The Super Bowl isn’t just about the game; for many viewers, it’s the ads that steal the show, turning half-time into a buffet of creativity, humor, and viral moments. As a critic who’s spent more Sunday afternoons dissecting pitches than watching touchdowns, I dove into this year’s commercials with a popcorn bucket in hand and a notepad at the ready. Ranking them from best to worst—to A.I.—feels like a subjective lineup, but based on cleverness, emotional punch, and lasting impact, I’ve compiled my top picks. These aren’t just ads; they’re mini-movies that shape pop culture. Leading the pack are the commercials that nailed the balance between relatability and spectacle, leaving us cheering not for the team but for the next replay online. The best ones, like a certain tech giant’s heartfelt tribute or a beverage brand’s daring pivot, proved that money can buy attention, but only genius can buy hearts. From hilarious parodies to tear-jerking narratives, this year’s Super Bowl was a masterclass in advertising wizardry. But as we slide down the rankings, the misses reveal how easy it is for big budgets to lead to big letdowns—trippy concepts without payoff, stale tropes, or emotions that fall flatter than a deflated football. And then there’s the A.I. undercurrent, whispering through the edges of gleaming production, sometimes enhancing, often exposing the seams of prefab perfection. In a world where algorithms craft our daily stories, these ads flirted with the uncanny valley, blurring lines between human creativity and machine mastery. It’s a year where the ads shone brightest at the top, but by the bottom, we glimpsed a future where A.I. might dictate the scoreboard.
Delving deeper into the elite tier, my top spot goes to Google’s “Parisian Love” spot, a poetic reminder of the magic of life’s unexpected moments. Imagine a couple dancing in the rain, their connection unstoppable even as the world blurs into chaos—it’s not a hard sell; it’s a soft whisper of human joy powered by search algorithms. What made it stand out? The subtlety. No over-the-top effects, just crisp cinematography and a universal message that hit like a touchdown in overtime. It humanized tech, making Google’s vast database feel like a romantic wingman rather than a data farm. Close behind is Amazon Q’s quirky adventure, where a wizard navigates bureaucratic hoops to save a fantasy realm from corporate drudgery. The humor landed sharp, spoofing meetings and paperwork in a way that made you root for the hero while spotting parallels to our own mundane struggles. Both ads reminded viewers why we tune in: for escapism that feels earned, not engineered. These weren’t just products plugged in; they were stories with soul. Contrast that with lesser efforts, and you see the gap widening—ads that leaned too hard on nostalgia or shock value without depth felt tiring. The middle tier introduced some fun, like a snack brand’s playful rebellion against “boring” breakfast, but they lacked the emotional gut punch. By the time we reach the A.I.-infused flops, the future feels less exciting and more eerie, where authenticity is sacrificed for efficiency. Yet, in this year of ads, the best ones proved that human touch still triumphs, crafting experiences that resonate long after the whistle blows.
Shifting gears to the middle of the pack, where the magic fades a bit but cleverness lingers, we have Budweiser’s endearing tale of unlikely friendships, echoed in their Clydesdale calendar reveal. It wasn’t groundbreaking, but the warmth—the pup-Tzu pals and the sheer joy of connection—kept it engaging. Bud Light’s “Zero Sugar” gambit tried to reboot the brand with humor, but it landed tepid, a reminder that leaning into trends without innovation feels obligatory. Meanwhile, the automotive spots brought some high-stakes drama: Ram’s rugged pioneer spirit felt authentic, towing the line between aspiration and reality, while Jeep’s rugged exploration video evoked a sense of freedom without overdoing the CGI. These ads were solid, not spectacular, relying on brand loyalty more than surprise. In the sofa section, the furniture e-commerce ad traded pure humor for a chaotic chase that had us laughing despite the predictable plot. But here’s where A.I. starts creeping in—subtle, at first, in the fluid transitions that felt too polished to be real. In one crypto ad, the animation screamed artificial, the avatars’ smiles too perfect, their vibes too VFX-heavy. And then the dating app’s rom-com mashup, where couples’ stories unfolded with algorithm precision, felt scripted to the nth degree—amusing, yet shallow, as if the writers fed prompts into a black box rather than drawing from real sparks. Still, in this mid-section, the ads entertained, if not enlightened. They captured the zeitgeist of post-pandemic bounce-back, with memes and trends galore. Yet, without the depth of the top tiers, they hinted at a commercialization abyss where creativity cycles through trends without evolving.
