Song of the day:
The morning after…
The morning after the Super Bowl, when everyone analyzes the plays and the penalties, the commercials and the halftime show. I’ll skip the first two since I didn’t really care who won, but I was most definitely cheering for the Bengals. Ah well…it’s not like I’m some kind of huge NFL fan. I was really just there for the halftime show. And by there I mean my couch. I did have good snacks though…
First let’s talk about the commercials. Overall I was underwhelmed. I’ve been underwhelmed for several years now. But there were a few I liked, a few that I would call cute, and a few that I could have most definitely done without.
The Favorites
Avocados from Mexico - It was so funny to think about people tailgating prior to a battle in the Colosseum. But then I literally laughed out loud when Caesar said “They’re also good on salads,” and then the friend basically rolled his eyes and was like, “We know, Caesar.” Good stuff.
Flamin’ Hot Doritos and Cheetos - This was great. I loved how the animals basically stole the explorer’s food and then went a little nuts. The bird singing was great and the sloth suddenly being fast and saying, “Nope,” was funny. Again, I laughed out loud.
NFL - The ad with the kids playing the video game and suddenly all the game players are in the house playing. They’re small but destructive. And it wasn’t just current players, there was Payton Manning and Deion Sanders and a few others and then they made me cry when they legit had Walter Payton appear as one of the players and score the game winning touchdown. But I loved it. Mostly because of Sweetness. The NFL usually does a good job of promoting itself and this ad was no different.
Google Pixel 6 - This was a beautiful ad showcasing Google’s lighting for dark complexions technology. I learned after the fact that the wonderful song playing behind it was from the one and only Lizzo so you know, that makes it even better.
Toyota - I liked the Jones vs Jones truck race ad, with the three Jones’ and then the twist at the end with the Jonas. It was clever. I also enjoyed the ad with the McKeever brothers and how they worked together to reach the Olympics. Talk about pulling on the heartstrings. This was a good one.
The Pretty Goods
GM - The Austin Powers Dr. Evil crew brought about all the nostalgia and fun of the movies for me. Mike Meyers was as funny as ever and even though I really don’t know what this ad was about it, I enjoyed it.
Verizon Internet - The Jim Carrey Cable Guy nostalgia was real. I never saw the movie the but the character is iconic and it was pretty cool to see Jim reprises the role for this ad.
Meta - Okay, here’s the thing, when I watched the ad about a restaurant like Chuck E Cheese with those animatronic singing animals, I was like, oh nostalgia, how sweet. And how how nice that they met back up in the virtual world. Had absolutely NO IDEA what the ad was for. Assumed it was for a virtual reality headsets. Had no idea it was for Meta. Now I like it less but at the time, I enjoyed it.
Alexa - The ad with Scarlett and Colin was fun, but it may not have sold many Alexas for Amazon. It’s whole premise that Alexa could read your mind was a little too real in today’s world. It honestly wouldn’t surprise me it actually could do that. Still, they’re super cute and it was fun to see them doing something together.
Budweiser - I was excited that Budweiser was going to do an ad again this year, and that it was going to involve a horse. Budweiser has has some of the best Super Bowl ads of all time. This one probably wouldn’t be on that list but the longer version - which wasn’t aired - is good. They only showed a short version during the show - I’m assuming that’s a money reason - and it didn’t do much for me. But after watching the longer version online I definitely put this in the pretty good category. I mean there’s a dog and a horse, what more do you need?
Lays - I mean anything with Paul Rudd is good, right? The man doesn’t age. Also, it definitely made me want to go back to the store and get some Lay’s chips.
The Others
There were a lot of famous people in ads, as there usually are, but none of the ads really stood out for me. Some of them were confusing and it felt like there was a whole lot going on. There were several that I had no idea what they were advertising and a few that were just boring. And so many ads about Crypto or bitcoin or whatever it is. As always there were a lot of TV and move trailers, most of which I’d already seen before either on TV or online. Nothing else did much for me, which seems to be the norm most years now.
What were your favorites?
Okay, now let’s talk about the awesomeness that was that halftime show. I mean come on! From the set to the music to the surprise guests to the dancing, it was every kind of perfect. It was amazing to see that group of artists performing for all the world to see. Hip hop finally got its chance to shine and they took every advantage of it. Snoop was definitely having a good time and Dre looked so happy to be performing. Mary was gorgeous and sounded phenomenal, and of course Kendrick and Eminem were ridiculously good. I was not expecting 50 Cent so that was a fun surprise and then to see Anderson Paak on the drums? Very cool. I loved that they had actual musicians playing and not just piped in music. It’s so much better that way. I literally didn’t sit down for one second of the show and worked off every bit of the charcuterie that I ate in the first half. It really did give me all the feels and I’ll be watching it on repeat for quite some time. So in case you were wondering what the video of the day was going to be…
Video of the day (the NFL won’t let me embed hit so you have to click the link)
(Image: CNN)
If you didn’t see it during the game I encourage you to watch, even if you think hip hop isn’t your thing. Maybe this will help you understand a little bit more about some of the greatest to ever do it. And if you did see it, you know that it’s absolutely worth watching again. And again. And then one more time.
Okay, that’s it for now. Have a great day and I’ll check in again tomorrow.
This was my favorite ad. It may have been a robot puppy but so darn cute. And using "Total Eclipse of the Heart" ... ❤️ 🐕
https://youtu.be/HoNMz_OV_dI