What Did We Think of the Super Bowl Ads?

This year’s Super Bowl was full of never-seen-before occurrences. You had the first Super Bowl to go into overtime, the biggest comeback ever, the biggest choke job ever (I made that one up), a herd of drones, and a gravity-defying catch.

Seriously, that catch. Maybe the wildest catch I’ve ever seen.

Edelman’s insane #SuperBowl catch still needs a name…

“The Big Dig”

Hmmm, hmmm, amirite?#Patriots pic.twitter.com/j27rz77WQe

— Matt Chatham (@chatham58) February 7, 2017

But enough football talk. Let’s talk about the real reason a good chunk of the world watches the game: THE COMMERCIALS!

Super Bowl 2017 Commercials Got Political

This year’s spread of Super Bowl commercials were interesting, to say the least. You had your usual funny ads, and those end up being most people’s favorites, but you also had multiple ads that addressed major political issues.

This isn’t the entire list of companies that had ads that addressed issues like immigration, equal pay, and the diversity of America. These are just ones I can remember:

• Budweiser “Born the Hard Way” (immigration)
• AirBnB “We Accept” (immigration)
• Audi (equal pay)
• NFL “Inside the Lines” (diversity)
• Google Home (diversity)
• Coco-Cola (diversity)
• 84 Lumber (immigration)

In fact, that ad by 84 Lumber had to be heavily edited because it was deemed too “on-the-nose.” See the banned version below (skip to 3:37 to see why it was dubbed too political).

Super Bowl Ads Go Live

We saw two companies doing live commercials during this year’s Super Bowl. Snickers ran a trio of live commercials with Adam Driver and Betty White (one was during the game, the others were before). Hyundai ran one in the first quarter of the game.

If nothing else, they were cool gimmicks, and cool gimmicks get views (looking at you PuppyMonkeyBaby).

It’s a safe bet that the idea for these live commercials stemmed from the live streaming movement that’s happening on every social media network (ex: Facebook Live, Periscope, Instagram Live, Twitch, etc). Going forward, expect to see more live commercials.

The Snickers commercial

The Hyundai commercial

The Social Media-Friendly Super Bowl Ads

Hashtags and Super Bowl commercials have gone together for a while now. Some of the hashtags that were promoted during this Super Bowl were:

• T-Mobile’s #UnlimitedMoves
• Avocados From Mexico’s #AvoSecrets
• Buffalo Wild Wing’s #HitTheButton
• Kia’s #SmarterWay
• T-Mobile’s #TheSafeWordIsUnlimited”

My favorite from this group of hashtagged commercials was Avocados From Mexico (even though I’m not really sure how to use the hashtag):

Using hashtags in commercials is soooo basic, though.

What I found more interesting was the pre-social media hype surrounding some of the commercials. A few brands were building up anticipation for their Super Bowl ad before kick-off. The best example of this was Betty White’s live video promoting the live Snicker’s commercial.

The Top 3 Super Bowl Ads

It was tough to decide, but I’ve narrowed down my list of favorite Super Bowl 2017 commercials to just three. Counting down…

#3: Squarespace “JohnMalkovich.com”

This commercial wasn’t only a clever reference to the film Being John Malkovich, it was also a lesson on securing your brand name on all available online channels.

This ties into SEO, just saying. 

#2: Skittles “Romance”

This ad was creative and hilarious– the perfect combo for a memorable Super Bowl commercial.

#1: Sony “Paint”

I was so obsessed with this ad that I even watched the behind the scenes video of how they made it. The visual stunt blew my mind.

What were your favorite ads during this year’s Super Bowl? Comment below! 

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