Super Bowl commercials

[18IsTheMan]

Commercials used to be as big as the game itself. A lot of people would watch just because of the commercials. I can't recall the last memorable SB commercial I saw. Only one I recall from last night is for Scream...whatever number they're on. Only reason I remember that one is that I couldn't believe they're still milking that cow. I thought it was over at Scream III, but they've gone way past that.

SB commercials used to be epic and/or hilarious. They kind of went preachy for a while. Then inspirational/uplifting. Now just boring. Every year I keep hoping someone will throw it back with an old school hilarious commercial. Never happens. Not sure what caused advertisers to universally stop making great SB commercials all at the same time.

Maybe there's nobody funny left anymore.

Besides not being funny, they just aren't that good. They're just basically regular commercials. Nothing terribly creative like you used to see. Or they just try to overload a commercial with celebrities.

 

[18IsTheMan]

I take it back. Radio Shack had one a few years ago when they were trying to revive the brand. A bunch of 80s characters were storming a Radio Shack store or something like that.

That one was good and creative. Some self-deprecating humor.

Edit: just looked it up, and it was from 2014. So it's been a while.

 

[Fried Chicken]

The Jeep Groundhog Day one was good from 2020. Kept waking up thrilled to be stuck in the same day because he drove the jeep. Obviously with Sonny and Cher tune playing.

Dunkin’ Donuts has had a couple of good ones each of the past couple of years but not really something that could run more than once.

 

[Bubba Fett]

The commercials were not awful. They were beyond awful. Dreadful, mind numbing rubbish.

 

[Lurker123]

The Dunkin one this year got a chuckle, just because of the people they pulled in.

But have to agree. The commercials were not very good.

It seems like this is a conversation every year for a while. Are we just misremembering the commercials as better than they were?

 

[18IsTheMan]

The Jeep Groundhog Day one was good from 2020. Kept waking up thrilled to be stuck in the same day because he drove the jeep. Obviously with Sonny and Cher tune playing.

Dunkin’ Donuts has had a couple of good ones each of the past couple of years but not really something that could run more than once.

Yeah, that Grounhog Day one was creative.

 

[18IsTheMan]

The Dunkin one this year got a chuckle, just because of the people they pulled in.

But have to agree. The commercials were not very good.

It seems like this is a conversation every year for a while. Are we just misremembering the commercials as better than they were?

I don't think so. I think it's just been so long since they have good commercials, maybe you wonder if they were ever really good. I absolutely remember you could count on Budweiser and Doritos having some kind of hilarious commercial.

Every boy remembers the Cindy Crawford "just one look" Pepsi commercial from the 90s. Pepsi used to have some fun ones. Jordan vs Bird is another one.

The Budweiser frogs debuted for the Super Bowl. Also the "whassup" commercials. Neither were my thing, but they became cultural phenomena.

Immodium took the opportunity to make some funny ones. Almost too easy.

Wendy's "Where's the beef?"

Can't forget the Coca Cola Mean Joe Green ad. All-time classic.

The Apple commercial from 1984 is considered maybe the best ever.

The "I'm going to Disney" line started with a Super Bowl ad.

On and on. I just distinctly remember the morning after being a lot of chatter about which commercial was the best. Newspapers would often write a commentary on which commercials were memorable.

I don't think there's any particularly sinister reason other than creativity overall has taken a nosedive. I saw an article the other day that showed pictures of how restaurants looked in the 90s vs now. They were bright and fun and unique. Now everything...McDonald's and all...go for totally nondescript, gray, boring exteriors. Have you seen the Obama presidential library? It makes industrial buildings look beautiful.

We just don't make beautiful things anymore. An old school post office or train station or bank used to be an architectural work of art. Now even buildings that are supposed to be pretty are boring and drab and gray and nondescript.

Anyway, this post went much further than I intended. In short: SB commercials used to be creative. Now they are boring.

 

[18IsTheMan]

The commercials were not awful. They were beyond awful. Dreadful, mind numbing rubbish.

