By Tim Nudd
Patriots vs. Eagles turned out to be another classic Super Bowl, with little separating the teams—and a Hail Mary at the end that could have sent it to OT. This was good news for advertisers, who could count on eyeballs throughout the game, and particularly for Tide, which aired four brilliant commercials across four quarters and easily won the night with the best campaign.
But because every ad can’t actually be a Tide ad, we had to look elsewhere for our favorite work. Coca-Cola, Budweiser, Bud Light and TurboTax all delivered strong efforts, but below are our picks for the night’s five best spots.
Also, for the bigger picture of how last night’s ads fared, check out Adweek’s instant reviews of every single spot that aired on the game.
5) NFL “Touchdown Celebrations to Come”
Agency: Grey New York
After several years of Super Bowl Babies ads, the NFL went in a totally different direction—and scored with this amusing campaign about touchdown celebrations, inspired by Dirty Dancing and starring Eli Manning and Odell Beckham Jr. of the New York Giants. The spot—which also featured Landon Collins, Brett Jones, John Jerry, Chad Wheeler, D.J. Fluker and John Greco—was a great way to show how the Super Bowl, for most teams, is the start of next season. Eagles fans will also rejoice that the Patriots are now 0-3 in Super Bowls in which Eli has appeared.
4) Tourism Australia “Dundee”
Agency: Droga5
Chris Hemsworth and Danny McBride were perfectly cast in this spoof campaign for a new Crocodile Dundee movie that pretended to be real for weeks, before revealing itself as a tourism ad. The next step in this campaign is for them to go ahead and actually make the movie—it doesn’t look any worse than half of what’s in theaters right now. We’ve got lots more about the making of this campaign here, including interviews with both Hemsworth and McBride.
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