with Big Game buys” View Ad eToro, “Flying Your Way” Agency: Alldayeveryday In its Big Game spot, investing platform eToro wants us to “imagine a community where millions share ideas, trade stocks, crypto and beyond,” as an announcer puts it. The ad illustrates what that might look like by showing countless humans flying through the air in a massive formation that calls to mind a swarm of locusts. The swarm, which weaves around office and residential towers, briefly changes shape to create a giant thumbs-up, which presumably was meant to make the swarm look friendly, but instead made us think of Facebook’s logo. And in an ill-advised attempt at injecting some humor into the proceedings, one guy in the swarm is shown accidentally bopping his head on the window of some random woman’s apartment, leaving him looking stunned and destabilized. So not only does this spot unflatteringly compare eToro’s “community” to a vaguely menacing swarm, but it actually suggests that this all might end really badly.More from Ad Age: “Another crypto brand enters Super Bowl—eToro the latest in a crowded field” View Ad Coinbase, “Less Talk, More Bitcoin” Agency: Accenture Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase figured out how to gamify the Super Bowl by throwing a bouncing VR code on our screens for 60 seconds. Some people probably thought their TVs somehow switched to old-school screensaver mode, but the quick-witted among us dutifully pointed our phones at the code and were redirected to a web page inviting us to get $15 in free Bitcoin for signing up along with a chance to win a chance to win $3 million in prizes. Or, maybe you got an error message, because, as Coinbase put it, “that was more popular than we thought.” Exactly what you were served depended on your timing and your luck (hey, just like crypto investing!). The good news is that with all the money Coinbase saved on commercial production costs and server redundancy, they’ll hopefully have enough money to pony up all the digital loot. More from Ad Age: “Listen to music from Super Bowl 2022 commercials” View Ad Toyota, “The Joneses” Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi LA & Dallas In this delightful romp, a trio of Joneses—Tommy Lee Jones, Leslie Jones and Rashida Jones—try to keep up with one another in a raucous race brought to us by Toyota’s Tundra. We begin with Tommy Lee stopped on a deserted road. Leslie pulls up beside him, OK Corral–style. “What’s up, Jones?” she taunts. “Jones ….” he drawls. The engines rev and the pair peels out. As they careen off-road, a third driver zooms up alongside and splatters mud over Leslie’s windshield. It’s Rashida Jones. “Jones!” shouts an indignant Leslie. “Oh hey, Jones!” cries Rashida. After a few heart-stopping maneuvers, the trio comes to rest at the crest of a snowy hill. A fourth Tundra slides into formation, driven by Nick Jonas. “Jon-as?” queries an incredulous Leslie. “Yeah, it’s ‘Keeping up the Jonases’ now,” he responds. Whereupon Tommy Lee steals the entire spot, sneering at the infiltrator: “Try to keep up. Whoever you are.” What makes this ad so impeccable isn’t simply the idea or the casting, but its attention to the tiniest details—the race takes place on Jones Pass, all the license plates read #1JONES, and it’s set to “It’s Not Unusual,” sung by none other than Tom Jones. This commercial isn’t just keeping up, it’s ahead of the pack as the perfect microcosm and pinnacle of an overly celebrity-fied Super Bowl. More from Ad Age: “Listen to music from Super Bowl 2022 commercials” View ad NFL, “Bring Down the House” Agency: 72andSunny The NFL promised a blockbuster ad this year, and we’ve been girding for a touchdown, given that the league leaked some intriguing details: Its spot would feature puppetry, CGI and an all-star slate of gridiron giants, including Walter Payton, Rob Gronkowski, Ray Lewis, Aaron Donald, Deion Sanders, Marshawn Lynch, Kyler Murray, Al Michaels and more. In the final two-minute commercial, a couple of kids playing a video game at home are stunned as players spill out of the screen into their living room ready to rumble. The pint-sized players seem just as shocked, but quickly recover to play some football—in the process thoroughly trashing the house. Perhaps the best bit in this fast-moving montage is the tiny football that somehow ends up lodged in the maw of a sleeping grandma (“We done killed granny!”). And that’s just one of what our announcer calls “137 flags on the