I guess they are only awful to me in the context of a SB commercial b/c they used to be so creative. SB commercial were the...not to use a pun here...but they used be the Super Bowl of the advertising year. Advertisers tried to make something epic. Now they mostly just seem to be regular commercials. It doesn't seem like they are trying to be creative and falling flat. They just aren't even trying to make something memorable.

They aren't bad for regular everyday commercials I don't guess. They're just ordinary.

 

[Bubba Fett]

I don't think so. I think it's just been so long since they have good commercials, maybe you wonder if they were ever really good. I absolutely remember you could count on Budweiser and Doritos having some kind of hilarious commercial.

Every boy remembers the Cindy Crawford "just one look" Pepsi commercial from the 90s. Pepsi used to have some fun ones. Jordan vs Bird is another one.

The Budweiser frogs debuted for the Super Bowl. Also the "whassup" commercials. Neither were my thing, but they became cultural phenomena.

Immodium took the opportunity to make some funny ones. Almost too easy.

Wendy's "Where's the beef?"

Can't forget the Coca Cola Mean Joe Green ad. All-time classic.

The Apple commercial from 1984 is considered maybe the best ever.

The "I'm going to Disney" line started with a Super Bowl ad.

On and on. I just distinctly remember the morning after being a lot of chatter about which commercial was the best. Newspapers would often write a commentary on which commercials were memorable.

I don't think there's any particularly sinister reason other than creativity overall has taken a nosedive. I saw an article the other day that showed pictures of how restaurants looked in the 90s vs now. They were bright and fun and unique. Now everything...McDonald's and all...go for totally nondescript, gray, boring exteriors. Have you seen the Obama presidential library? It makes industrial buildings look beautiful.

We just don't make beautiful things anymore. An old school post office or train station or bank used to be an architectural work of art. Now even buildings that are supposed to be pretty are boring and drab and gray and nondescript.

Anyway, this post went much further than I intended. In short: SB commercials used to be creative. Now they are boring.

​

The fact that a lot of these commercials are produced by "Multinational corporations" explains a lot.

 

[Swifty]

Super Bowl used to be when companies would debut new ad campaigns because of all the viewers. Pepsi's Cindy Crawford ad is one of the first I recall being talked about so much afterwards and Geico kicked it into high gear with their caveman ads. Annheiser-Busch's ads have always been pretty good. The Bud-Wies-Er frogs was around the Pepsi ads ramping up.

It seems it's really fallen off. Ad execs are hamstrung by what they can put out for fear of backlash, short attention spans and a constant need to refresh the market with new content. You can probably go back 10-12 years and see a steady decline in the ad humor and creativity. Movies have suffered the same fate on those fronts. The "summer blockbuster" and "Christmas release" are still there, but not even close to what they once were.

 

[Go Gamecocks]

At least they all hablaba inglés!

 

[18IsTheMan]

​

The fact that a lot of these commercials are produced by "Multinational corporations" explains a lot.

Well, that's a great point. Budweiser comes to mind. They were still American owned and run by the Bush family in the 90s. Now run by a Belgian company.

 

[gamecock stock]

I suppose the Dunkin Donut commercial was the best, though I'm more of a Krispy Kreme fan.

None of this year's commercials could beat last year's commercial of the iconic pair Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal. Even adding Sydney Sweeny and her store bought boobs was not able to spoil that one.

 

[RUMMENIGGE]

 

[Uscg1984]

Im not a big fan of using AI/CGI to "bring back" younger versions of celebrities. I think it was the Dunkin' commercial this year that did that with a bunch of 80s icons and it seems like a growing trend. It seems like a crutch for folks without creativity.

 

[Gamecock Jacque]

I remember the three Budweiser frogs croaking out "Bud" "Weis" "Err".

 

[PrestonyteParrot]

At $8M to $10M per 30 seconds, they were definitely ripped off.

 

[Creek Snake]

About 15 years ago the large insurance company I represented had a Super Bowl commercial.All we heard for a solid month was great it was going to be.
so the game comes on and no commercial in the 1st qtr.Then no commercial in the 2nd qtr.Finally just after the half started our commercial aired.5 Million Dollars for 30 seconds when everybody in America was making a sandwich or taking a piss.That was our one and done in SB commercials.