2022 Super Bowl Ads - The awards go to...
It’s our favorite time of year, once again.
The Super Bowl, when the content is fresh, dressed like a million bucks. (Had to throw in a Snoop reference in honor of the night’s halftime show.)
Speaking of Snoop, if you’re an Elder Millennial, there was a lot to love about this year’s Super Bowl. It was a nostalgic love letter to the 90s and 00s. Lindsay Lohan, Snoop, Dre, the eTrade baby and the best supervillains from the Austin Powers movies were all there. If you weren’t born in the 70's or 80’s, it’s too bad, because those of us who were had a lot of fun living like it was 1999 during this year’s Super Bowl Sunday.
Back to the ads. This year, instead of an overall recap of the ads, Kafen8 is giving out awards for what we consider to be this year’s standout Super Bowl ads. Keep an eye on the (snail) mail, advertisers 😉
And the awards go to…
Best Overall: General Motors, “Evil Turns Good”
Seth Green, Mike Myers, Rob Lowe all reprise their roles as Dr. Evil’s clan of supervillains from the Austin Powers movies. Warning: If you' haven’t seen the Austin Powers movies, this ad will fall flat. BUT, if you have, you’re in on the jokes. Even better, the storyline worked. Dr. Evil finds out he’s not the world’s greatest threat - that his place has been taken by climate change, but Set Green, his son, is happy to share that GM is helping change that with electric cars.
Best One-Liner: Best Foods Mayo, Tackle Food Waste
The ad’s premise is about Jerod Mayo, professional football player, tackling people for wasting food. But, the one-liner comes from Pete Davidson after Jerod tackles him - “I’m very hittable”. Great delivery, great timing, given Pete’s current residence in the pop culture headlines these days.
Best Sneak Attack Direct Response Ad: Coinbase, QR Pong
We’re letting our “advertising nerd” show a little bit here. We loved this ad. So darn simple - using a QR color that changes color, bouncing off the edges of the screen with a subtle “boing” sound effect. The Coinbase team knew two things: that 1., people don’t go far without their phones, even when watching the Super Bowl, and 2., we all know how to use QR codes thanks to health and safety measures replacing printed menus with digital ones at restaurants. What we love about this ad - it was a sneaky direct response ad. No one was shouting at us trying to get us to buy a Showtime grill. It’s really hard to drive traffic to a website landing page. Much less during the Super Bowl. Coinbase banked on our curiosity - and it worked. Word on the street is that it worked so well, it crashed the app.
Best Comeback: The eTrade baby
The eTrade baby came out of retirement in 2022’s ad, as requested by his team who went to great lengths to find him, because people are “taking financial advice from memes”. It’s been fourteen years since the eTrade baby’s 2008 debut, and we loved every minute of it.
Runner Up for Best Comeback: Lindsay Lohan
In Planet Fitness’s “What's gotten into Lindsay?” ad, Lindsay Lohan pokes fun at her 90’s and 00’s self, comparing the Lindsay of today to the Lindsay of yesteryear. It was the kind of comeback we love to see.
Best Buddy Movie Ad: Lays, “Golden Memories”
Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen for Lays. Everything you love about a buddy movie - but in a one minute ad.
Best Action Movie Ad: Nissan, Thrill Driver
How can you not love Eugene Levy? But Eugene Levy with action-hero long hair fighting evil in an electric car? It’s everything we want in a Super Bowl ad.
Best Stick-It-To-Your-Competitor Ad: T-Mobile, “Do It For The Phones”
Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus teamed up for the two-part series that spoofed the “We Are the World” type of celebrity causes that we Geriatric Millennials are all to familiar with. In this case, Miley and Dolly were working to raise awareness for the fact that Verizon and AT&T say they have 5G, but have paltry 5G coverage when compared to T-Mobile. We loved the shade.
Best “If Only They Had Waited for Sunday” Award: Amazon Alexa, “Mind Reader”
The ad stars Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost, a real-life couple and some very funny “if Alexa could read our mind” scenarios. While we understand the strategy behind releasing an ad before Super Bowl Sunday, it unfortunately rubbed all the funny off this ad for us. Great content, but unfortunately it just fell a little flat for us during the game, because we’d seen it a few times. A perfect example of why sometimes it’s better to wait and let all of America see the ad at the same time.
Best Rookie: FTX, Don’t Miss Out
This ad had us laughing as Larry David plays characters throughout history trying to tell the history-makers not to move forward. A bold move from a company new to Super Bowl advertising - definitely a standout tonight.
