Super Bowl commercials: The five best and five worst ads from the Big Game
The 2024 Super Bowl is in the books. The last down has been played, the last corn chip has been eaten, and the last commercial has aired.
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With everything over until this time next year, let's take a look back at the absolute best and absolute worst commercials that were shown during the Kansas City Chiefs' 25-22 win over the San Francisco 49ers.
Five best commercials of the 2024 Super Bowl
This ad has everything. Ben Affleck being a dorkus. Jennifer Lopez and Matt Damon being embarrassed by him. Tom Brady is a DJ. 1990s boy band vibes. And when it comes down to it, the commercial is just funny. Dunkin' pulled out all the stops to make this spot, and it was well worth it.
Unfortunately, this brilliant commercial was part of the first or second ad break, which means everyone missed it while they were settling in and piling their plates high with Super Bowl delicacies. Human football players act like their mascot birds, and humans acting like birds is never not funny.
Beyonce got paid by Verizon to announce new music during a Super Bowl she wasn't even performing at. That alone makes this commercial worthy of this list. But she also wears a bunch of amazing costumes and fabulous makeup, channeling Barbie and her zillion careers (and at one point literally becoming Barbie) to break Verizon's internet. She's showing us her beautiful face and promising us more musical fruit from her towering tree of talent. Who cares about Verizon? The only thing anyone saw was Bey.
Etsy made an entire commercial that was essentially one long joke about France and aired it during the Super Bowl. That's commitment.
Uber Eats, “Don’t Forget Uber Eats”
Uber Eats riffs on the ultimate Dad Joke: every time you learn something new, you forget something you once knew. The reason this ad works is because they pile so many examples of forgetting into 60 seconds. It's an avalanche of forgetfulness, and they let the best one be the cherry on top: Ross and Rachel. If Usher performing at the halftime show wasn't the definitive signal that Millennials are now getting the generational pandering treatment, a "Friends" reference seals the deal.
Five worst commercials of the 2024 Super Bowl
Temu, "Shop Like a Billionaire"
The jingle in this ad is a painful, spiky ear worm that lodges itself so deep into your brain you'll need a neurosurgeon to get it out. It looks like the lowest rated game in the App Store. The whole thing feels like it was created by AI. And because the game went into overtime, this commercial got at least three more plays after regulation ended. Why did CBS punish its Super Bowl viewers like that?
Oreo, “The Twist of an Oreo Could Change Everything”
The only thing the twist of an Oreo can change is your hunger level, because an Oreo is not a penny or a commemorative Super Bowl coin. It's food. The concept itself is so dumb that you have to wonder how this idea ever made it out of the pitch meeting.
Did you know that Christopher Walken has a distinctive speech style that people enjoy imitating? Did you know that? Unless you've been living under a rock for the last 30 years, you absolutely know that, and you also have at least one friend who has done their Walken impression for you. No one needed a 60-second commercial that is essentially only Walken impressions. No one.
When someone asks why all the Super Bowl ads need to have celebrities in them, show them this commercial. You need one of two things to make an above average Super Bowl commercial: a good idea or a celebrity. This one had neither. If you remember it, it's only because it was so inexplicable. It feels like it belongs on syndicated daytime TV, sandwiched between commercials for Life Alert and reverse home mortgages.
Hellman’s Mayonnaise, “Mayo Cat”
The only way to explain the existence of this commercial in 2024 is to assume that an entire advertising agency from 2003 somehow traveled through time, pitched this ad, filmed it, and immediately went back to 2003. It's a cat that says "mayo" instead of "meow." That's the entire joke.
