This year, the Super Bowl ads weren’t quite what we expected. We had a mix of giggles, goose bumps and possibly even some tears. Though there were decent commercials, there was a big upset with the lack of comedic-relief commercials. Many people watch the Super Bowl only for the commercials and the halftime show. This year you didn’t miss out on too much if you only tune in for the commercials.
There were a couple commercials that stood out to me. One of my favorite commercials shown was the one by Always, which targeted young women. Children, men and women were asked to do things like “run like a girl” to see what different people and different genders thought that looked like. It was interesting to see the different perspectives and was an empowering commercial for young women.
Another commercial I enjoyed was the Budweiser commercial “Lost Dog.” Though it didn’t have much to do with beer, it was quite touching. The background music, plus the concept of this lost dog finding its way home was adorable. It showed a farmer losing his dog, being torn up about it and searching for it. The dog ends up finding his way back and runs home with the farmer’s horses.
McDonald’s also presented a cute commercial where they hand picked certain people that would pay for their food with good deeds instead of money. It was a nice commercial with a lot of smiles and heartwarming images.
One of the biggest complaints this year was there were not nearly enough funny commercials. Every commercial break, people were probably waiting for something to make them laugh.
One commercial that did make me giggle was the T-Mobile commercial with Kim Kardashian. It was great to see her pick fun at herself as she discussed how data is lost by other cellphone services and acts as if this is a tragedy. It had the same tone as the commercials that raise money for abused dogs. She is a media-obsessed woman, and it was funny to see her joke about this.
The Clash of Clans commercial with Liam Neeson was another commercial that stuck out to me as being funny. He acts the same as his character in the “Taken” movies and it was funny to see this grown man acting in such an aggressive way while simply playing a video game.
It would have been OK to deal with mediocre commercials that weren’t absolutely hysterical, but what I didn’t like at all was the Nationwide commercial. The Super Bowl is a time for families and friends to sit down and spend some quality time together. Death should be the last thing on people’s minds while watching the Super Bowl. This commercial had a child die as part of their ploy to get you to buy insurance, which was horrifying.
This year’s Super Bowl commercials were definitely a hit or miss. Hopefully next year we will be laughing during the breaks and not become depressed from watching a Nationwide commercial.
