I haven’t watched the Super Bowl since I was a wee little one; despite growing up in a sports-loving household, I was the typical dork who got excited about the event only because I knew it was a chance to watch TV for more than three hours straight and eat tons of junk food. But as with most kids, I only really cared about the commercials, anyway. And the last one that sticks in my brain from the days before double digits is “Hare Jordan,” the Nike ad that saw Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan team up to clown on some dim-witted knuckleheads. It was basically a minute-long Looney Tunes, complete with sound effects, albeit transposed to an exciting (for the time) real-world setting. I remember thinking it was funny and promptly forgetting about it—that is, until a couple years later, when they took that idea and made a whole movie out of it. Perhaps you’ve heard of ? [Alex McLevy]
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Probably an obvious choice, but has to be this one for me. The book was everywhere as the year approached and (in my memory) discussions about what Orwell had got “right” were everywhere – headlines, TV shows, classrooms. The add taps into that zeitgeist incredibly well, still gives me chills a bit (ironically, I guess, considering what Apple’s become):
I remember the time well. “1984″ fever was all around that year (even if that wasn’t the point of Orwell’s book). I wonder if that was the first example of that sort of thing. Obviously, later years got the same treatment 1999 (too many works to count, Prince’s song and Space:1999 being the obvious ones). 2001 (Kubrick), 2015 (Back to the Future II), 2019 (Blade Runner), etc.
2012 was a big one, too, what with all the ‘end of the Mayan calendar’ talk. The disaster movie likely added to it.
Now that I think of it, 2020 was maybe never referenced in such a way, though I had heard it was the first year that A.I. was supposed to be functioning autonomously, and for whatever reason (likely just numerical), had always ascribed it to be some consequential year of the future. Instead of, y’know, the run-of-the-mill slow news year snore-fest that it ended up being.
I like the Lil Nas X Doritos ad (2020). Sorry, I can’t post videos now. Or watch them either:(
probably the greatest commercial ever and i believe it came out during super bowl
I don’t get this eagerness of becoming an advertisement platform. This eagerness to watch and share commercials. I just detest these things, and I find completely ridiculous the mix of pseudo-anticapitalistic critique (“look at me, i’m vaguely passive aggressive towards brands and big business”) and full endorsement of advertising campaigns (“but also buy pepsi cola buy pepsi cola buy pepsi cola what a cool catchy tune”).I’m not into your superbowl culture and related traditions so of course I don’t get how, as stated in a previous article, being hammered advertisements “is the most fun part of it” (the same article featuring “we hate to give one to the brands but”). Still, I guess these brands pay a ton to be featured during this event. And don’t pay a dime for such websites and overenthusiastic kids to relay them. But whatever. So awesome. Look : batman says buy pepsi cola. Tell your friends.
You’re fun!
lol, calm down
Making commercials is a creative endevour, same as making a TV show or record.
It is stupid as fuck, you’re absolutely right.
You’re overthinking it. Advertisements can be both the tip of the spear of the shitty capitalist culture we live in while also being works of art.That’s just how human beings roll.
Hey man look, we all want to fucking die. Let us enjoy a million dollar 30 second skit with a big name actor that was paid by for by a chip company. It’s all we have left
As someone who worked on a Super Bowl ad that’s airing tomorrow, it’s in fact a $38 million 30-second skit.
Let us enjoy a million dollar 30 second skit with a big name actor that was paid by for by a chip company.Are you talking about Intel or Doritos?
Doritos has historically had better super bowl ads
Give or take a George Carlin or Richard Pryor or two, David Letterman almost single-handedly shaped my inchoate sense of humor when I was little kid. I’d stay up late on school nights to watch him when my parents worked second shift and weren’t around to send me to bed. He was like a weird surrogate uncle, and so I got irrationally, emotionally invested in his feuds with Leno and, to a much lesser extent, Oprah. Given all of that, this would definitely be a strong contender for my pick:Dave even gets to do his Leno impression.