play.” The game finally rests on Peyton Manning, who fumbles as a human baby enters the room and tackles him, shaking loose the ball, which is promptly intercepted by Walter Payton. Touchdown achieved as mom and dad enter the room to see their house destroyed. “What happened?” asks mom. “Football!” answers granny. The premise is “The Cat in the Hat” meets “Toy Story,” and, yes, the spot is fun. But to us, it lacks the rollicking joy of the epic 2019 spot, “The Hundred Year Game,” which is the benchmark the NFL will forever have to beat. More from Ad Age: “Listen to music from Super Bowl 2022 commercials” View ad Subscribe to Ad Age now for the latest industry news and analysis. Third Quarter Bud Light Seltzer Hard Soda, “Land of Loud Flavors” Wieden+Kennedy NY Bud Light Seltzer Hard Soda imagines a nightmarish, dystopian alternate universe populated by Guy Fieri clones and wannabes—and ruled by Fieri himself. In the Land of Loud Flavors, citizens model themselves after the flamboyant restaurateur and Food Network host (spiky, dyed blond hair is a common sight) and drop everything to listen to his sudden pronouncements, which are delivered Orwell-style on giant outdoor displays with booming voice-of-God audio. Mayor Fieri declares that Bud Light Seltzer Hard Soda has “the loudest flavors ever,” and his subjects obligingly act overjoyed, probably to avoid a brutal crackdown by Dear Leader’s henchmen. Unlike Apple’s “1984” Super Bowl commercial, there is no rebel runner on hand here to fling a sledgehammer at any of the towering screens, suggesting that Fieri’s power over his compliant subjects is terrifyingly absolute. It’s almost enough to drive us to drink. Almost. More from Ad Age: “See Bud Light’s Super Bowl ad starring Guy Fieri” View ad Lay’s, “Stay Golden” Agency: HighDive Real-life pals Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen have terrific chemistry in this faux-nostalgic Lay’s commercial that shows them reminiscing about good times over a bag of chips just before Rogen gets married. Cue a montage of flashback scenes that get darkly funny fast—a hospitable kidnapper and a zombie ghost lady feature prominently—and of course always include a bag of Lay’s as a sight gag. The comedic tone is jarring in a good way, which is exactly what you’d expect of a commercial co-written by Rogen and his longtime collaborator Evan Goldberg (“Superbad,” “This Is the End”), who also served as director. The narrative comes hilariously full circle with the revelation that Rogen is getting married to the zombie ghost lady and Rudd is officiating. And, honestly, throwing Lay’s at a wedding instead of rice is a delicious idea. More from Ad Age: “Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd relive wild tales in Lay’s Super Bowl commercial” View ad Crypto.com, “2003” Agency: SpringHill In Crypto.com’s Big Game spot, LeBron James travels back in time to 2003 to talk to a younger version of himself. “Alright, so ... cordless headphones, you can watch movies through your phone, and y’all got electric cars?” asks 2003 LeBron, who is played by actor Bentley Green. “Yeah,” 2022 LeBron says. Young LeBron declares that “the future is crunk!”—which amuses present-day LeBron and prompts him to ask, “Anything else you wanna know?” After a brief exchange about “hype” and being “ready” (in regard to his NBA career), 2022 LeBron tells 2003 LeBron, “I can’t tell you everything”—which is profoundly disappointing, because this is an ad for a cryptocurrency exchange. Can you imagine if 2003 LeBron knew to invest in crypto before anyone else? Such a lost opportunity! Instead, 2022 LeBron tells 2003 Lebron that if he wants to “make history, you gotta call your own shots”—which, sure, yeah, that’s perfectly good advice, but any thoughts about, say, cryptocurrency?!? Anyway, the spot peters out with Crypto.com’s recurring “Fortune favors the brave” tagline—which somehow failed to distract us from imagining Young LeBron as an eerily prescient cryptocurrency trillionaire. See more from Ad Age: “How crypto brands showed up in Super Bowl 2022” View ad T-Mobile, “Zach Braff and Donald Faison Sing a Duet for Home Internet” Agency: Panay Films Thanks to this T-Mobile ad, the Super Bowl gets another set of real-life celebrity pals who got to make bank while having a blast together (see also: Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen for Lay’s). Here, “Scrubs” stars Zach Braff and Donald Faison—neighbors living in adjacent homes, we’re