The best (and not so best) Super Bowl Commercials 2022

TOUCHDOWN!

Expedia: "Do you think any of us will look back on our lives and regret the things we didn't buy? Or the places we didn't go?" Great insight delivered with restraint and confidence by Ewan McGregor and wrapped up nicely with the perfect song / sting. This spot might just be perfect. Love it.

Google Pixel 6: We still have a long way to equality. And there are certainly more important things on the table. But capturing equality is one thing that can help. Admittedly, it's not something I've ever thought about. Throw in an unreleased song from Lizzo and this is a great idea communicated with a pretty good spot.

Electric Chevy Suburban: Reshooting the opening titles to The Sopranos but with Meadow in the driver's seat a meet-up with Aj before it ends with a V\O, "A whole new truck for a whole new generation." So good.

Toyota: Brothers. Love it. Beautiful story, told well. Ends with the inspiring, "Start your impossible."

Toyota Tundra: All the Joneses. Plus a Jonas. I don't remember anyone actually doing "Keeping up with the Joneses" before. It's a perfect advertising idea. Fun spot.

Coinbase: Wow. That took chutzpah. I haven't seen a bold move like that since e-Trade's "Monkey" spot from 2,000. That alone makes it a touch down.

FTX: Larry David was perfect for this. It's like he wrote the spot himself. No cameo from Jason Alexander?

SalesForce: The new frontier is here. And it isn't rocket science. This is one of the only "timely" ads in the bunch. GREAT writing.

Kia: Robot dog. Great track under a cute story. Brought a smile to my face.

Rocket Mortgage: Anna kendrick + Barbie. Using the Barbie Dream Home? Pretty smart. Great character extensions, too.

E-Trade: Later retirement. Etrade does it again. Fun spot. Great performances. No one dreams of a late retirement.

FIELD GOAL!

Planters: Joel McHale and Ken Jeong do an updated version of "Tastes Great / Less Filling" and "Do you eat your soup with a fork or a spoon?" only this time, they shamefully ask the internet. To their credit, they saved it with some bang-on political commentary without being political. They saved it!

E-trade: Baby. Look who's talking, too. Nice extension to the original campaign.

Click-Up: Fun period piece. Someone has to put that VC money to good use.

Uber Eats: I laughed. But with all that talent, I better had.

Avocados from Mexico: A Roman tailgate party complete with Caesar talking about salad. I dug it (although the salad joke tried a bit too hard).

Greenlight: Pretty darn simple spot that should have been more ridiculous than it was. Still, I'll take it.

Lays: Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd. Simple premise. Totally fun. On Character. Remember when...

Rakuten: Great performances and memorable. They kinda made somethin' outta nuthin'.

Nissan: Eugene Levy with long hair stood out enough on its own. There's always one of these. EPIC! It was fine.

BMW: Finally! An electric car brand with the song, "Electric Avenue". Throw in Zeus and Hera (Arnie and Selma) and there's a lot going on for well... not a lot more.

Vroom: Musicals are either great or not. Surprisingly, this falls in the middle. They lose points for ripping off and changing the lyrics to the?"La La Land" opening number but get points for the record-scratch moment of "He backed out" which sets up their important message. This should help their business.

Turkish Airlines: Morgan Freeman. The voice makes it.

Caesar's Sportbook: J.B. Smoove, Halle Berry, the QBs "Only legendary" - great bit.

THERE'S A FLAG ON THE PLAY

Verizon: Cable Guy with Jim Carrey: That's how I thought it would go. You?

Polestar: Simple and to the point.

Bud Light Next: Odd. I think I like it. Maybe I don't. Great track though.

Carvana: I like the line, "We'll drive you happy" but they essentially copied the brief and pasted it into script format.

Pringles: There's a brand truth here explored and accompanied with the perfect song, "Stuck on You". Simple idea. Not brilliant but not horrible either.

Sam Adams: "Your cousin from Boston" is delivered memorably, it doesn't matter what else they did. Fine,.

Etoro: It didn't fly me to the moon but i get it.

Amazon Alexa: Colin Jost and Scarlett Johanson: They work the bit: "What if Alexa could read your mind? What would she recommend?" It featured countless vignettes that escalate before ending on going back and forgetting it ever happened.

Cutwater Spirits: "Here's to the lazy ones". Did they base it on Apple's "Here's to the Crazy Ones"? Yea. Blatantly and honestly. They went directly at it. Totally fun riff. Just lacking a final polish.

FUMBLE

GM (Austin Powers): "Let's get the band back together! The band always sucks when it gets back together.

Bic EZ Reach Lighter: Forget about the spot, how have they not had this product for the past 20 years?

Sam's Club: Kevin Hart. Like the Larry David spot only without the funny scenarios. This is all Kevin. And when the star's that big, it's fine.

Skechers: Willie Nelson. Noooooooooo!!! Not Willie!!!

Hellman's: Pete Davidson. In a complete rip-off of Terry Tate Office Linebacker (Reebok), at least they cast the perfect celeb (Jerod Mayo).

Wallbox: A lot of unnecessary background to get to the last line, "The safe and smart way to charge a car." What's an unsafe and not so smart way to charge the car? THAT spot I'd love to see.

Irish Spring: Where have you been? Welcome back. This spot doesn't make you seem any more relevant.

Oikos Yogurt: Deion Sanders, his son, and his mom. Was I the only one cheering for Deion's mom? But that's about it.

Monday . com: I don't think I've heard that many B2B buzzwords packed together in one spot before. Was this a spot or a free presentation on the floor of Comdex?

Michelob Ultra: Bowling. All those stars for THAT? Steve Buscemi made me smile. But that's it.

Square Space: Zendaya. Great actor. Big celeb. Who wasn't even playing herself. She was playing Sally who sold seashells by the seashore. No thanks.

Booking . com. Is their tagline is booking dot yeaaaaaa? Looks like someone wanted to spend some VC money. This spot feels like it was generated during the first dot com boom.

AT&T: Demi Moore & Mila Kunis have Ashton Kutcher in common. Now they have this spot, too.

Tonal: Serena Williams: It's fitness that's... fine.

AT&T: Zac Eron fishing. Sigh. Sure.

Bud Light Seltzer Hard Soda: The loudest flavours with the loudest spot? No. It's just Guy Fieri (who I've heard is a lovely guy and gets too much flak).

T-Mobile: Let's do it for the phones. Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus are superstars from different generations. "To get the potential of the 5G Network, you need a 5G phone" is a really simple premise. Sadly, it got lost in all the music. Not much here.

Flaming Hot Doritos: Animals beatboxing and singing Push it. That's all.

Intuit QuickBooks + Mail Chimp: DJ Khaled partnering w people who aren't talented. Makes me wonder, "Which one is Quick Books and which one is MailChimp". There's no right answer.

Budweiser: Clydesdales Remember the Puppy? He's back. He's grown.?And he'd prefer you look at his earlier work.

Planet Fitness: Let's make fun of Lindsay Lohan (or at least her resurgence). IF a celeb is going to align themselves with a brand to announce their return and that brand is Planet Fitness, maybe the return from the hinterlands is a tad premature?

Busch Light. Hey, everybody, here's Kenny G. Because why the hell not?

Gillette: You paid $7million for a demo product spot that looks like every other product spot? How many blades does THIS one have?

WeatherTech. Pulling up the rear. At least they're consistent.