Apparently last night was one of the greatest Super Bowls of all time, or so I’ve heard. I can’t believe I missed it because I love football so much. So does everyone else, at least for one day out of the year. But let’s be honest. 90% of you aren’t watching it for the football. You’re watching it for the ads.

I’m so glad we have the internet (for a number of reasons). One of those being that I don’t have to sit through hours of a game I don’t really care about to see the humorous, heart-string-pulling ads that companies drop millions of dollars to produce and put on TV. So this morning when I got into work, I went over to AdWeek and checked out the dozens of spots from last night’s game. There were some good, some bad. Some REALLY bad, but let’s just pay attention to the good ones.

 

6) Skittles: Romance

There’s not much to say about this ad aside from it being hilarious. Skittles have had some interesting spots over the last couple years, and this one definitely lives up to the random, millennial-brand humor that they’ve come to embrace. My only question is this: what the hell is up with the beaver at the end? Does this family have a pet beaver? If so, they should probably rethink their choice of family pet.

 

5) Sprint: Extreme Measures

Droga5. Need I say more?

These guys have been rocking the Verizon account lately, and they did a great job with this one. The subtle humor really holds this commercial together. Favorite line: “What are you, a cop now?”

 

4) Mr. Clean: Dream Clean

This spot highlights the male cleaner, switching up gender roles and getting stains off of floors. As a male cleaner myself, I appreciate this spot. As a person who enjoys humor, I also appreciate this spot.

I was wary of it at first. It was weird. Super weird. It made me a little a lot uncomfortable, and, at the very end, made me laugh my ass off. And that’s what a good spot is supposed to do.

 

3) Bud Light: Ghost Spuds

You might say this ad doesn’t deserve a spot on this list. It might not even deserve a spot in the top 10 ads from last night, but damnit, it’s my list and I’ll do what I want. I know this is targeted directly towards me, so that’s probably why I like it so much, but it really has everything that a great ad should: humor, callbacks to previous ads, fedoras, and a talking dog. A+, Bud Light. A+ indeed.

 

2) Audi: Drive Progress

As the only serious spot on this list, I wanted to take a second to actually talk about this ad. A lot of brands tried to tackle social issues last night. Budweiser did with their ‘Immigrant’ spot. Lumber48 did with the other ‘Immigrant’ spot. But I don’t think either of those made me feel anything. Maybe a slight little tingle of emotion deep down in the cockles of my heart, but not enough to actually evoke a response.

But Audi? Audi succeeded. For the last two years, Audi has produced awesome Super Bowl spots. I still remember the chills I got from last year’s R8 commercial with the old astronaut. But this year’s took it to a whole other level.

There’s a lot going into my emotional response to this ad. When I watched it, for some reason I thought of Daisy’s speech in The Great Gatsby where she’s talking to Nick about the first thought she had when her daughter was born. No matter how much progress we make as a society, being born as one thing as opposed to another thing still has advantages, and that sucks. So good on you, Audi, for making a spot that brought that to light in a way no other brand did.

P.S. The script for this spot is amazing. Good job, copywriter.

 

1) Avocados from Mexico: AvoSecrets

There are a lot of things that go into making great comedy. First, the people performing the jokes have to be taking themselves 100% seriously. Second, there can be no pause, no lapse between jokes. The best comedies have a never-ending torrent of jokes that don’t let up until the credits roll, the curtain comes down, or the spot is over. Third, good comedy is topical. I’m definitely an old comedy guy versus a new comedy guy, and I believe that the best jokes aren’t ones that everyone is going to get.

This spot has everything I want in comedy and more. Scott, who just won’t let go of this bigfoot thing, has to be my favorite character in this commercial. Is anyone else hungry for guac after watching this? Hmmm…. How weird.

 

There were a lot of other good spots this year. And also a lot of bad. The ones that stuck out most to me were Alfa’s. Very boring, very predictable, and very average. I would’ve expected a lot more from such a big car brand and Fiat Chrysler, but… I guess not. I’m not going to put those up on here. If you want to watch them, feel free, but I shant sully my good ads post with those boring tv spots.

Did you have any favorites that I left out? Let me know in the comments.