supposed to believe—end up (literally) singing a song of praise for the idea of “internet without b.s,” following Braff’s musical lament about his current overpriced service. It’s T-Mobile’s way of hyping its 5G home internet service and it’s, well, fun in a low-key, unmemorable way. And that’s about it. If you’re a “Scrubs” fan, maybe that’s enough? More from Ad Age: “Listen to music from Super Bowl 2022 commercials” View Ad Google Pixel, “Seen on Pixel” Agency: Gut “Historically, camera technology hasn’t accurately represented darker skin tones,” Google states in an on-screen message at the start of its Big Game ad for the Pixel 6. In voiceover, we briefly hear from people of color who testify, in personal terms, to that fact as we see photos of them that look improperly exposed. But then, after a quick on-screen product announcement—“Introducing Real Tone on Google Pixel 6”— the ad shifts gears and we see a glorious slide show of absolutely great Pixel 6 photos of diverse subjects, set to Lizzo’s “If You Love Me, You Love All Of Me.” (A portrait of Lizzo appears among the photos shown.) It’s rare that an ad so clearly and convincingly presents its product as a solution to a problem in the marketplace—and does so in a way that’s a joy to behold. More from Ad Age: “Super Bowl ads show limited diversity and inclusion progress” View ad Kia, “Robo Dog” Agency: David & Goliath Amid the high-wattage and high-priced celebrities in this year’s Super Bowl ads, Kia manages to shine with a $299 robot dog. This spot for its electric EV6 hits all the right notes—drama, suspense and a surprise payoff—thanks to its soaring soundtrack (Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart”) and anthropomorphic animation. If the ad’s intention is to “normalize” electric vehicles, which still have relatively low adoption rates, the pup accomplishes that nicely, but the ad also raises two questions: One, could the robot dog’s running out of battery power at the worst possible time stoke buyers’ apprehension that the EV6 could do the same? And two, is the canine chasing after the human for companionship, or is it jonesing for a jolt? Either way, that dog is a winner. Budweiser should sign him for its next Clydesdale commercial. More from Ad Age: “The Super Bowl has gone to the (robot) dogs with Kia and Sam Adams both plugging electric pooches” View ad Pringles, “Pringles Stuck In” Agency: Grey Finally! Pringles has at long last abandoned its stale “stacking” proposition, and the result is a delightful tour de force with serious Ad Meter-busting chops. Inspired by a real-life dilemma experienced by 43% of Pringles aficionados, we see our hero at a party doggedly trying to dig out the last Pringle from the can, which promptly gets stuck on his arm. We then see him go contentedly through the rest of his life—falling in love, getting married, having a child, aging and finally lying in his casket—with the can firmly lodged on his forearm. What really makes this spot is Lionel Ritchie’s moony “Stuck on You,” which perfectly illustrates the man’s symbiotic relationship with Pringles, along with the last scene, in which one of his mourners finds himself in the same situation. Brand fans will love this commercial, and those who aren’t will surely get sucked in (Stuck in?) by this 30 seconds of joy. More from Ad Age: “See Pringles’ Super Bowl ad featuring a determined snacker” View ad Planet Fitness, “What’s Gotten Into Lindsay?” Agency: Publicis’ Team Lift Exercise makes everything better, right? Including the perennial punching bag of the tabloids, Lindsay Lohan. This spot craftily plays on her checkered history to hilarious effect as people ponder “What’s gotten into Lindsay?” The “Mean Girls” star beats Dennis Rodman at “Jeopardy!” (buzzing in first to answer a question about his own life); reduces the paparazzi to tears by turning in early rather than hitting the clubs; and—in one especially belly-laugh-out-loud scene— bedazzles Danny Trejo’s ankle monitor as she trades “DUI for DIY.” (Trejo steals that sequence with one word: “Gorgeous!”) All too often during the Big Game, we see celebrities trotted out as nothing more than window dressing. Kudos to Planet Fitness for featuring someone actually relevant to the product. Lohan, it seems, has finally made her way into the Judgement Free Zone. More from Ad Age: “Why Super Bowl viewers will see more health and wellness commercials” View ad Verizon, “Goodbye, Cable” Agency: McCann, New York There’s