If you watched the Super Bowl last night, a few things might have stood out to you besides the Chiefs’ game-winning comeback: the commercials.
There were political ads from President Trump and Michael Bloomberg. And brand ads hit max cringe — one featured a man shooting paper towels with his pelvis, while another had actor Jason Momoa shed his skin.
Luckily, there were also a few touchdowns.
First, the heartwarming Budweiser commercial: It asks, what is a typical American? The clip runs through the bad reputations Americans have — for showing off, “touching other people’s things,” and being competitive. But who’s showing off? A firefighter. Who’s touching other people’s things? Someone moving a stuck car. Who’s being competitive? Hannah Gavios, who ran the New York City Marathon on crutches to raise money Spinal Cord Injury research. Americans may be “typical,” but they can also be pretty great.
If you’ve turned on the radio at all during the past year, odds are you’ve heard Lil Nas X’s viral hit, Old Town Road. In this Doritos commercial, the rapper gets a good, old-fashioned Western showdown with actor and classic cowboy Sam Elliott — and his mustache.
This tearjerker makes Google seem less like Big Brother and more like your friend. No matter how you feel about Big Tech, Google certainly knows how to pull on your heartstrings. In the commercial, an old man uses Google to look up photos of his wife, who has died. The chords to Say Something play in the background, if you can hear them over the sound of your own tears.
Bill Murray delivers the Groundhog Day reboot we’ve been waiting for. Except in this version, Phil Connors doesn’t stick around Punxsutawney. Thanks to his Jeep, he and Punxsutawney Phil go on a little road trip. (Take that, PETA.)
Some ad executive at New York Life Insurance Company appears to have recently taken a theology class, and the results are pretty sweet. “The ancient Greeks had four words for love,” a voice explains. There’s friendship love, familial love, romantic love, and charitable love, agape. That’s the most powerful form of love, and its depiction in the commercial will have you feeling warm and fuzzy about an insurance company. The power of advertising, right?
