Sources: Ads from (clockwise from upper left) Tubi, Dunkin’, Netflix/GM, Popcorners
The best commercial of Super Bowl LVII is…
The Kansas City Chiefs, led by the game’s most valuable player Patrick Mahomes, came back from a halftime deficit to edge the Philadelphia Eagles in the final seconds of Super Bowl LVII 38-35.
The broadcast of this year’s game featured a halftime show by Rihanna. ESPN reports she “crushed her performance.”
The same may be true of some of the commercials that aired during the game with plenty of sites offering their top spot lists in one of RetailWire’s favorite forms of Monday morning quarterbacking.
Adweek’s top 10 spots were:
- Tubi’s “Interface Interruption” made it look as though television sets across the country were hacked to take viewers away from the game.
- Workday’s “Rock Star” spot enlisted Kiss’ Paul Stanley, Ozzy Osbourne and others to humorously take issue with HR and business professionals who call each other rock stars.
- Molson Coors’ “High Stakes Beer Ad” makes a brawling case for either Miller Light or Coors Light as the best beer to drink, only for Blue Moon to step in as the winner.
- Netflix/GM “Why Not an EV?” puts Will Ferrell in various scenes from popular shows on the streaming movie service to plead for why they should appear (or not) in each going forward.
- The NFL’s “Run With It” puts the spotlight on flag football in the person of Diana Flores, captain of Mexico’s national flag football team. Ms. Flores uses her best moves to keep broadcaster Erin Andrews, crowds of people and even her own mom from getting her flags.
- Dunkin’s “Drive-Thru” commercial puts Ben Affleck to work taking orders until his wife, Jennifer Lopez, pulls up in line to tell him it’s time to go, and not to forget a glazed doughnut for her.
- PopCorners reunites Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul and Raymond Cruz in a “Breaking Good” spinoff of their hit television series “Breaking Bad.”
- Crown Royal’s “Thank You Canada” uses the Foo Fighter’s Dave Grohl to pay homage to the USA’s neighbor to the north.
- Doritos’ “Jack’s New Angle” makes the case for new flavors and shapes in the form of rapper Jack Harlow, who takes his music in a new direction with a triangle.
- Uber’s “Uber One” spot enlists P. Diddy to take a musical mogul approach to pitching its ride sharing and food delivery services.
Billboard’s top 10 were:
- PopCorners
- Rakuten “Clueless” featuring Alicia Silverstone
- Workday
- T-Mobile “Tell Me More” with John Travolta, Donald Faison and Zach Braff
- Uber One
- Pepsi Zero featuring Steve Martin and Ben Stiller
- Dunkin’
- Busch Light’s sendoff on Sarah McLaughlin’s American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals commercials
- Doritos
- Meghan Trainor and a cast of people getting their hands stuck in cans of Pringles.
- Mahomes, Chiefs beat Eagles 38-35 in Super Bowl LVII – AP News
- Rihanna Is Pregnant, Rep Confirms Following Super Bowl Halftime Show – The Hollywood Reporter
- Social media reacts to Rihanna’s Super Bowl 2023 halftime show – ESPN
- The 10 Best Super Bowl Ads of 2023 – Adweek
- 10 Best Super Bowl Commercials in 2023 – Billboard
- The 5 best Super Bowl ads, from Workday’s rock stars to Affleck’s drive-through – The Washington Post
- The 16 best Super Bowl 2023 commercials – A.V. Club
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Which commercial do you think won Super Bowl LVII? How do you think this year’s spots stack up against past years?
Poll
Loading …BrainTrust
"This year’s lineup was crammed with more humor and media references, and fewer car and crypto spots."
Lisa Goller
B2B Content Strategist
"Among the commercials, I loved Rakuten’s creative drop that highlights how we shop today."
Karen S. Herman
CEO and Disruptive Retail Specialist, Gustie Creative LLC
"This Super Bowl was, in my view, one the best “big games” ever, with perhaps the worst commercials, ever."
I thought the Blue Moon commercial was brilliant because it kept the audience engaged to the very end. Why were Coors and Miller in an ad together? Were they short on funds? Did one buy the other? Unfortunately, as good as these ads were, there have been better years with ads that have reached legendary status. I’m not sure how many ads from Super Bowl LVII can hit legendary status but they completed their mission and were extremely entertaining.
The best commercial was the Farmer’s Dog commercial. It took a small girl and her dog through adulthood. A heart-string puller, indeed.
Football? Nah, I’m in it for the commercials, and there were some good ones this year.
I’m happy that I can eat M&M’s again. That campaign with Maya Rudolph was so stupid I lost brain cells every time I saw an installment. The Tubi spot got me. We had a house full of people who all yelled, “Get off the remote!” Ben and Jen’s Dunkin’ spot was cute, and I loved “Thank you, Canada” with Dave Grohl. “Rockstar” was good too but I had seen it before.