insistent banging on the apartment door. Peering at us through the fisheye lens of the peephole is none other than Jim Carrey, who sings out “Cable guy!” We’re instantly transported back to 1996, when comedy classic “The Cable Guy” nailed our feelings about the actual cable guy, who never showed up on time and was always trying to lock us into long-term contracts. In this spot, Carrey camps it up, marveling at Verizon’s 5G Ultra wideband internet for home and business that—shockingly—does not require an installer. We initially wondered about this approach given that cord-cutting is already so common, but then the genius of it dawned on us: Carrey is the perfect choice to reach boomers still clinging to cable. More from Ad Age: “It’s the Super Bowl of first-party data as brands sharpen personalization with Big Game buys” View ad Cue Health, “Andy” Agency: Doner This had to have been a bummer of a brief: Create a spot for an at-home COVID testing device to run alongside Super Bowl ads exploding with escapist humor. And do it in eight days. Despite those considerable hurdles, Cue and its agency managed to pull off a commercial that informs and gently entertains by normalizing a newfangled device that reminds us of a pandemic we’d rather forget. The opening scene shows a mom telling her son Andy that his buddy Justin “tested positive, so let’s do a Cue test.” While the Cue machine is running the test, the family’s home appliances are shown warily assessing this interloper. “Whoah, what is that?” asks the security camera. “Who is this new device?” queries the virtual assistant. Cue, voiced by “Wonder Woman” actress Gal Gadot, introduces herself as a smart home testing lab “here to protect the family.” When Andy tests negative, the Roomba and the others are relieved. “We’re really warming up to you, kid,” says the thermostat. To which Cue responds: “Just wait till you see what else I can do.” More from Ad Age: “How COVID testing brand Cue put together a Super Bowl ad in 8 days” View Ad General Motors, “Dr. EV-il” Agency: McCann Detroit In General Motors’ Big Game spot, Dr. Evil (Mike Myers), the supervillain from the “Austin Powers” movie franchise, announces that he’s taken over the carmaker as he addresses his entourage from the executive floor of GM’s famous Detroit headquarters. Number Two (Rob Lowe) gets right down to business, declaring that GM’s Ultium platform—its electric vehicle battery system—“will power our whole operation,” to which Scott Evil (Seth Green) responds, “Now we can reduce tailpipe emissions.” Dr. Evil, of course, is unimpressed by that prospect, which prompts a free-for-all of contentious banter, complete with a sudden interjection from Frau Farbissina (Mindy Sterling), who insists that, “You must save the world first, then you can take over the world”—a mission statement of sorts that Dr. Evil proceeds to shamelessly present as his own original idea. If you’re not already familiar with these characters, well, good luck making sense of this commercial—which is a roundabout means for GM to promote its ambition to go all-electric (and, apparently, take over the world). But fans of Dr. Evil and his entourage will love this reunion, especially given that Myers and Green are in fine form as bickering father and son, and because the ad serves up the Super Bowl’s best product reveal: Baby Me (aka Kyle). More from Ad Age: “See Mike Myers play ‘Dr. EV-il’ in GM’s Super Bowl commercial” View ad Subscribe to Ad Age now for the latest industry news and analysis. Fourth Quarter Sam’s Club, “Like a VIP” Agency: Sam’s Club, LOL Studios and VMLY&R We love Kevin Hart. Really, we do. But he is wasted in this Sam’s Club commercial strutting around the store bragging about being a VIP, oblivious to the fact that all the customers around him can also bypass the checkout and use Scan & Go to pay for their 20-pound boxes of Frosted Flakes. It’s mildly amusing and highly predictable, which is a feat considering that it treats the warehouse store as a modern-day Studio 54. However jokingly delivered, the I’m-a-celebrity elitism doesn’t quite resonate for Hart, who has scads of everyman appeal. Sam’s said it spent a few years of its TV budget on this, its first Big Game commercial, to reach the masses. But this is the Super Bowl—you go big or you go home. To quote founder Sam Walton: “Capital isn’t scarce. Vision is.” More from Ad Age: “Sam’s Club will air its first Super Bowl ad starring Kevin Hart” View ad More Ad Age Super