The Super Bowl is the most-watched program on television every year, with an audience that undoubtedly exceeded 100 million tuning in for the New England Patriots taking on the Philadelphia Eagles.
With such a large audience, companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars rolling out brand new commercials to win over viewers and get people talking. Here’s a list of some of the best.
1. Doritos Blaze vs. Mountain Dew Ice
The much-anticipated Doritos Super Bowl ad shared its spotlight with Mountain Dew this year in an ecstatic minute of junk food and pop culture craziness. The commercial showcased cameos from Busta Rhymes and Missy Elliott, complete with a comical rap battle between “Game of Thrones” actor Peter Dinklage and Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman.
2. Tide — “It’s a Tide Ad”
A few advertisers tried to hoodwink viewers, presenting commercials that looked like one kind of ad when they were really something else. Tide’s spots with “Stranger Things” actor David Harbour pulled this off multiple times throughout the game. Later in the game, Harbour crashed what initially appeared to be an Old Spice ad and a Mr. Clean commercial.
3. Marvel Studios — “Avengers: Infinity War”
The latest trailer for “Avengers: Infinity War” debuted during the big game, featuring an unprecedented number of heroes and villains from various Marvel movies that have been mixing and mingling for the last 10 years. The movie is set to debut on May 4, 2018, with an untitled followup announced for release in May 2019.
4. Amazon — “Alexa Loses Her Voice”
This year’s Amazon commercial sees an Echo, a voice-activated device housing a digital assistant named Alexa, lose its voice. The Amazon team decides to replace the personal assistant’s voice with the likes of actors Anthony Hopkins, Rebel Wilson, Cardi B and other celebrities.
5. Netflix — “The Cloverfield Paradox”
While most movie teasers advertise for films set to release months after the Super Bowl, Netflix decided to premiere its feature film directly after the big game. Netflix debuted the latest film in producer J. J. Abrams’ Cloverfield franchise immediately after the Super Bowl ended Sunday, just a few hours after the commercial aired.
6. Tourism Australia — “Dundee”
Two weeks before the Super Bowl, trailers began surfacing online for a revival of the 1986 Australian movie “Crocodile Dundee.” In the supposed sequel, “Dundee: The Son of a Legend Returns Home,” Dundee is missing and his American son, played by Danny McBride, goes Down Under to find him with the help of a local expert played by Chris Hemsworth. However, it was all just an elaborate ruse by Australia’s national tourism body, Tourism Australia, to encourage tourists to visit the country.
7. Pringles — “Wow”
In a Super Bowl spot for Pringles, actor Bill Hader discovers the magic of stackable chips. The “Saturday Night Live” alum, along with two other actors, admires in wonder at the options for Pringles’ new flavors, including a pizza chip combined with a barbecue chip to form, what else, barbecue pizza.
8. Avocados from Mexico
The advertiser Avocados from Mexico presented a science fiction bio-dome for the company’s 60-second Super Bowl ad. The people in the bio-dome have plenty of avocados from Mexico to eat, but one of the dome-dwellers notices that all the chips somehow got locked outside of the sphere in the desert. All of the people inside the bubble start to panic, but the leader calms them down by pointing out that “avocados taste great on lots of things,” including with eggs and toast.
9. M&M’s — Danny DeVito
The M&M’s Super Bowl spot sees the titular candy spheres discover the only way to keep people from eating them is to transform into Danny DeVito, or something along those lines.
10. Lucasfilm — “Solo: A Star Wars Story”
In the most anticipated movie teaser in the galaxy, viewers get a glimpse into “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” the origin story of the iconic scruffy-looking smuggler. The minute-long teaser introduced actor Alden Ehrenreich as the young Han Solo, who was famously played by Harrison Ford in the original films. The Star Wars origin film is set to release Memorial Day weekend.
