For major advertisers, the Super Bowl is the biggest event of the year. It would take the combined winner’s share of almost every player on the Rams to pay for just one of the 30-second in-game commercials. This year, humor was in, somber was out, celebrities were in, serious was out. As if trying to cure years of pandemic induced pessimism, the commercials were a shot of optimism. As you might expect, we had a few favorites.
This tastes bad…
We usually don’t care for humor that relies on dumb, but this one works. The spot features Jennifer Coolidge, Gwyneth Paltrow, Trevor Noah and Nicholas Braun. The point of the commercial is Uber Eats is now delivering groceries, but some of them you should not eat.
Carrey on…
Jim Carrey revived his role as the Cable Guy in this Verizon 5G spot. The role is 26 years old, but it’s aged well.
He’s never wrong about this stuff…
Larry David stars in this spot for FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange. He is present in history for multiple inventions…the wheel, lightbulb, fork, and so on. He passes on all of these successes. At the end, he passes on FTX. A cute spin, and perfectly in character.Â
Alexa asserts itself…
Amazon’s Super Bowl spot was spot on. In it, Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost are a couple whose lives are being uncomfortably infiltrated by the disembodied virtual assistant.
The baby is back…
The E*Trade baby first appeared back in 2008. It was smart, funny, and fun. It still is. The new commercial is called “Off the Grid.” He’s been retired, living a life of solitude in the woods, but is drawn back into the fray when visitors tell him how people are currently investing. It’s a blue-chip campaign.