Listen Here
By: Collin Frazier
frazierc@findlay.edu
@Collin_53
Despite some bright spots, Super Bowl LV commercials not up to par
Like most people in Ohio, my football team was not fortunate enough to make Super Bowl LV (the major difference being that I am a Steelers fan surrounded by Browns fans). With that, watching last Sunday’s 31-9 Tampa Bay victory was not exactly my priority. And for good reason, as it was the Tom Brady Show once again. But with that, I was still looking forward to the halftime show from The Weeknd, who gave a great performance, and the commercials, were… Well, with some bright spots, they were mostly forgettable this year.
I will talk about the commercials that I ended up enjoying before getting into what I did not like this year.. The first being the trailer for “The Falcon” and “The Winter Soldier,” the next chapter in the MCU. What I liked about this was that it encapsulated everything great about the MCU—action, funny side comments, and great chemistry from the main leads. I am certainly excited for what is coming next for Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes.
The second commercial that I really enjoyed was Toyota’s tribute to Paralympic swimmer Jessica Long. I have never really been invested in Paralympics, so being able to hear a story about not only a girl who was born with a rare disorder but also being able to overcome this condition and become a gold medal winner was certainly something inspiring. It may have had nothing to do with cars, but it was certainly memorable.
The final commercial I enjoyed was Jeep’s call for unity. I realize that it may not have hit the nail perfectly, but I still feel that with the aftermath of 2020 still looming as we roll into the new year, it is nice to remember that we are all in this together.
Other than that, the commercials were fine, I guess. Nothing really attention grabbing. What I did notice was that some commercials relied on nostalgia to be memorable. Take both Cheetos and Uber Eats commercials. Cheetos had it to where it played off the lyrics of Shaggy’s “It Wasn’t Me.” First off, the message to that song is awful: denying the fact you cheated on your significant other despite being caught multiple times. Secondly, nothing really stood out about. Sure, it had Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher in it, but there are surely more popular couples they could have used.
Uber Eats featured Mike Myers and Dana Carvey reprising their roles as Wayne and Garth from “Wayne’s World” where they recreate a scene from their movie of the same name. Being a fan of 90’s “Saturday Night Live,” I did enjoy this, but only because of nostalgia. It did not try anything different with the characters and stuck to what has already been done. I just like some originality with my commercials.
And that is about it. All the other commercials were let-downs or I cannot think of them because of how forgettable they are. I miss the days of Doritos allowing fans to submit their ideas or when a commercial is so ridiculous it’s memorable (remember PuppyMonkeyBaby?), but I guess that is in the past.
I do understand that the icons of Super Bowl commercials pulled out to fund COVID-19 relief, but I was hoping that the lesser-known commercials would really show their stuff this year, but to no avail. Also, I think Robinhood having a Super Bowl commercial was the last thing they should have done given what happened with them a few weeks ago. Here’s to hoping next year’s commercials are better!