Dave is simply the best. I wish everyone could have experienced him at the height of his powers. There’s so many memories but one that doesn’t get as much play as others is the Phil Donahue Countdown Calendar when Donahue was moving production of his show to NY. So irreverent and stupid and glorious. I just remember this big dumb paper calendar with Donahue’s face on it with a calendar. 1984 I think.
Yeah, he really got the format, and that people watched almost every night. Bits carried over, built on each other, undercut themselves, etc. And while I didn’t get it at the time, I really appreciate now how it was so reflective of how the daily routines of life can just really wear you down with little stupidities and disappointments, to the point that all you can do is laugh at it to get through a week sometimes.
Conan was pitched on joining this but he understandably turned it down.
Letterman hit my sweet spot of celebrating entertainment while tearing it down.
He resolutely WANTED to provide good television, even as he knew (or at least felt) that that was an empty, frivolous pursuit.
Hence this bit, which remains one of the dumbest, and at the same time greatest, things I’ve ever seen on TV:
Wait – what the hell are we talking about? Did Letterman die?!?
Being from Canada, I wasn’t able to see the Super Bowl ads during the game. (They changed this just over a year ago, I think.) So this is not a Super Bowl ad, but maybe one of the better ads I’ve seen, period.
It’s probably nowhere near the best of all time but I LOVED the ad for the Twilight Zone reboot a few years ago. But then, basically I love anything that successfully pretends to be a glitch on TV. That “CBS is off the air” bit was pretty great; later of course I’d learn that it was just their way to plug their new streaming platform because they’d attach it to other ads for other shows, but at the time, that message combined with a smash to an empty stadium already had me ready to watch whatever these people were about to sell me.
Who remembers commercials?
As a Colbert fan I liked the pistachio commercial where he cracked open his head like a pistachio to reveal a green pistachio head underneath. Also, I’m from Seattle and that was the Super Bowl the Seahawks won.
I love them all#
The 4th quarter comebacks. The helmet catches. The wide rights. I miss Block and Tackle. I care about the games. Super Bowl Commercials were a fun bonus, but that was back when they were good- which they haven’t been in years. So no, I don’t look forward to awful anymore. But what do I know, because I enjoy just about everything Progressive does! That “Don’t be your parents” guy is great. They have a hilarious marketing team. But it all comes down to Flo. And it doesn’t get more ‘through the looking glass’ than parodying Super Bowl halftimes in and of themselves 🙂
It might have even been last night that I Googled Block and Tackle to see if it had been moved somewhere else. I do know that it’s just a fishing term, but it had been long enough that it was a pretty lame reminder.
Block and Tackle I do know that it’s just a fishing termI see you know even less about fishing than I do.
Touche. I caught one, once, though.
I can’t say Mr. Peanut dying was my favorite but I don’t think I’ve ever been so emotionally wrecked by a commercial. Like most of us I was crying my eyes out for days.
I thought Honey Nut Cheerios did a great job with this kind of theme. It’s a great commercial on its own, but the aesthetic on the box at the end hits it home.
Really? You pick a trailer for the shitty Last Airbender movie and disregard Terry Tate: Office Linebacker? For shame!
Still, my absolute favorite, Hi Janice…
Having the company be named “Felcher” was just the icing on the cake, really.
#1 – the fedex commercial where they delivered helium balloons to the Munchkins of Oz, so they could keep their voices high pitched.
My favorite was the old Bud commercial about the Clydesdale horses playing football, scoring a touchdown, and then one Clydesdale kicks the extra point. Two cowboys are watching this and one remarks after the kick that it was amazing, and the other cowboy says laconically, “Yeah, usually they go for two.”
You people know nothing. Hands down the best commercial to ever air during a SuperBowl.
Was the VW Force commercial in 2011 the best of all time? Probably not. But is it the one that I thought won the ads that year and did exactly what you wanted a commercial to do from the manufacturer’s standpoint – which is spawn massive viral discussion of it well past the game itself? You better believe it. It also was relatable to almost any kid under 45 or so that year who dressed up as Darth Vader – well, at least before the sequels.Also, the parody of it – rotating doll head and force choking Mom to get the cookie jar, along with the Toyota unintended acceleration – was one of the all time greats.