Super Bowl LI was one for the ages, with commercials that captivated, shocked, and inspired de Toledo students and faculty. These commercials made every person watching think about how they are living their life and what they should purchase to improve it.

Oh wait I forgot, and that Tom Brady guy and New England Patriots came back from a 25-point deficit to beat the Atlanta Falcons. But let’s be honest, the only reason you watch the Super Bowl is for the commercials.

And for these commercials, I’ve constructed a comprehensive top ten list that will surely bring back some good memories from one of the greatest events of the year.

10. Bag of Unlimited Commercial (T-Mobile)
This commercial starts off with Martha Stewart talking about T-Mobile’s unlimited data with no taxes and fees included. Snoop mentions Verizon, and Martha brings up other items to sway him towards T-Mobile such as pushy throw pillows, roasted lamb chops, a greenery (Snoop D.O. double G look up), and smartphone sweaters. Snoop Dogg surprisingly chooses smartphone sweaters over the greenery as the thing he likes, which surprised me more than the Patriots comeback against the Falcons.

9. Live Commercial (Snickers)
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” star Adam Driver plays a very silly role in this new Snickers commercial. It starts as an old Western film where Driver’s character Jeremiah bursts onto the scene, but sadly the bandits he’s about to fight have their ketchup pellets explode prematurely. Things get worse as chaos ensues, which causes Jeremiah to lose balance and tip over the entire set. Despite this being much better than any old Western, “You ruin live super bowl commercials when you’re hungry.” This isn’t a great marketing ploy, as there are many things I’d rather eat when I’m hungry than a tiny and unhealthy Snickers bar, but it is still a good commercial.

8. Punished Commercial (T-Mobile)
This is yet another commercial that is creative and funny. It is about a girl (Kristen Schaal) walking into somebody’s room. The person she’s with pulls out the phones like they are something straight out of 50 Shades of Grey, even though they are something much worse…Verizon cell phones! The man seduces her by discussing how she is getting “punched” by Verizon’s data limit, and the romance stops abruptly with the line, “Wireless pain is fine. If you are into that sort of thing.”

7. Bai Bai Bai Commercial (Bai)
This is another clever commercial which wasn’t that good but had Justin Timberlake, so it slips into the eighth spot. It begins with Christopher Walken, all business, speaking the lines,
“Don’t really want to make it tough
I just want to tell you that I had enough
It might sound crazy
But it ain’t no lie
Baby, bye, bye, bye.”
This was from Justin Timberlake’s hit song with NSYNC, “Bye Bye Bye.” That’s why I thought it was clever that Justin Timberlake stares at Walken and then into the camera as you hear him sing, “Bye Bye Bye.”  This was mostly an attempt to show people that Bai is an actual company, and I think it certainly fulfilled its purpose.

6. Humpty Hospital Commercial (Turbo Tax)
This is one of the more cunning Super Bowl commercials, as it makes a child folktale into a marketing ploy for Intuit Turbo Tax. Humpty Dumpty uses his dreadful fall as “unforeseen medical expenses” that Turbo Tax readily covers him for. Humpty Dumpty is also treated at the local modern hospital, which seems implausible for a variety of reasons but is not out of place in such unpredictable times.

5. Not So Pee Wee Football Commercial (Buick)
This commercial starts off with two parents admiring their children playing the great sport of football. The parents receive a shocking surprise when a new Buick pulls into the parking lot and one of the children morphs into Cam Newton. I believe it’s great that Cam Newton, after his horrific 2016 NFL campaign, has found a new career path to embark on with people at the same skill level. Newton, of course, shows no mercy shoving little children left and right, and then throws a dart at his wide-open receiver. He throws it so hard that the receiver literally flies into the end zone. There should really be a subtitle that says, “Do Not Attempt.”  Newton talks to a coach on the sideline who then morphs into celebrity Miranda Kerr.

4. Wanna Sprite Commercial (Sprite)
This commercial has been circulating for weeks now but has still not lost its spark. It’s just LeBron describing all the different scenarios in which he wouldn’t force you to have a Sprite, such as being in a commercial for Sprite, having people in this commercial tell him to drink a Sprite, and even looking at someone who needs a Sprite because he had way too much hot sauce. This is because LeBron would just ask, “Do you want a Sprite?”

 

3. Hero’s Journey Commercial (Kia)
This commercial certainly gives everyone some laughs, and you would expect nothing less from the hilarious Melissa McCarthy. It involves a voice command from a Kia that tells McCarthy to save the whales, trees, ice caps (ironic as Kia is a major contributor to this issue), and rhinos. The commands end in spectacular failures: a whale shoots out of the water and throws McCarthy against the side of a ship, a tree that McCarthy hugs is cut down by loggers, a glacier cracks when McCarthy sticks a pole into it, and a rhino charges into her and pierces her clothing. If I had to guess, this is an indirect and funny shot at environmentalists as well.

2. Terry Bradshaw Commercial (Tide)
The commercial starts off with co-anchor Curt Menefee pointing out that Terry Bradshaw has a stain on his shirt. Bradshaw immediately freaks out and rushes to the field while simultaneously rejecting Rob Gronkowski’s offer to give him his jacket, rejecting “The Gronk” almost as badly as he’s rejected sobriety. On the field a security guard runs over to Terry Bradshaw, signaling through the telecom, “Bradshaw on the loose.” That’s certainly something you haven’t heard in the past three decades. Bradshaw then starts to drive down the highway, and reinforces the stereotype of elderly drivers by crashing into Jeff Trambor’s backyard. Bradshaw is invited into the home where Trambor uses Tide to clean his stain because, “no stain deserves fame.”

1. Yearbooks Commercial (Honda)
Though it wasn’t nearly as funny as any other commercial, I think it brings out a message that should never be in short supply, and that is to chase your dreams, whether it is by creating an alternate universe, making a music album, or playing the clarinet (not dressed like Jimmy Kimmel, of course). Just some of the influential people in this creative yearbook commercial are Tina Fey, Steve Carrell, and Magic Johnson. Each person gives their own piece of advice that ends up being a cohesive argument summed up by Screen Actors Guild award-winning actress Viola Davis: “The point is all dreams are within reach, all you have to do is keep moving towards them.” Even though this message has absolutely nothing to do with Honda, it is impactful.

All these advertisements, along with the game itself, are surely better than the ones in the last Super Bowl, and I hope that by reading this you learned about the marketing campaigns of several high-level companies, had a few laughs, and remembered the fun you had watching the Super Bowl commercials this past Sunday.