Bowl coverage Watch all the Super Bowl 2022 commercials The best and worst Super Bowl ads, reviewed See all of Ad Age's 2022 Super Bowl news and analysis Vroom, “Flake the Musical” Agency: Anomaly Online used car marketplace Vroom packs a whole helluva lot into its Big Game spot—a mini musical that depicts one woman’s elation upon reading a message on her phone as she walks down a city street and realizes that “I’m finally gonna sell my car.” Apparently she’s in a neighborhood populated by nosy theater nerds, because suddenly everyone around her starts peppering her with questions (“Was the buyer respectful?”) while dancing and singing (“She’s finally gonna sell her car!”). And then ... plot twist: She checks her messages again and says, “He backed out,” prompting groans of disappointment from the thwarted Broadway babies. “Never deal with flaky buyers again,” an announcer declares as our protagonist snaps out of her reverie (or whatever that was) and we learn that she ended up selling her car to (non-flaky) Vroom. According to a behind-the-scenes video, it took 47 cast members, 56 hours of rehearsals, three months of production and “one expert choreographer”—Mandy Moore of “La La Land” fame—to create what Vroom calls “Flake the Musical.” Honestly, it’s more charming than many actual musicals we’ve seen over the years—and infinitely more bearable because it’s over in just 30 seconds. More from Ad Age: “See Vroom’s new Super Bowl commercial about buying cars from consumers” View ad Taco Bell, “The Grande Escape” Agency: Deutsch LA As this spot opens, we are presented with a sorry-looking group of clowns who escape their hideous repast of limp burgers and unappetizing sides by busting out at Taco Bell. Clever, or too clever for its own good? The chain intends those clowns to represent McDonald’s, but it’s risking that viewers won’t get the connection. And that’s a big gamble given that the Super Bowl reaches 90 million souls, the broadest possible swath of TV-viewing humanity. Including Doja Cat makes the ad lively (note to Doja Cat: you just blew your chance at a McDonald’s Famous Orders contract), but in this ad she does not seem to have any clear connection to the Taco Bell brand. We’re not sure why the Yum Brands chain is spending $7 million dissing its competition rather than promoting its own products, but we’re pretty certain one demographic will love this ad—Taco Bell franchisees. At least they’re sure to get the inside joke that the clown school’s ice cream machine is still broken. More from Ad Age: “Doja Cat escapes from clown town in Taco Bell’s Super Bowl commercial” View ad Cutwater, “Here’s to the lazy ones” Agency: AKQA Is this a loving tribute to Apple’s epochal “The Crazy Ones” or a sly parody? Or both? We’re not certain, but it successfully appeals to the sloth in us. Filmed in the same black-and-white style, the spot celebrates the lazy as “renegades,” “outliers” and “pioneers” who “work smarter not harder,” while we watch a woman tenderize meat with a massage gun, a man blowtorch his driveway rather than shovel, a guy “walk” a leashed dog on a treadmill, and a woman break off an icicle for her drink rather than get up to fetch some cubes. Cutwater humorously pitches its ready-made canned cocktails as the beverage of choice for the indolent, but it’s hard not to come away with the idea that convenience might be the only reason to buy the brand. (Hey, it doesn’t actually taste like a real cocktail, but at least you don’t have to strain yourself with a shaker.) Then again, this delightfully lethargic message couldn’t be better-timed for Super Bowl viewers beached on the sofa with a bag of chips and a six-pack of, well, whatever was closest. More from Ad Age: “Cutwater Spirits Super Bowl ad celebrates lazy mixology with its canned cocktails” View ad Greenlight, “I’ll Take It” Agency: Haymaker Even funnyman Ty Burell can’t save this commercial for Greenlight, a banking app and debit card aimed at teaching kids about saving. Although it’s intended as a cautionary tale, the sight of Burrell running around shouting “I’ll take it!” as he impulse buys ridiculous merchandise—like a tub dubbed Tytanic (even though he admits to seasickness), a hot-air balloon with his countenance on it, a suit of armor and a winged horse (who would have predicted two Pegasi in one Super Bowl?)