My 6 favorite Super Bowl ads of 2022
Our new tiny agency didn’t make an ad for “the big game” this year, so who really cares about my opinion. Here it is anyway.
I know how much goes into a Super Bowl ad. And I know how easy it is to lob criticism from the cheap seats. So kudos to everyone who invested time, talent, and treasure into this year’s commercials.
With nearly 50 (!) of them released early this year, it was hard to avoid spoilers.
I did my best not to watch the ads early so I could experience the commercial-palooza in the flow of a game, like a normal person. (And not like an advertising-insider weirdo who cares WAY too much about this stuff…which, of course, I am.)
In general, I thought too many brands tried to cram too much into their ads. It doesn’t matter how much you spend on the a Super Bowl spot, folks—people can only take in (and take away) so much. Less is more.
A number of ads had good longer versions online, but the :30 that aired on the game wasn’t nearly as successful. (Looking at you, Pringles and Expedia.) Shouldn’t the broadcast version be the best version?
And there were LOTS of famous faces. I understand why brands hand millions to celebrities to hedge their bet on the millions they’ve spent on media time and agencies and production. But it bums me out how many brands think “celebrity” is an actual idea.
But overall, it was good to have humor back on the menu. Here were my six faves:
Google Pixel
Nobody does emotional product demo ads better than Google. This spot delivered “the feels” but didn’t feel manipulative. It told a good story about a real problem and the way their product solved it.
Carvana
This one surprised me. At the end of the first half, I checked my notes and wrote “was Carvana really my favorite ad of the first half?!”
You can tell the brief was jam-packed with “reasons to believe” that the client wanted to put into the spot. And, I’ll-be-damned, they found a perfectly charming way to squeeze them all in. The structure of the spot is incredibly smart and the casting is perfect. And it’s a 30!
Irish Springs
The Midsommar-esque spot was the right kind of weird. Didn’t know where it was headed and was delighted by the dark turn.
Greenlight
A celeb ad with only ONE celeb in it?! Funny, simple, and made its point. Also, I was SUPER relieved to discover at the end it was NOT an ad for another crypto company.
Gong
Simple, funny way to get people to remember your name. Groundbreaking? Nope. But in a game full of clutter, I’ll take a simple one-joke ad that knows exactly what it’s trying to do.
Coinbase
Sigh… Since everybody is going to be talking about it, a grudging nod to the 60-second ad of the bouncing QR code. Did I LIKE it? Not especially. (It strikes me as a lazy knockoff of the Reddit ad from last year. And more of a stunt than and ad.) But Super Bowl advertising is about zigging when the others zag…this one stood out.
(You’d think if you’re going to blow $14MM on a media buy, you could at least make a custom landing page for your Q/R code, but you do you, Coinbase.)
UPDATE: This delicious post-Super Bowl drama is giving me LIFE!
Honorable Mentions: Squarespace, Polestar, FTX, Avocados from Mexico, Liquid Death, Salesforce, and TurboTax (a :45!)
Oh, and this wasn’t a Super Bowl ad, but it’s the most bonkers Super Bowl promotion that I’ve ever seen and it deserves it’s own shout out. Tushy Bidet wants you to send a picture of…your post Super Bowl shit. Here’s the tweet.
Let’s all say a prayer for the Tushy social media manager that has to sort through the contest entries on Monday, shall we? (There’s a score card!)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Kovacevich is a creative director and the founder of Agency SOS. He once snuck his wife’s name into a Super Bowl spot he wrote and still uses that to get out of trouble at home. Subscribe to his weekly newsletter.