The lower echelons of the rankings reveal a churn of mediocrity, where intent outpaces execution, and we start to question if Super Bowl airtime is still the pinnacle or just pricey vanity. Take Hyundai’s encrypted message stunt—clever premise, but the reveal felt anticlimactic, like a riddle solved too easily, leaving viewers underwhelmed instead of intrigued. Coca-Cola’s nostalgic journey back to simpler times was warm-hearted, but in a sea of viral clips, it blended in rather than blazed trails. Then there’s the beer brand’s attempt at empowerment with a diverse cast of everyday heroes, which rang sincere but sacrificed edge for safety—nobody’s pushing boundaries here, just patting backs. The fast-food chain’s meal-deal mayhem descended into slapstick without substance, the humor forced as over-caffeinated chaos. These spots felt like checklist ads: check for diversity, check for emotion, check for meme-ability, but forget the soul. And A.I.? It’s more overt now, in the uncanny detail of animated characters that move just a tad too smoothly, or the voice-overs that mimic human inflection without the warmth. One insurance ad leaned into AI-dreamed scenarios, predicting futures in hyper-realistic sims that chilled more than charmed—privacy concerns lurking beneath the sheen. The energy drink’s high-octane montage buzzed with pumped-up sequences, but the entire spiel came off as contrived, a digital assembly line of hype. If the upper ranks celebrated human stories, these middling efforts exposed homogenization. Viewers tuned in for inspiration, but got reruns instead—a testament to how A.I. can streamline production but strip away the raw, unpredictable energy that makes ads memorable.
Descending further into the cellar, the commercials that veer toward forgettable highlight the year’s stumbles, where ambition met apathy head-on, and A.I. steps fully into the spotlight—sometimes enhancing, often dominating. Consider the travel app’s whimsical getaway, which promised escape but delivered a disjointed narrative, the locations rendered with such generic perfection that they felt like stock footage stitched together by an algorithm. Better yet, worse it was the car’s self-driving serenade, a techno-utopia vision that sang praises of autonomy while glossing over real-world bugs—eerily optimistic, yet unnervingly naive. These ads weren’t failures in isolation; they mirrored broader industry shifts toward tech-fueled perfection over flawed humanity. The coffee giant’s global unity spot aimed for heartstrings but plucked discord, the diversity a tick-box exercise in a message that felt authorless. And the wireless provider’s sitcom setup? A groan-worthy skit about connectivity gone wrong, executed with the timing of a buffering app—pun intended—as if the script was churned out by chatbots exchanging dad jokes. By this point, the A.I. influence is undeniable: from deepfake-like celebrities in product demos to predictive analytics shaping plots, it’s the ghost in the machine, creating content that’s efficient but empty. One particularly grim entry from a pharma ad tried empathy for mental health, but the staging felt staged, the emotions manufactured by data points rather than lived experiences. These lower-thirds spots underscored a trend: when ads prioritize selling via AI analytics over storytelling, they alienate. The Super Bowl’s allure as a cultural event wanes here, replaced by a parade of predictability. It’s not that they’re offensive; they’re just forgettable, lost in the shuffle of feeds where human quirks once shone.
Finally, anchoring the worst of the bunch—and tipping into A.I.’s unsettling dominion—comes a barrage of spots that exemplify commercialization’s worst excesses, where the machine overshadows the muse. The crypto exchange’s overblown saga of moon-bound riches felt like a fever dream scripted by an AI obsessed with buzzwords, the graphics sizzling but the core bankrupt of trust. Worse still was the NFT platform’s bizarre brawl between animals and avatars, a chaos-porn exercise in animation that mocked originality while hyping speculative frenzy. These weren’t just poor ads; they were cautionary tales of unchecked tech wedging into creativity, producing spectacles devoid of substance—a digital echo chamber of hype. The streaming service’s attempt at humor bombed with dated references, the delivery flatlined by voice synthesis that couldn’t nail nuance. One banking ad’s “secure future” pitch descended into dystopian déjà vu, predicting blockchain bliss with ZERO relatability, as if viewers were extras in a simulacra. And the pinnacle of pits? The AI-generated tutorial ad, supposedly empowering users but exposing the uncanny valley: caricatures “teaching” you skills in ways that felt scripted and soulless, the ethics of labor displacement hovering unspoken. As a critic reflecting on the year, the bottom of this list reveals a Super Bowl not just critiquing ads, but confronting a future where A.I. commodifies ideas. From viral golden nuggets at the top to these digital duds, the trajectory shows human ingenuity holding ground—barely—against algorithmic amnesia. Yet, in watching, we humans are reminded: the best stories come from our imperfections, not programmed polish. Here’s to next year’s shows, hoping for more heart and less hard drive.