Watching live I didn’t get the full impact of the commercials, but seeing the list on RetailWire made me realize there was a plenty of good advertising creativity on display last night.
Overall, I thought this year’s ads were much weaker than in years past. My favorite three were Molson Coors’ Blue Moon, Farmer’s Dog and Tell Me More with John Travolta.
In the past, the ads were an opportunity for me to leave the room. Last night, I watched all the commercials with the express purpose of being able to comment this morning.
My grade for the group was a generous “D.” A colossal waste of money for the companies. Next year I may go back to not paying attention.
I only saw one standout in the group. It grabbed me from the first second and I followed it all the way. It was not only entertaining but delivered a very surprising message. Go Girls! No one catches their flags.
There were so many celebrities in the Super Bowl ads this year that they lost some of the novelty (for me, anyway). Nonetheless, I did think Ben Affleck in the Dunkin’ spot was very clever, and my fanboy status for all things Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul made me appreciate the PopCorners ad, even though I didn’t think it was particularly well executed — or (shockingly) well acted for that matter. But I think the Doritos spot, despite the fact that it also included celebrities, took the top prize for me.
I admit my bias, but I’m a sucker for dog commercials. The Farmer’s Dog and Amazon ads were at the top of my list. The Amazon “dog crate” ad in particular had a nice twist at the end while keeping an eye on its sales-driving purpose.
I don’t see it on any “best of” lists but I did enjoy the Bud Light “Dancing Tellers” spot. Grateful for no Clydesdales this year, unless I missed it.
Both used emotion to create a brand connection, while executing on what to buy.
First, what a game!
There were so many great ads. PopCorners gets the nod, but Serena Williams has to win something for appearing in TWO ads. Congratulations, Chiefs!
PopCorners’ Breaking Good, Google’s Fixed on Pixel and Amazon’s lonely dog spots stood out with brilliant storytelling. Dave Grohl’s love letter to Canada made the Crown Royal ad special.
This year’s lineup was crammed with more humor and media references, and fewer car and crypto spots.
What tickled your funny bone? What was memorable? What was truly inspiring or demonstrated breakthrough creative thinking, direction and acting? My vote would be the Kia Telluride Binky Dad spot. It was human, relatable, and fun with great production value. And the product was the hero along with dad — plus you always win with babies in your spot. The Doritos spot was very inventive and made the product the hero plus taking on the world with a new vision for music — a triangle vs. let’s say a cowbell. Their agency never misses an opportunity to delight the funny bone!
This year was thin on great ads. The group I was with was largely unimpressed. But not entirely. I chuckled at the Trojan Horse ad by CrowdStrike. The Blue Moon ad was brilliant. People were certainly engaged, wondering where that story was going. The ad for Dodge Ram’s electric truck probably had the most OMGs. Again, no one was sure where it was going or what it was selling until the end.
Blue Moon was really good and unexpected.
Between Rihanna’s halftime show and the Super Bowl commercials, a pretty sizable audience is watching the event for everything but the actual football. The real game was outstanding and very competitive. In terms of the ads, a wide variety of commercials hit the mark and some others fell pretty flat.
Tubi’s “Interface Interruption” was perfection, as we all wondered what had happened to the game. We are so used to seeing these streaming interfaces — it all seemed natural. Blue Moon took a direct hit at their competitors, and you never knew it was their brand’s commercial as it pitted Miller Light and Coors Light against each other, yet they came out on top in the end. Considering all the negative social medial posts about Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck’s relationship, the Dunkin’ commercial was a great way to change the narrative.
“Best” is hard to define. But, the Tubi commercial was the most interrupting and arresting to get even those uninterested in the game to stop and take notice. Certainly one of the most memorable. I need to also give a nod to Crown Royal and the “Thank You Canada” spot.
Not my favorite year.
Tubi definitely got attention — it was disruptive like the Coinbase bouncing QR code from last year, so well done.
Pepsi had a great call to action. From an effectiveness perspective, I believe it will actually get people to try their product — which is the goal.
And then, as a Gen-Xer, I enjoyed both the T-Mobile Tell Me More and Uber’s Uber One. If I was the target demographic, they did well.
The Miller/Coors ad was fun and engaging and great for their target demographic. But personally I have a super soft spot for Budweiser puppy commercials. Looking forward to another one in the future.
Overall, a lot of companies wasted $7 million with disappointing, non focused ads. However my two favorites were Run With It and Tell Me More.
Commercials can be emotional, dramatic, humorous, or informational. In the end, they are supposed to sell products directly or indirectly. Indeed that wasn’t the objective of most of these. So what was the purpose?
I remember two Tubi ads. Each time I had to ask, “What is Tubi?” No one in the room could answer that. What is Tubi?
