The Super Bowl is known for hosting some of the most memorable commercials of the year. If the game isn’t entertaining enough, the commercials should be. Companies pay millions of dollars to advertise their brand or product for just 30 seconds.
This year’s Super Bowl, which aired on CBS, sold ads for up to $5 million.
Companies, depending on what they are advertising, can take different approaches to the audience. Most choose humor, some use celebrities and yet others choose to take a more serious approach.
Humorous commercials included those from Butterfingers, Heinz and Doritos. Honda advertised their new truck with singing sheep, and Buick recreated Odell Beckham’s famous one-handed catch with a woman catching the bouquet at a wedding.
“I didn’t like the hotdog one, with the little puppies. It was a bad way of advertising ketchup.,” said senior Saxton Sims. “It advertised hotdogs more than ketchup. It gave the wrong message.”
There were a multitude of commercials featuring celebrities including Kevin Hart in a Hyundai commercial, Anthony Hopkins advertising TurboTax and the ever-mysterious Liam Neeson promoting an LG television. Beyonce surprised viewers by announcing her upcoming world tour during a commercial which aired right after her Super Bowl halftime appearance.
“My favorite one was probably the mini cooper one. I thought it was different because they used different characters to define the car,” Sims said.
“The Kevin Hart one was funny,” said Horizon City junior Erica Kearbey. “My dad put a tracking device in my car in high school, so it’s definitely very relatable.”
There can’t be Super Bowl commercials without a few of them being odd or disturbing. Mountain Dew’s “puppymonkeybaby” featured a CG combination of a pug head, monkey body, and baby legs to advertise their new energy drink. The Marmot clothing commercial featured a guy trying to kiss a groundhog, and Steven Tyler taught a talking Skittles collage of himself how to sing Aerosmith’s hit song “Dream On.”
“The Doritos baby commercial and the puppymonkeybaby commercials were weird,” said Lone Oak junior Alex Clement, “But I didn’t think the commercials were as good as other years’.”
Two serious commercials were Colgate’s campaign to save water, giving statistics about how much water Americans waste by leaving the faucet on while brushing teeth, and an advertisement promoting “No More” domestic violence, encouraging people to recognize the signs of harassment and abuse.
“The heartfelt felt ones, like the one about domestic violence, were really good,” Kearbey said. “I really liked the inspirational commercials like Jeep with all the pictures of different people.”
The Super Bowl commercials also included advertisements for popular television shows such as The Big Bang Theory and Criminal Minds, upcoming films such as Independence Day: Resurgence and events such as the Grammys and the Masters.
“For the most part, I honestly thought they weren’t that good,” Kearbey said. “I didn’t laugh as much as I wanted to. Hopefully next year they’ll be better, as far as the funny ones.”
