Budweiser | Through the Shattered Lens

The commercials were pretty dull this year, largely because we don’t have any universally beloved celebrities anymore. Getting someone famous and likable to do something cute used to be the easiest way to create a great Super Bowl commercials but now, hardly anyone is likable and even most celebrities are only famous with a niche audience. Humor, which used to be a key part of most good Super Bowl commercials, fell out of fashion in 2017 and, even though most people have moved on from that weird time, the advertising world still hasn’t quite recovered. The use of AI isn’t helping. For instance, this year, Dunkin Doughnuts tried to do a commercial with a bunch of old sitcom stars. Usually, you would think that would work but the de-aging technology made the entire thing feel like a zombie movie.

Really, there’s only one non-movie commercial that really struck my fancy this year and it’s from Budweiser. I don’t even drink but I do love horses, I love majestic birds, and I love classic Lynard Skynard. Also, it should be noted that the eagle at the end of the commercial was not AI. He’s an actual eagle by the name of Lincoln. This commercial is called “American Idols” and it definitely deserves the title.

The Super Bowl was bland this year and I have a feeling that’s going to be the state of things for a while. But this commercial definitely brought tears to my eyes. This is what Super Bowl commercials are supposed to be all about.

While I did watch the Super Bowl tonight, I have to admit that I only watched it for the commercials. Back in 2013, I did a post on my favorite super bowl commercials and I meant to do the same thing for 2014 but, for whatever reason, I never got around to doing so. So, I was definitely not going to miss out this year!

Unfortunately, the commercials really weren’t that great this year. Perhaps if I was looking for a new car, the constant barrage of car commercials would have been more interesting. I found a lot of the so-called “empowering” commercials to be condescending. (To be honest, I always resent the idea that I need a commercial to make me feel good about myself. I’m stronger than that.) The McDonald’s commercial where people got free food for telling their mom that they loved them upset me because my mom’s not here for me to tell her how much I love her. And then there were all the commercials about fathers bonding with their sons (never their daughters, interestingly enough) and those made me want to throw stuff as well.

In fact, when all is said and done, my favorite part of the Super Bowl was not watching that commercials. Instead, it was watching the dancing sharks.

Dance, Shark, dance!

But there were a few commercials that stood out. For example, there was the Nationwide dead kid commercial, which made me feel like a terrible person because I started giggling as soon as I saw that the TV had fallen over. And then there was that GoDaddy commercial that was so offensive that it didn’t even make it to air. (The commercial featured a lost puppy who, upon finally making his way back home, discovers that he’s being sold online. Dear GoDaddy, I hate you and your asinine commercials. Stop trying to be edgy, ‘kay? Okay.)

Oh! And don’t forget the Nissan commercial about the NASCAR driver who is a crappy father but then makes up for it by showing up at his son’s school in a new car.

My boyfriend actually paid more attention to the game than the commercials, which is like totally the wrong way to do the Super Bowl if you ask me. But, for the record, his favorite ad was the Victoria’s Secret Super Bowl commercial. I’m just happy that he got something out of the game.

Anyway, here are my 6 top Super Bowl commercials.

6) Liam Neeson for Clash of Clans

I really don’t know much about Clash of Clans but this commercial made me laugh because this is how I’ve always imagined Liam Neeson passes the time between Taken movies.

5) Pierce Brosnan for Kia

This is actually one of the few car commercials that I actually enjoyed. Pierce is aging well and appears to have a pretty good sense of humor about how his career will always be defined by James Bond.

4) Nationwide — Invisible Mindy

Everyone was so traumatized by the Nationwide Dead Kid commercial that the Invisible Mindy commercial kinda got lost in the shuffle. That’s a shame because it’s actually pretty clever. What really made the commercial, for me, was the Matt Damon cameo at the end. It was appropriate because Mindy first came to prominence when she and a friend wrote and performed a play called “Ben and Matt,” which told the story of Matt’s bromance with Ben Affleck.