Super Bowl LIX has come and gone, and it was pretty exciting, if you’re not a Chiefs fan or wanted a “good” game. As with every Superb Owl, one of the highlights, especially for non-football watchers, are the commercials. Ahh, capitalism.
With that in mind, we at Tom’s Guide put our heads together and picked the five ads we thought were the best of the bunch. Not all of our picks made the grade because they made us laugh (though that helps). Some got picked for being intriguing or eye-catching.
If you want to see every ad that aired during the Super Bowl, you can check out our Super Bowl LIX commercial round up. Also, we didn’t consider any movie or TV trailers for this list — we have a separate collection of Super Bowl movie and TV trailers.
Read on to find out which ads made up our Top Five. And let us know which commercials you found funny or interesting.
#5 – Ritz Crackers – Salty Club
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To kick us off, the Ritz Crackers Salty Club staring Aubrey Plaza and Michael Shannon is at No. 5 for us.
The conceit of a club for curmudgeons is pretty funny, and Plaza and Shannon share some decent quips about their levels of irritability. The singer Bad Bunny interrupts with his smiling love of Ritz crackers, which isn’t allowed at the club.
It could have used a bit more, but it was amusing and apparently the first ever Ritz Super Bowl ad.
#4 – Doritos – “Abduction”
Doritos has held contests for people to submit Super Bowl commercials for them before, but this year’s edition got a good laugh out of us.
The man with the bag of chips being cartoonishly slammed around his bedroom before eventually blowing up the UFO attempting to abduct him was pleasantly Looney Tune-ish. It also gives a bit of Trix the Rabbit or Homer trying to steal Bart’s butterfinger vibes.
The creators, Dylan Bradshaw and Nate Norell, won the contest with this ad airing during the game and apparently were also awarded $1 million.
It’s not as bizarrely gross as The Barbershop but either ad would have made this list. We love the lunatic ethos Doritos gives its ads.
#3 – Women’s Sports
It’s cheating a little bit, but there were a trio of ads specifically focused on women playing sports. The best of the bunch was the Nike commercial “So Win” narrated by the rapper Doechii, who just won the best rap album at the Grammys earlier this month.
The black-and-white ad is the first Nike Super Bowl commercial in nearly 27 years and features stars like A’ja Wilson (WNBA), Alexia Putellas (Soccer), Aryna Sabalenka (Tennis), Caitlin Clark (WNBA), Jordan Chiles (gymnastics), JuJu Watkins (currently college basketball), Sabrina Ionescu (WNBA), Sha’Carri Richardson (Track), and Sophia Smith (Soccer). It’s an empowering and classic Nike ad.
Additionally there was the NFL “Flag 50” ad featuring women balling out in flag football with a classic ’80s style set up of a jerk jock losing to the clearly talented new girl. For some reason it also has a Pat McAfee cameo. Marshawn Lynch, Myles Garrett and Justin Jefferson also briefly appear.
Finally, there’s the poignant Dove commercial “These legs” which shows a three year old running down a suburban sidewalk and reads “At 3, these legs are unstoppable. At 14, she’ll think they’re unbearable.” The ad encourages you to talk about body types and encourage girls to stay in sports without criticism of their bodies.
It was an overall trend of promoting women’s sports and getting girls into sports in general that we found awesome.
#2 Bud Light – “Big Men on Cul-De-Sec”
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There’s a teaser of this ad that cracked me up featuring Shane Gillis tells Post Malone talking about how you’re not allowed to drink in a beer commercial, so Malone countdowns to his sip. A fun little beat and something I did not know.
This one got us if only for the smoker-mower with attached giant cooler. “Your mower smokes meat?” asks a passerby. “Our smoker cuts grass,” Shane Gillis replies. A solid little joke.
Tom’s Guide’s U.S. Editor-in-chief Mike Prospero said it made him want a smoker-mower of its own. Budweiser may be selling the wrong product with this ad.
Peyton Manning is here for some reason, but him saying, “This cul-de-sac is poppin'” got a chuckle.
#1 – Dunkin – “DunKings 2 – The Bean Method”
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A number of ads were considered for our Top 5 from the game, but the surprisingly long Dunkin commercial “The Bean Method” was highlighted by a number of Tom’s Guide writers.
It mostly comes down to Jeremy Strong rising from a humongous vat of streaming coffee grounds as he tells brothers Ben and Casey Affleck, “I’m just trying to find the character.” It’s a nice play on Strong’s well-publicized method acting approach.
There is a longer, nearly seven minute version with some more funny Jeremy Strong bits that wears out its welcome in the middle and most of the joke still seems to be that the Boston accent is funny, which it is.