Really loved the nostalgia — it was a throwback for so many folks. How old is Breaking Bad now? How could Travolta look 20 years younger? Ozzy looks great as a telemarketer in a shirt and plain tie — that’s not black! Hard to pick, but the references to the past were hilarious — catering to the older audience … does that date me?
Is it just me or is Super Bowl Sunday increasingly much ado about not enough? At $7 million for 30 seconds can’t we do better than M&M clams and Bennifer selling donuts? I’m still amazed about how an industry that managed to make watching commercials a near-national holiday can’t do better when it comes to content. Or maybe, having convinced American pundits to discuss commercial content for a couple of weeks every year, they realize content isn’t so important after all.
One wonders.
Will Ferrell for me — I can’t even look at that guy without laughing, which is the goal of these ads, right? (Monkey-baby- whatever — remember that one?)
Wow. I thought the “baby talking” E-Trade one was the best with the Dodge Ram “electrification” one (the running joke being the ED association) running an extremely close second. Neither are on either list, so clearly I am not very mainstream.
Overall I thought the ads were slightly stronger that last year.
Watching the game last night with my border collie I felt both guilty about and pressured into liking The Farmer’s Dog and Amazon spots. ;o) She sat up during the Sarah McLaughlin commercial to look at the screen with her head tilting.
Others that I liked from a pure entertainment standpoint included PopCorners, Workday, Dunkin’, Miller/Coors/Blue Moon, GM/Netflix, Crown Royal, Temu and Dodge Ram.
Tubi got my attention when it looked like the broadcast was hijacked. I was happy when it was over.
George, I had to close our 12 year old dog’s eyes during the Farmer’s Dog ad, so she wouldn’t be reminded of her own mortality. The celebrity-studded ads have become predictable, but at least no crypto commercials this year!
It seems the majority of brands’ spend for these ads was on celebrity appearances. I was pleasantly surprised by how cute I thought the Dunkin’ spot was, and I loved the Ram one as well — hilarious (I’m also very proud because a close friend worked on that one).
I do wish brands would stop debuting the ads online before the show, though, because there’s much less excitement when they air on TV.
Celebrities and sentimentality reigned. The Dunkin’ and Will Ferrell spots were my fave. It was definitely a new generation of advertisers.
This Super Bowl was, in my view, one the best “big games” ever, with perhaps the worst commercials, ever. Was there a single spot that made you want to buy something? Seek out more information? Opt-in? Post something (other than what crap it was)?
It remains mind boggling how easily brands spend $7+ million (and a lot more if you include production and/or additional :30 units) while at the same time they spend zilch directly recognizing customers, improving their experience, or simply making their brand more valuable in a tangible AND emotional way.
Absolutely mind-boggling.
Overall, I thought most of the Super Bowl LVII ad spots were well done. For me, the most memorable ads were Rakuten’s Clueless reenactment, Pringles, Workday, and T-Mobile.
And, surprisingly, the Blue Moon ad. I didn’t care for it at the time, but now it is one of the ads that I remember best from the night.
I am disappointed in the increase in QR code ads, however. Maybe this is my cynical side showing, but I feel uneasy about scanning a QR code with little context and not knowing where it will take me.
The NFL’s “Run With It” stood out for me. It was uplifting to see a bright female athlete express her talent, using flag football as the vehicle. Doritos’ light-hearted take on the triangle (“Jack’s New Angle”) as a lead musical instrument was good-natured and imaginative. And Tubi’s hijacking of our screens deserves points for being disruptive — even though at least one person in our den was asking, “What’s a Tubi?”
Overall, this year’s ad crop seemed about on par. The game was a good one. The halftime show was just OK. Chris Stapleton’s “Star Spangled Banner” was first-rate.
Run With It connected with and brought a smile to anyone who’s ever played flag or touch football. It represents the NFL, with the goodness and fun of the sport in raw form. And the women who starred in it looks dangerously elusive. Good look pulling a flag off her!
Thoroughly enjoyed the entire 2023 Super Bowl. Among the commercials, I loved Rakuten’s creative drop that highlights how we shop today. Alicia Silverstone was spot-on in reprising her role as Cher in Clueless and her star power was matched with the design power of Christian Siriano, who recently designed Vice-President Kamala Harris’s SOTU outfit. Rakuten’s commercial was smart, creative and entertaining, paying delightful homage to the past and present with wit and style. By far my favorite commercial of the night.
Like others commenting here, other than the incredibly sticky and memorable Tubi, I thought ads by (not on AdWeeks/Billboards Top 10) Amazon’s Dog Crate, the NFL’s Run With It, Michelob Ultra’s take on Caddyshack, and The Farmers Dog all were engaging with sly humor, fun or provoked an emotional reaction.