Photo Courtesy of Houston Chronicle
What happened to Super Bowl commercials? I distinctly remember being a little kid and being told that the best commercials always played during the Super Bowl. That was true for a while. These ads were essential to the Super Bowl experience. You watched the game and halftime show, ate good food and saw funny commercials. Brands always produced laugh-out-loud commercials just for the Super Bowl. They often cleverly straddle the space between the appropriate and the inappropriate in public spaces.
Beer brands, for example, always brought their A-games to commercials. I still remember the famous “Dilly, Dilly!” shouted in the Bud Light Knight commercials, a massive hit in the wake of Game of Thrones’ popularity in 2018. Nor will I forget the Doritos commercial where a baby prematurely launched himself out of the womb to get a Dorito dropped on the ground (Doritos always had the best commercials, they just weren’t the most appropriate).
However, sometime around 2020 the Super Bowl ads just became less funny. Sadly, they haven’t recovered since then, and this year was the usual disappointment I’ve grown accustomed to experiencing.
That said, there is a reason to be optimistic for the future of Super Bowl commercials despite this year’s unimpressive performance: emerging Gen-Z influence in commercials. This was the first year I have seen the influence of my generation on Super Bowl commercials, and perhaps this signals a change of guard for the next generation of commercials. While the commercials weren’t great this year, there is a reason to have hope for the future.
Among the slim pickings, there were five commercials that contributed to my optimism for the future. Here is my list below:
5. Squarespace The Singularity (Extended) | Big Game Commercial 2023 | Squarespace
You can’t possibly go wrong if you have Adam Driver in your commercial. Squarespace, “a website that makes websites,” perfectly markets its company slogan in this commercial. While Driver repeats this catchphrase, he questions how the catchphrase can even make sense, leading to his existential realization about Squarespace: “then it could create itself.” This commercial markets the product very well, by repeatedly saying exactly what Squarespace does, and also made me laugh.
4. Tubi Tubi Interface Interruption | Super Bowl
The Tubi commercial hijacked the TV screens of Super Bowl parties all over the country and made us think someone had changed the channel. This was a very creative commercial concept that left every Super Bowl watcher screaming at the person closest to the remote. In the moment, it wasn’t so funny when you thought someone had accidentally changed the channel, but in retrospect, it was a very original commercial concept, and something to look back on and laugh about.
3. Samuel Adams Sam Adams | 2023 Big Game Commercial | Your Cousin’s Brighter Boston
This Sam Adams commercial combines two things never associated with each other: Boston residents and niceness. The commercial starts with a Boston man walking into a store and buying a Sam Adams, now “Brighter.” The cashier says, “imagine that, a brighter Boston,” and the man has an ensuing daydream where he imagines Boston residents being nice. The daydream includes two women arguing that the other should have a parking spot, a Red Sox fan hugging a Yankees fan at Fenway Park, a man being gifted ballet tickets and Kevin Garnett (famous for his trash talk in the NBA) giving a presentation promoting spreading love. This was by far the best beer commercial of the Super Bowl.
2. PopCorners PopCorners Breaking Bad Super Bowl Commercial | Breaking Good 60
With the resurgence of Breaking Bad over the last two years, this is a perfect Super Bowl commercial to appeal to Gen-Z. The commercial follows characters from Breaking Bad, Walter and Jesse making their new chip product “PopCorners,” and selling them to Tuco Salamanca. The commercial includes several famous quotes from the show, such as Jesse’s “Mr. White, you’re an artist” or “these are the bomb”, as well as altering Walter’s famous quote from BB “Say my name,” to “Say. Their. Name.” in reference to the PopCorners. I don’t even like PopCorners, but this commercial alone is enough to make me buy them.
1. Ram Trucks “Premature Electrification” | Ram Trucks
My entire life I’ve seen erectile dysfunction commercials on TV, and have thought they are absolutely hilarious. Clearly I’m not the only one who thinks this, because this Ram commercial was structured like an erectile dysfunction commercial. The narrator of the commercial warns married couples about “premature electrification” and asks questions like “fearing you might not last as long as you’d like,” “being unsure you have enough power to handle your payload”, in “lacking the confidence to get or keep a charge” to the couples. All of these questions are in reference to cars of course. Combined with hilarious responses from the wives being interviewed, this commercial is perfect. If car companies are struggling to make commercials, please use Ram as a perfect example of how to make one.