—feels tone-deaf emerging from a pandemic while there is still high unemployment and belt-tightening. This spot is too slapstick and the execution too juvenile—maybe it’s aimed at game-watching kids rather than their parents? More from Ad Age: “Kids’ banking app enters the Super Bowl—Behind Greenlight’s plans as the industry expands” View Ad Nissan, “Thrill Driver” Agency: TBWA/Chiat/Day Brie Larson tosses the keys for her canary yellow Nissan Z to a seemingly reluctant Eugene Levy—“Coffee’s enough excitement for me,” he tells her, cradling a mug—yet he becomes a whole different man once he slides behind the wheel. The buttoned-up, nerdy dad from “Schitt’s Creek” not only relishes zipping through an urban landscape (briefly encountering his bewildered TV wife, Catherine O’Hara, along the way), he gets caught up in a high-speed chase that Danai Gurira and Dave Bautista join for some reason. This version of Levy—suddenly wearing a leather jacket and sporting Fabio-esque locks—is fully capable of maneuvering the Z through death-defying twists and turns without spilling a drop of his java. He literally transforms into a cinematic action hero, complete with a catchphrase (“Watch the coffee”). This ad basically says the quiet part out loud: that a lot of automotive marketing is about convincing aging dorks that they can climb out of their midlife (or late-life) Schitt’s Creek by buying the right cool car. Which makes the small print that fleetingly flashes on screen—“Fantasy sequence, do not attempt”—as much an existential reality check as a legal disclaimer. More from Ad Age: “Eugene Levy looks badass in Nissan’s Super Bowl ad” View ad Intuit, Quickbooks, “Early start” Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day What is with this year’s b-to-b Super Bowl ads? Intuit has done some solid Big Game spots in the past, so we expected more—or at least more clarity—from this spot. We open with a boutique shop owner looking over a pile of papers while a crazy cat lady wheels in on an office chair singing (well, more like mangling) “All I Do Is Win.” We then shift to a tavern keeper exchanging smiles with a sympathetic DJ Khaled. As he spies a pile of invoices, the barkeep looks over to the establishment’s stage, where a customer performing karaoke murders the same tune. Next, we cut to a business owner assessing her inventory of candles. When the camera pulls back, it reveals a kazoo player standing above her on the second floor. Cue a voice-over, raising our hopes for some sort of explanation. “Never lose confidence in how you run your business,” the announcer says, adding that Intuit is “bringing Quickbooks and MailChimp together to help your business set up and grow.” We need help, all right, to make sense of this mess. More from Ad Age: “QuickBooks to air first Super Bowl spot for its own brand” View ad Amazon Alexa, “Mind Reader” Agency: Lucky Generals Alexa: Top last year’s Amazon Super Bowl ad with Michael B. Jordan. We’d have laid odds with one of the seemingly hundreds of online betting brands in the Super Bowl that it couldn’t be done—especially since this spot risks portraying Alexa as a mind reader amid public paranoia over data and cyber stalking. But it works, thanks to this commercial’s superbly comedic interplay between power couple Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost. The sweet little lies they tell about morning breath, kissing scenes, “homemade” dinners and atrocious acting are unmasked in side-splitting fashion by truth-teller Alexa, while also subtly plugging the device’s ability to reorder groceries and switch on appliances. In a Super Bowl packed with a whiplash-inducing number of celebrities, Jost and Johansson come across as a friendly neighborhood couple you’d like to have dinner with—as long as they’re not serving oysters. More from Ad Age: “Amazon’s Super Bowl commercial imagines if Alexa were psychic” View ad Irish Spring, “Welcome to Irish Spring” Agency: Ten6 To the strains of gentle flute music, an unkempt middle-aged dude floats down a river on a makeshift raft, arriving at Irish Spring, a mystical land where “stinkiness is unwelcome,” as one stern resident pointedly declares. This, apparently, is a cult compound for fans of Irish Spring deodorant soap, who subject their visitor to a forced cleansing ritual while chanting “Cast thy smell away!” Freshly bathed, our protagonist suddenly breaks out in dance, joining the others around the base of a giant, monolithic bottle of Irish Spring body wash—a clear sign that he’s a weak-willed sheep and has unthinkingly surrendered his freedom just to fit in. Does this man not