As one of the biggest televised events of the year, the Super Bowl has to live up to many expectations from fans from all over the world. Even if you hate watching football, chances are you may tune in to check out the Super Bowl commercials. During almost every other night of the year, television viewers cannot stand to sit through long commercial breaks. With that said, why do people tune in to the Super Bowl exclusively to watch the commercials?
Advertisers paid a hefty $5 million per 30-second commercial spot during Super Bowl 50 to reach an enormous and diverse audience. To get the best return, advertisers have to brand their commercials with humor and attention-grabbing details. Some honorable mentions for this year’s best Super Bowl commercials go to Audi’s “Commander,” Marmot’s “Love the Outside,” Heinz’s “Wiener Stampede” and Hyundai’s “Ryanville” commercial starring Ryan Reynolds.
However, the following ads are my picks for the funniest, most entertaining commercials of Super Bowl 50.
1. Hyundai – “First Date”
The best commercial of the night goes to Hyundai for their hilarious Kevin Hart commercial. “First Date” aired as what I would consider the first official commercial of the evening, immediately following the coin toss. Hart plays an overprotective father, who lets his daughter’s date borrow his new Hyundai Genesis for the evening so he can track their every move with the Car Finder feature. Hart follows them around on the date and lets his presence be known to his daughter’s date, leading to great comedy. If you did not tune in until the game started, you missed a great Super Bowl commercial.
2. Doritos – “Ultrasound”
The final year of the Doritos Crash the Super Bowl contest, where fans submit their homemade commercials, did not disappoint. Doritos has given us 10 great years of commercials from their contest and is definitely going out with a bang. “Ultrasound” shows a soon-to-be father eating Doritos while at his wife’s ultrasound appointment. As he moves the bag of Doritos around, the monitor shows the baby moving and trying to reach the bag. The expectant mom gets tired of her husband’s rudeness and grabs the bag. Upon throwing the bag across the room, the baby presumably leaps out to get the bag. In short, this commercial will make you laugh out loud.
3. Coca-Cola – “Coke Mini (Hulk vs. Ant-Man)”
The third most surprising and potentially most expensive ad of the night goes to Coca-Cola for their Marvel and Coke Mini commercial starring the Hulk and Ant-Man, voiced by Paul Rudd. It was very surprising to see Marvel characters appear in a non-Marvel advertisement, but it worked perfectly. Ant-Man decides to shrink himself to sneak into Bruce Banner’s laboratory and steal his Coke Mini. Banner realizes his Coke Mini is gone and transforms into the Hulk to pursue Ant-Man in a fun chase sequence. The characters eventually “open happiness” and enjoy the Coke Mini together. This was a great plug for both Marvel and Coca-Cola that surely entertained viewers.
4. TurboTax – “Never a Sellout”
As a lover of film, seeing Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins appear in TurboTax’s spot was excellent. Hopkins claims that he will never promote a product and would not tarnish his name by selling products while talking to a reporter. Meanwhile, he drinks from a TurboTax mug, uses the TurboTax app and plugs the brand in many more hilarious ways. He says that this is acceptable because Turbo Tax does your taxes for free, so he could not possibly be selling anything. Getting a legendary actor to star in this commercial was genius and any film enthusiast will thoroughly enjoy the wry humor Hopkins delivers.
5. Universal Pictures – “Jason Bourne”
The biggest surprise of the night came in the form of the first look at the new Jason Bourne film, which will be released this summer. Matt Damon is back as Bourne after taking some time off from the franchise. The trailer does not give much information as to what the storyline will be, but does offer a nice sight of Damon back in action. Bourne, however, does proclaim that he knows who he is and remembers everything from his past. Universal appears to be setting the bar high with this impressive first look that caught me off guard. With little mention of the film so far, Universal pulled a fast one by delivering the trailer on the biggest stage. Even though this was not a funny commercial, Universal still gets a win for a much-anticipated first look at one of its major releases of the year.
