While the buzziest commercials of last year’s NFL championship game hung their hopes on a booming cryptocurrency market that has since melted down, Sunday’s Super Bowl ad-fest mostly aimed to stoke feelings of nostalgia for the 100 million or so who tuned in to watch the Kansas City Chiefs pull out a last-moment win over the Philadelphia Eagles.
Celebrities shilling products are the bread-and-butter of many major marketing campaigns, but Sunday’s game time ads were extra rife with A-listers and a host of stars whose time in the limelight has seen some fading. But that paired well with all the retro movie and music references.
Jesus also figured largely amid Fox’s Super Bowl coverage thanks to two ads that are part of an emerging campaign from the nondenominational group “He Gets Us,” a nonprofit 501(c)(3) and subsidiary of the Servant Foundation.
The group spent a reported $20 million on ads that featured black and white photographs that, in one spot, focused on heartwarming shots of kid interactions and, in the other, a series of harsh and sometimes hard-to-look-at moments of confrontation.
Because religion is a touchy subject and prime-time advertising is so expensive, it is rare for faith to be promoted alongside the Super Bowl ’s perennially buzzed about beer and fast-food commercials, per The Associated Press. But the backers of the “He Gets Us” campaign see it as a great opportunity to reach so many people at once.
“It fits with our target audience really well,” campaign spokesperson Jason Vanderground told the AP. “We’re trying to get the message across to people who are spiritually open, but skeptical.”
When it comes to ads that tapped the wayback machine to grab viewers’ attention, “Grease,” “Caddyshack,” “Clueless,” Air Jordans, Kiss, Billy Idol and more got a moment in the sun, or at least a cagey reference, among spots that cost advertisers $6 million to $7 million for 30 seconds of air time.
Steve Martin and Ben Stiller were each featured in Pepsi ads and both spots spoofed the comedic actors’ past work, with one notable highlight coming as Stiller shook out a can of soda over his head a la the infamous orange mocha frappuccino scene from his 2001 film “Zoolander.”
If there was an award for most persistent franchise making a Super Bowl ad appearance, this year, that accolade would have to go to Harrison Ford and a plug for yet another Indiana Jones film, due out this June.
And, speaking of Disney, the House the Mouse built took a moment for a little self-adulation in touting its 100-year anniversary, featuring a voiceover from founder Walt Disney, before he was famously frozen.
One advertiser even went retro (again) on itself with E-Trade continuing to riff on its viral talking baby bit from 2008’s Super Sunday.
Ads for alcoholic beverages not produced by the Anheuser-Busch company made their way into the Super Bowl for the first time in over 30 years but the company still held down one of the most engaging spots of the night in that category with a spot that featured a couple dancing to old music.
Fox’s new video-on-demand service, Tubi, pulled the slyest move of the evening with an ad that made it look like the TV screen had flipped to a streaming service directory page. Another bit may have been the most surreal ad of the evening, one that featured a giant rabbit snaring unsuspecting people and dragging them to, and depositing them in, various holes in the ground. You really just have to see it:
Other celebrity ad appearances included Will Ferrell stumping for GM’s latest electric vehicle offerings; Adam Driver pushing SquareSpace web building services; Bradley Cooper and his mom goofing for T-Mobile; and Ben Affleck manning the drive-thru window at Dunkin’ Donuts, which included a cameo from Affleck’s real-world superstar spouse, J-Lo. Spoiler alert: J-Lo steals the moment.