This year’s best and worst Superbowl Ads (with Video)
Whether you hate it or love it, or don’t care enough to have an opinion, there is almost something for everyone to enjoy on Superbowl Sunday. The outrageous food, a couple cold brews or bevy of your choice, and the half-time show usually make the experience bearable for even football’s biggest haters. But the only thing we really care about when tuning in is the commercials.
Some of the world’s biggest brands drop blockbuster-levels of money on talent and production to fill a minute of screen-time in hopes that they might start trending on Twitter or hop on a viral train and recoup their expenses with a boom in business.
That being said, there is always a mix of good and bad commercials, so we’ve put together a collection. Here are our picks for the best and worst commercials from this year’s Superbowl:
Best Ads of 2019
Pepsi
This one hits all the notes: It dives into meme culture and the “Is Pepsi OK?” question, uses a celeb practically everyone loves in an impassioned Steve Carell (who still manages a few awkward Michael Scott moments), tosses in a few pop stars, and even makes the minute-long timestamp feel too short. A winner all around.
Pringles and Sadness
Getting weird with Pringles and an incredibly sad Alexa/Siri type automated device is the exact mood we didn’t know we needed for Superbowl Sunday. Funny, odd, and entertaining.
Michael Bublé for Bubly
Squeezing the Canadian pop star’s boyish charm and the name of the company into pretty much every second made this cute Bubly ad one of the most effective (and least annoying) ads of the year.
The Amazon Incident
It’s not perfect, but it’s funny, entertaining enough, and features enough gags and effects to keep the viewer engaged. Do we really understand what was advertised? Kinda, but we know Amazon’s rich, these are all celebrities, and that dog is cute. Works for us!
Kia and The Great Unknowns
Kia turns the chill-knob down to zero and hits us straight in the feels with the most down-to-earth advertisement of the entire Superbowl. Brb, crying into my leftover football-themed chips and queso.
Worst Ads of 2019
Stella Artois and a disappointing pair of icons
The Big Lebowski meets Sex in the City in one of the most unnecessary nostalgia-tripping attempts we could imagine. This ad could have been cool, but it’s such an uninspired and blatant reach for views that if just feels like a paint-by-numbers piece of consumerism. The original Dude would absolutely not abide.
Pizza Hut and Abraham Lincoln as a suburban father…
If you decide to use your Superbowl slot an odd concept, you really have to commit. This was a perfect example of a somewhat-odd concept and an uncommitted delivery, leading us to once-again feel bad for having a soft spot for Pizza Hut. We’re not perfect, ok!?
Michelob Ultra and the ASMR experience
Well, here’s what may be the least intelligent thing you could have done for a Superbowl commercial; whisper during the entire ad. The ever-so-cool Zoe Kravitz can’t even save this one from stalling on the rails leaving millions of people to wonder what tourism commercial they just watched on mute.
Bud Light & HBO’s Game of Thrones
Wow, this commercial was weird. Look, we love Game of Thrones, we drink Bud Light as much as the next person who will drink anything, but we cannot understand what the real point of this was. But hey, its the first bit of GOT content in what feels like forever, so there’s a plus.
Well, there were plenty more ads that aired, but these are the ones that caught our eye in one way or another. Happy watching, people!
