Super Bowl LII Ad Reviews: Best of the Best

It’s Super Bowl commercial season again.

That means companies will throw countless dollars at ad agencies, who will pocket a massive profit and then spend some of that money on ambitious spots that will probably fail to impress you.

Sometimes, however, they hit the mark. Or come close to the mark. Close enough that they can’t be deemed an unmitigated failure.

These are some of those commercials. This year’s best of the best.

Company: Doritos and Mountain Dew
Title: Blaze vs. Ice
Commercial:

Analysis: This one is all about the performance. Often famous actors mail in commercials like these, or give us precisely what they’re known for with no extra sizzle. When we see Peter Dinklage standing by a fireplace, it looks like we’re going to see some Tyrion Lannister bland crossover garbage.

Instead, he sells out on a Busta Rhymes verse (sneaky good choice there for what it’s worth) with a swaggy persona most have never seen from him. It’s surprising, eye-catching, and links to Doritos in a logical way with the “Spit Fire” tagline.

To be fair, the Morgan Freeman half of this production isn’t nearly as effective, but Dinklage does enough for the both of them.

Company: Tide
Title: It’s a Tide Ad
Commercial:

Analysis: This is a great spot because it doesn’t take aim at a direct competitor, but rather the whole Super Bowl commercial industrial complex. It goes to work poking fun at the repetitiveness of ads for common products like cars, beer, razors, and cologne.

David Harbour does a great job of capturing the conventions of each of these genres and feels believable in every vignette here. He doesn’t make you laugh out loud, but he does make you think about how every car commercial you’ve ever seen is more or less the same.

Another sneaky-good aspect of this spot is how many times Harbour says Tide without it being obnoxious. It fits the ad’s conceit and makes damn sure you’ll remember it’s a Tide ad not “that commercial with the guy from Stranger Things poking fun at other ads”.

Company: Australia Tourism
Title: Dundee
Commercial:

Analysis: When you’ve got a massive budget for a Super Bowl ad, you might as well put it to use, and that’s exactly what happens here. Australia Tourism uses strong production values to craft a moderately convincing fake trailer for a Dundee movie only to reveal it’s an ad at the end.

What makes it work is that both characters have different goals as Danny McBride tries to act while Chris Hemsworth is selling Australia unbeknownst to his oblivious counterpart. It’s well cast as McBride is a convincing buffoon with a hurt ego, while Hemsworth is affable enough to carry a role that has intentionally wooden lines.

There are a couple chuckles to be had here, and the solid premise gives the ending a nice pay off.

Company: Bud Light
Title: Bud Knight
Commercial:

Analysis: This one gets off to a bit of a slow start, but when it gets going it gets going. With the extras’ reaction to the Bud Knight, and the swelling music, they build him up into an epic figure quickly – then shift him back to mundane almost instantly with a couple of nifty details like the sound of the door at the beer store and the “I did it” line after he picks up some Bud Light.

What follows is some amusing banter as he halfheartedly invites the army over for a gathering if they survive and they accept his unwillingness to help with grace and acknowledge the improbability of their survival with dignity. Then we get a nice mini-twist where the knight is extremely powerful after all once he reluctantly decides to pitch in.

Not hilarious, but clears the bar of “amusing enough” which is a good thing considering what it took to get this done.

Company: Toyota
Title: Good Odds
Commercial:

Analysis: Every year it’s worth a reminder that a commercial that doesn’t have to be funny to be effective. This commercial tells a tight, self-contained story in a creative way with emotional impact in just seconds. That’s a heck of an achievement.

Using the odds as the vehicle for this spot is a nice touch, because it shows every step of the process of achieving a seemingly-impossible dream. The numbers give it an artificial sense on concreteness, as well as a natural pacing because we know that we’re going to end on one.

Is this going to help sell Toyotas? Probably not, but it helps reinforce the company’s Olympic sponsorship which they’ve undoubtedly paid through the nose for and want to get the most out of. This certainly helps them achieve that goal.

Company: Amazon
Title: Alexa Loses Her Voice
Commercial:

Analysis: This isn’t an enormously creative ad because it’s largely a collection of cameos, but it is clever in the way it emphasizes how big Amazon Echo already is by depicting the panic that would ensue if it went down.

The cameos themselves are well executed with Gordon Ramsay delivering exactly what’s expected, Rebel Wilson getting surprisingly saucy, and Cardi B with a good double spot. The inclusion of Anthony Hopkins at the end is also wise, because there’s nothing he doesn’t make better.

Perhaps the only misstep here is the cheeky shot at country music seeing as the Venn Diagram between country music fans and Super Bowl watchers is pretty heavy on the overlap.

Company: M&Ms
Title: Human
Commercial:

Analysis: Going for a brand name actor is no guarantee of success, but from his shape to his demeanor Danny De Vito is perfect casting for an M&M.

Is it laugh out loud funny? Not really, it’s memorable which is the key – and you will remember the brand because the premise is “Danny De Vito as an M&M”. It’s also funny to watch De Vito go around telling people to “eat me” because it’s the sort of thing his character in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia would do in a very different context.

Throw in an impactful truck collision and a low-hanging joke about De Vito’s appearance and you have a tidy spot.