realize what a slippery slope it is to submit to bathing mandates? More from Ad Age: “Watch Irish Spring’s Super Bowl ad enter a spooky land of malodor intolerance” View ad Booking.com, “Booking.yeah” Agency: Horses & Mules Booking.com says it’s definitely not lit. Neither is this spot—despite the best efforts of the estimable Idris Elba. And that’s a crime because there was so much potential in the brand’s teaser spots, which feature him being coached by veteran brand spokesmen Jonathan Goldsmith (Dos Equis’ “The Most Interesting Man in the World”) and Isaiah Mustafa (Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Can Smell Like”). Sadly, none of that amusing interplay figures in the final oh-so-self-aware Booking.com spot, which spends most of its 30 seconds apologizing for its uncreative name rather than pitching its service. It’s no fault of Elba’s, but the gag goes cold pretty fast even as it builds toward his bleeped admission at the end of the commercial that the brand is “kind of shit” at naming. Booking.nah. More from Ad Age: “See Idris Elba star in Booking.com’s Super Bowl teasers” View ad Hellmann’s, “Mayo Tackles Food Waste” Agency: Wunderman Thompson Just imagine the agency pitching its Hellmann’s client: “We’re going to get a football player named Mayo to literally tackle people who are wasting food.” It’s amazing this spot ever got produced—but are we glad it did. The sight of linebacker-turned-coach Jerod Mayo mercilessly body-slamming unsuspecting food-wasters—including a mom on a crutch and an innocent grandma—for failing to think creatively about leftovers is an absolute scream, and for our money beats Reebok’s “Terry Tate, Office Linebacker.” Mayo, despite being chosen for his name, delivers his lines perfectly (and may just have created a new pop-culture catchphrase: “Make a frittata!”). The payoff at the end with Pete Davidson almost seems superfluous, but we won’t deduct points for that because, well, it’s Pete Davidson. Will encouraging more consumerism by buying more Hellmann’s save the planet? We don’t have time to answer that now—we’re looking for ways to use mayo to salvage our uneaten Game Day nachos and pizza. More from Ad Age: “Watch Hellmann’s new linebacker sack food wasters in Super Bowl commercial” View ad Salesforce, “New Frontier” Agency: In-house with Matthew McConaughey Matthew McConaughey plays an astronaut in this disjointed Salesforce commercial—and ends up sounding like neither an astronaut nor Matthew McConaughey, but a guy who’s reciting a script written by committee. B-to-b software giant Salesforce teamed up with the actor-slash-adman to create the spot in support of its new #TeamEarth cause-marketing initiative, which, per its stated goals, “aims to inspire businesses and individuals to help build a more fair, equal and sustainable future.” But instead of saying that, McConaughey starts by dismissing the idea of space as “the new frontier” with a Larry David–esque “ehhh,” and then declares that “It’s not time to escape, it’s time to engage” (because folksy astronauts always use marketing-speak like “engage,” right?). As he floats over farmland, an outdoor wedding and downtown San Francisco in a hot-air balloon (um, why?), he offers some rhyming, politician-grade platitudes: “It’s time to plant more trees. It’s time to build more trust. Time to make more space—for all of us.” (Wait, wut?) None of this makes much sense until McConaughey says, “So while the others look to the metaverse and Mars, let’s stay here and restore ours.” Aha! That’s what this is really about: a tech billionaire (Marc Benioff, Salesforce’s co-founder/co-CEO) chastising other tech billionaires (Mark “Meta” Zuckerberg and space cowboys Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk) for not being, well, grounded enough—a message ever-so-humbly delivered with a little help from Matthew McConaughey and $6.5 million or so of Big Game airtime. More from Ad Age: “Matthew McConaughey prefers Earth to metaverse in Salesforce’s Super Bowl and Olympics ad” View ad Budweiser, “A Clydesdale’s Journey” Agency: VaynerMedia Be still our hearts! We clutched our hankies in anticipation of Bud’s Clydesdales being reunited with a canine companion, a combination that has never failed to give us all the feels. Until now. Maybe it’s the music, which is largely unrecognizable as the national anthem. Maybe it’s that the story seems rushed, giving us too little time to empathize with the yellow Lab’s compassion for his