The Super Bowl is in the books, and that means it’s time to close this year’s crop of ads, too. We rated each of them when they aired last night, but here’s the version of the best (and non-biggest) hits: the best and worst of what we saw last night.
The best
Gety
Your verdict on how you liked these Super Bowl ads largely depends on the way you like your nostalgia: it gets mixed up or reheated. The Jason Alexander hoodie panty was a clever little montage, and to put it on the “Greatest American Hero” theme, or George Costanza’s answering machine jingle, means it’s a big hit with people who remember which was an answering machine.
Amazon Alexa
Super Bowl commercials have gone so far away from objectifying sexy actors and models over the past decade, but I’m pretty sure many viewers had absolutely no problem with a shirtless, bathing Michael B. Jordan as Alexa personified.
Rocket connection
Tracy Morgan is a national treasure and I guarantee that any brand that practices a camera on him just 60 minutes of every day will get more than enough genius to fill five Super Bowl commercials next year.
Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade
Lemons raining from the sky, everything we love and ruining us all indoors is a surprisingly sincere metaphor for a major international liquor company.
Jimmy John’s
The idea that the King of Cold Cuts is declaring Jimmy John’s in a Scorsese-style war is so damn weird that it deserves more love.
The worst
Unfortunately
I imagine that the discussions in Oatly HQ went like this:
Oatly CEO: I want to buy a Super Bowl ad.
Quite subordinates: Hmm … it’s a lot of money …
Oatly CEO: And I want to play in that. And sing.
Independent Subordinates: Sir, we heard you gather karaoke at social events, do you think this is a good idea –
[One week later]
Oatly CEO: I want to buy a Super Bowl ad.
Newly appointed Oatly subordinates: absolutely! Whatever you say, sir! And may we say, you have a sweet singing voice!
Yes. It was an itch of all time.
Uber Eats
As someone who, unlike Cardi B, went through the first version of Wayne’s World, I can say with certainty that a cute Saturday Night Live sketch passed its sale date long before the second film, and so does the look of that idea for an ad in 2021 is like setting up old games for rest time shows. You think you want it, but what you want is the version from your memory, not the one that is now. I do not regret Wayne and Garth for getting the sweet, sweet Super Bowl coin, but this performance made me want to toss.
Cheetos
The Ashton Kutcher-Mila Kunis Cheetos ad that was on Shaggy’s ‘It Wasn’t Me’ was not in itself a bad ad. It’s just that all you have to say is’ Ashton Kutcher-Mila Kunis’s ad tuned to Shaggy’s’ It Wasn’t Me ‘”and you know exactly what’s going to happen, knock for knock. And it did.
Klarna
So … what was this ad for exactly? Mini Maya Rudolph on horseback with strange CGI … split payments or something. I realize that criticizing an ad because they’re out there is the opposite judgment I made in the Cheetos ad because it’s paint-by-numbers, but still … you have to give us something else to share to work, Klarna.
LYRIQ / ScissorHandsFree
It’s not just enough to run the actors – well one of them anyway – from a beloved 90s movie and start the second role again; you have to give them more than to do it. Since the original “Edward Scissorhands” was a mockery of the astonishing consumerism celebrating Super Bowl ads, it was a sad, sucking disappointment to see Lil ‘Edgar shout for … Cadillac.
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Jay Busbee is an author of Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @jaybusbee or contact him at [email protected].
Super Bowl LV from Yahoo Sports: