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The Best Commercials of Super Bowl 56
Super Bowl commercials set a record this year, with 30-second spots selling for $7 million. Here are some ads that (debatably) were worth that pretty penny:
1. Keep up with the Joneses in a Toyota Tundra . . . Tommy Lee Jones, Rashida Jones, and Leslie Jones drive on “Jones Pass” to “It’s Not Unusual” by Tom Jones. But Nick Jonas crashes the party and says, “It’s keeping up with the Jonases now.”
2. The E*Trade baby is BACK! Since his last commercial eight years ago, we see he’s been living in isolation in the woods. Britney Spears’ “Baby One More Time” plays when the baby makes his return.
3. Greatest (Disney movies and shows) of all time? Awkwafina says Disney+
4. Larry David did his first Super Bowl commercial . . . for a cryptocurrency company called FTX. It shows him at different points in history, rejecting great ideas like the wheel, the fork, and the toilet. Then he rejects the FTX app, and the ad warns, quote, “Don’t be like Larry. Don’t miss out on the next big thing.”
5. The first trailer for “The Lord of the Rings” Amazon prime series “The Rings of Power” debuted. It starts streaming in September.
6. Planters brought us a “Community” reunion with Ken Jeong and Joel McHale. They create a “delicious debate” with “How do you eat your mixed nuts?” and it creates chaos.
7. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Salma Hayek retire to Palm Springs as the Greek gods Zeus and Hera. She surprises him with the all-electric BMW. And now I WANT baby Pegasus.
8. The NFL released a commercial where two kids are playing an NFL video game, but the players come into the real-world as puppets. The ensuing chaos includes two dozen puppets destroying their home, Peyton Manning being tackled by a baby, and Ray Lewis doing a flaming touchdown dance on the stove’s burners. (How many NFL players did you recognize as puppets?)
9. In case you missed it last week, Mike Myers brought back Dr. Evil for a General Motors “Austin Powers” ad. Since Verne Troyer passed away in 2018, there was no Mini-Me, but Seth Green’scharacter Scott has a baby that Dr. Evil calls “Baby Me”.
10. Verizon teased Jim Carrey returning as “The Cable Guy” last week . . . so we got to see the full version yesterday. It’s a fun callback to the movie to introduce 5G Internet for home and business.
11. Remember seeing all those Uber Eats teasers? The full commercial expanded on those, with Jennifer Coolidge, Gwyneth Paltrow, Trevor Noah, and Nicholas Braun eating weird stuff like pencils and paper towels, thinking these things are food since Uber Eats delivered them.
12. Nissan released their commercial ahead of time, but it was still one of the more fun ones with Eugene Levy (with LONG hair), Brie Larson, Catherine O’Hara, Dave Bautista, and Danai Gurira.
13. A bouncing and color-changing QR code? Thanks, Coinbase. (It did inspire a great meme. If you’re a fan of “The Office”, you know.)
14. Anna Kendrick helped Barbie use Rocket Homes and Rocket Mortgage to find and finance her dream house.
15. You probably already saw Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen’s Lay’s ad last week. But it’s still a fun and wholesome watch
16. Is Pete Davidson hittable? (I’m sure Kim Kardashian would agree he is . . .) Well, he gets tackled by Jerod Mayo in the Hellmann’s
17. Marvel released the official trailer for “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”. It hits theaters May 6th. They also dropped a trailer for the Disney Plus series “Moon Knight”, starring Oscar Isaac. That will premiere on March 30th.
18. T-Mobile released a few different commercials to promote 5G Internet. Besties Zach Braff and Donald Faison sang a duet. And Dolly Parton revealed that she stores her phone in her boobs and encouraged Miley Cyrus to record a new song to “Do It for the Phones“.
19. Kanye made a cameo in the McDonald’s “Can I Get Uhhhhhhh” commercial. But honestly, who doesn’t say that when they drive up to order?
20. AT&T Fiber brought Ashton Kutcher’s former and current wives together. Demi Moore and Mila Kunis both think they’ll win “Most Admired Alum” . . . they actually did go to the same high school in real life (Fairfax High School), just not at the same time.
(You can revisit all the ads here.)
