With NBC charging just below $5 million for each 30-second ad spot, Amazon, Doritos and Tide made the most of their ads.

BEST SUPER BOWL ADS

Amazon created an ad where their Alexa product lost her voice and celebrities had to fill in. Gordon RamseyRebel WilsonAnthony Hopkins and Cardi B jumped in to respond to people’s requests of the Amazon device. “Pathetic. You’re 32 years of age and you don’t know how to make a grilled cheese sandwich? It’s name is the recipe!” Ramsey said when a user asked for a recipe. Cardi B responded with her typical strange mouth noises, while Wilson gave dirty answers while taking a bubble bath. The result was a hilarious mix of celebrities while showing off various Alexa products.

Another ad to smartly use celebrities was for Doritos, from which Super Bowl fans can expect to see a clever ad each year. For the chip brand, viewers saw Game of Thrones‘ Peter Dinklage and Hollywood’s Morgan Freeman lip syncing to Busta Rhymes and Missy Elliott hits, respectively. The first part was Dinklage setting things on fire after eating Doritos Blaze, and then second was for new lemon lime Mountain Dew Ice, which saw Freeman cooling everything down again.

Tide faked out viewers with Stranger Things star David Harbour in various scenarios, like driving a nice car and then sharing a beer with friends. “Just your typical Super Bowl car ad. Right? Or a hilarious beer ad… But it’s a Tide ad,” he said. The minute-long spot went on by beginning other ads before Harbour jumped in to say, “Nope. It’s a Tide ad.” And finally getting to the point, he says, “So does this make every Super Bowl ad a Tide ad? I think it does. Watch and see.” The caption at the end said, “If it’s clean, it’s got to be Tide.”

Tide was one of the first ads of the evening and took it a step further when they had Harbour crash future ads, which also turned into Tide ads. They had him hang out with the Old Spice guy and then dance with Mr. Clean before explaining that yes, this too is a Tide ad.

M&M also had a hit by introducing Danny DeVito as the popular red M&M that appears alongside his yellow peanut-filled buddy in ad campaigns. He popped up and asked various people, “Do you want to eat me?” before getting hit by a passing truck. Despite it’s strange idea, it was one of the ads that people kept talking about.

Michelob Ultra had a fun two-part advertisement, the first of which showed Chris Pratt being cast as the lead in the commercial. He trains and trains only to discover that he will only be part of the extras in the background. The idea would have been a failure if it hadn’t been for part two, which showed the completed ad but with Pratt in the background of each scene, trying to get noticed.

The NFL itself even got in on the action with their own Super Bowl ad campaign that culminated in Giants Eli Manning and Odell Beckham Jr. doing a dance together. The theme was “To all the touchdowns to come,” as Manning lifted Beckham like the iconic lift from Dirty Dancing.

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