For a 30-second Super Bowl commercial, companies must pay at least $5 million for their ad to air, though the investment can definitely pay off since there is an average of 112 million people who watch the Super Bowl.
As a result, these commercials are often the result of months of planning by marketing teams, and are generally some of the most entertaining ads of the entire year. Since they’re designed to create an emotional connection with their audiences, most try to appeal to empathy or humor to make customers remember them.
These are the commercials that did the best job of leaving their mark on Super Bowl audiences this year.
Amazon’s “Alexa Loses Her Voice”
While a young woman is using Alexa in the morning, Alexa begins coughing and loses her voice. An Amazon employee assures the CEO they have a backup plan.
This backup is a comedic group of celebrities such as Gordon Ramsay, Cardi B, Rebel Wilson and Anthony Hopkins. The group proves not to be very helpful, but definitely funny when they let their own opinions and personalities get in the way as people ask Alexa for help. The commercial concludes with Alexa coming back and telling the replacements that she has got it from here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfZcxeqa1g4
M&M Gets a Chance to be Human
Two M&M’s are walking on a busy city street, complaining about how people keep wanting to eat them. Suddenly, the red M&M finds and picks up a lucky penny, wishing he could be human. All of a sudden he transforms into Danny DeVito!
DeVito is then running around on the street asking everyone “Do you want to eat me?” and responding with excitement when they answer no. His excitement is short-lived when he is hit by a garbage truck and collides with a fruit stand. The brown M&M comes up to him, mocking DeVito about how he dropped his lucky penny and how he is still short and bald.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gGXnE1Dbh0
Tide Commercials Everywhere
Tide’s Super Bowl LII commercials were somewhat unexpected. Many thought the company might address the recent phenomenon of people eating Tide Pods. But instead, they used everything but.
The beginning of the Tide ads shows similarities to various beer commercials, Amazon’s Alexa, Mr. Clean, car ads, shaving commercials and more. But every time, David Harbour popped up, stating that the clothes the actors are wearing are clean and stain-free, so it must be a Tide ad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlhQkTvDoho
A Focus on Iconic Pepsi Commercials
Pepsi remembers their more famous and memorable Super Bowl commercials in this year’s ad. It features supermodel Cindy Crawford and her son Presley Walker Gerber, along with Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, Jeff Gordon, and Kyrie Irving as “Uncle Drew” and the iconic “Back to The Future” car. It creates a sense of nostalgia for the older viewers who may remember the older commercials.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxGUmtRLm5g
Budweiser’s “Stand By Me”
Budweiser shows a man waking up to a phone call and he replies to the caller with “I’ll be right there.” He leaves his wife to go to his work at a factory.
As he arrives at the factory, the team there stops the production of the Budweiser cans and begins to produce cans with the label “water.” The audience finds out that Budweiser was aiding in relief efforts in Texas, Puerto Rico, Florida and California by manufacturing and sending out water rather than beer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VJixjI_P3s
#FamilyGreatly
Kraft uses the hashtag #FamilyGreatly to show various real families on the day of the Super Bowl. This ad shows a bunch of pictures and videos of families, kids and pets that sent in pictures to be featured in the commercial.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlbY1tGARUA
RAM Trucks and MLK
This commercial was seen with a bit more controversy than many of the others. The ad uses Martin Luther King Jr.’s voice and showed many emotionally charged and inspirational scenes. These include images of military members, hardworking people in their jobs, children and more heroic scenes of bravery.
Many people on Twitter and other social media sites are expressing their discontent with King’s voice being used to sell trucks. There is also some controversy about if Ram had permission to use King’s voice or not. Some think that Ram should not have used such a powerful figure to sell their product while others believe it strengthens a message of service and hard work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiE71P138rc
Chris Pratt as an Extra
Michelob ULTRA hires Chris Pratt to be in their Super Bowl commercial. In the ad, he goes above and beyond when he constantly works out, tells everyone about the commercial, talks about the beer and prepares for the commercial 24/7.
When he arrives at the set, he is met with a plot twist; he is one of the extras, not the star. Later on in the Super Bowl, Pratt appears in another Michelob ULTRA ad but is only seen in the background as an extra.
Groupon Support Local Business or Get Hit with a Football
Tiffany Haddish, with her fun personality, stars in this Super Bowl commercial to talk about Groupon and how it aides in supporting local businesses. Then, the ad shows a man talking on the phone in an overly lavish mansion about not supporting local businesses, even goes so far as wanting to shut them down. Promptly, two football players come up to his front door, hitting him with a thrown football.
Stella Artois Donating Clean Water
Matt Damon stars in this commercial which focuses on clean water for developing countries. Stella Artois promised to donate enough money to cover the costs of five years of clean water per person with each purchase a limited edition chalice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPi9nTE70aA
Coca-Cola’s “The Wonder of Us”
This Coca-Cola commercial focuses on individuality and how there is a Coke for everyone. It shows various different people from all walks of life enjoying Coke and living their unique lives. Continuing to build on the individuality platform Coca-Cola has been building, they used first names on bottles and cans to make customers feel more special.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XLkru5Nzd4
Doritos and Mountain Dew Team Up
This comedic commercial pits fire against ice. It stars Peter Dinklage and Morgan Freeman, dancing and lip-syncing to “Look at Me Now” and “Get Your Freak On” respectively. After Dinklage eats a Doritos Blaze chip, the room lights up with flames. Freeman takes a sip of Mountain Dew Ice and freezes everything around him as he raps to Missy Elliot’s song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr4md5OqL60
Bud Light’s “The Bud Knight”
Bud Light debuts multiple commercials which follow a storyline. The first shows a war breaking out; one group is out of Bud Light and the other group has more of the beer.
Bud Light’s fun Super Bowl commercial continued in the next ad when, suddenly an iron-clad knight shows up, his armor and horse all touting Bud Light’s logo. It’s the Bud Knight. He rides straight through the war zone to a convenience store to get some Bud Light.
Afterwards, he invites all the war participants to his friend’s party. However, after checking his watch, he realizes he has enough time to help out in the battle. He sticks his sword in the air yelling “Bud Knight!” and everyone on the opposing side scatters.