wounded friend. Or maybe it’s the high-mindedness (“In the home of the brave, down never means out”), which, however well-intentioned, just doesn’t land right given the lingering division in this country. Bud has touched on sensitive issues in the past with grace and resonance—such as the Clydesdales bowing before the missing twin towers after 9/11—but this spot sadly fails to achieve that, and leaves us verklempt for all the wrong reasons. More from Ad Age: “See how Budweiser is bringing Clydesdales back to the Super Bowl” View ad FTX, “Don’t Miss Out” Agency: Dentsu MB If you love Larry David, you’ll love cryptocurrency exchange FTX’s Super Bowl ad, which stars Larry David as ... various versions of Larry David. The same kvetching naysayer we all know from HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” is shown throughout history, dismissing various great leaps forward as they’re introduced, including the fork, the indoor toilet and the light bulb. David’s dialogue and delivery is delightfully anachronistic—it’s basically straight out of “Curb”—which makes the elaborately staged historical scenes somehow even funnier. Notably, the spot brings up FTX and what it’s for only in the last 10 seconds or so, which is merciful given how sick everyone is of hearing about crypto. David predictably disses FTX (“Ehhhhh, I don’t think so”) and FTX responds (via on-screen type) “DON’T BE LIKE LARRY.” Which, given that we hate being told what to do (just like Larry!), makes us want to eat with our hands, pee in the backyard and sit in the dark. But still, point well-taken. More from Ad Age: “FTX is giving away free bitcoin as part of its Super Bowl commercial” View ad Intuit TurboTax, “Matchmaker” Agency: Wieden+Kennedy OK, seriously, what the heck is going on in this Intuit TurboTax ad? It starts out innocently enough, with a cheerful TurboTaxer declaring that “TurboTax Live matches you with the tax expert who is right for you.” But then it turns into a surreal parade of characters—a nervous freelancer, a sketchy crypto investor and Jason Sudeikis for some reason—who transform into each other via the unnerving removal of prosthetics and costumes. Meanwhile, our TurboTax expert is joined by other TurboTax experts who are each seated in a series of gratuitously large interior spaces that mechanically shift and rotate into each other in disturbing, “Inception”-esque ways that will have you fearing for everyone’s safety. Add in a marching band soundtrack that starts and stops arbitrarily and you may start to feel like you’re losing your damn mind. The storyboard for this commercial must look like someone mixed cole slaw with confetti—and then spilled glitter and sawdust on it. The message seems to be that TurboTax Live experts can handle any kind of complicated scenario. If there’s a larger point being made here about identity (i.e., the reality of app-based matching with people who aren’t always who they seem to be?), well, it all gets lost in the muddle. Speaking of identity crises, this ad has no idea what the hell it wants to be. More from Ad Age: “It’s the Super Bowl of first-party data as brands sharpen personalization with Big Game buys” View ad Skechers, “Legalize” Agency: In-house We’re not sure what Skechers was smoking when it came up with this ad. Maybe it had Willie Nelson on retainer and had to find a use for him. But the premise of this spot could have come from any seventh grader: Let’s put one over on the audience by not mentioning the product at first and slyly hinting it’s so good it’s illicit! What we’re left with is a milquetoast message that Skechers is comforting but not illegal. We just wish this ad was. More from Ad Age: “It’s the Super Bowl of first-party data as brands sharpen personalization with Big Game buys” View ad Skechers, “On the Road Again” Agency: in-house Lace up your Skechers, we’re going “On the Road” again! It’s a nice idea—showing people getting ready to go back out in the world as they croon the Willie Nelson classic. And in the last scene, Nelson himself sings the line before boarding his tour bus. This ad is not unpleasant, but it’s a super cheesy and puzzling choice of commercial for the ad world’s biggest event. Skechers could have saved a bundle and run this spot on “The Price Is Right.” View ad More from Ad Age: “Listen to music from Super Bowl 2022 commercials” Subscribe to Ad Age now for the latest industry news and analysis.

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