Best and worst Super Bowl ads revealed: Frozen comics to CGI babies

Super Bowl 2024 saw Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City win their third title in five years after beating the San Francisco 49ers with an overtime touchdown.

However, not all viewers would have been as engrossed in the action as much as Taylor Swift was.

For some, the half-time show, which this year was performed by Usher, is the main event of the night.

Supplementing the musical performance is always a whole host of adverts and for the second year running a thirty-second spot cost companies US$7 million each.

Even as the ad market continues to face headwinds of its own, businesses are fully aware of the reach of the event, with preliminary reports indicating that 2024 may see record viewership.

The usual horde of light-hearted, celebrity-filled high-budget ads was on display as usual, but which ones were the best and which ones were the worst in the opinion of Proactive?

Winners

BMW – ‘Talkin’ Like Walken’

Although there was a noticeable reduction in the number of automotive companies advertising this year, those that did largely centred their focus around new electronic vehicles.

Hollywood veteran Christopher Walken led the way in BMW’s advert for its new all-electric i5 sedan.

The 60-second advert features Walken encountering several people in his day-to-day life, however, all of them appear to mimic his well-known voice and cadence.

While the ad will likely have stuck in the minds of US viewers, investors in Germany may not have tuned in, with the group’s Frankfurt-listed shares trading flat on Monday.

Popeyes – ‘The Wait is Over’

Featuring Ken Jeong from the Hangover series, the sixty-second ad sees the comedian having been cryogenically frozen since the fast food chain’s inception in 1972.

Fifty years later he is unfrozen in time for the release of Poeyes’ chicken wings, with the actor comedically confusing the US chain with the fictional cartoon sailor.

A montage then highlights all of the changes Jeong has missed out on during the 50 years since being frozen.

A similar confusion about the name may have been made by UK consumers after the chicken shop confirmed it would be opening new sites in Britain back in October.

Travelodge teamed up with the group to bring a drive-thru service to its hotels, while stand-alone sites also opened up.

Losers

E-Trade – Picklebabies

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)’s electronic trading platform E-Trade presented a 30-second advert featuring two, very-clearly CGI-ed, babies trash-talking their opponents while playing pickleball.

Adverts during the spot tend to have larger budgets than typical commercials, but it doesn’t necessarily translate to higher quality.

The CGI babies look fake creating an uncanny valley effect, which compounded with adult voice actors makes for strange viewing.

Additionally, the advert is extremely similar to water brand Evian’s advert from almost a decade ago, which saw roller-skating babies dance around a park.

Dunkin Donuts – ‘The DunKings’

Ben Affleck features in the donut retailers advert alongside Matt Damon, Tom Brady and his wife Jennifer Lopez.

Affleck, along with Brady and Damon, form a boy band called “The DunKings” to surprise Lopez while she is in the recording studio.

It continues from an advert at the Grammys which focuses on Affleck’s desire to become a pop star.

However, the Super Bowl’s ad failed to impress featuring a forgettable song, a limp punchline and a reliance on viewers nostalgia over the link-up of the two Good Will Hunting stars.

The Real Winner? – The Sphere

Yet, it can be argued the real winner didn’t spawn from a US$7 million TV ad during the show, but instead was the giant orb which has garnered attention since its opening for its huge LED screens.

The Sphere, which is situated in Las Vegas, has been used for concerts and shows, whilst showcasing its revolutionary technology by projecting clear images of things like eyes, the sun and smiley faces.

The Sphere Source:MusicTech

However, owner Madison Square Garden Entertainment has highlighted that the venue isn’t just for art, but also packs a commercial punch.

With the Super Bowl taking place in Vegas for the first time this year, advertisers put off by the US$7 million price tag may have found themselves paying US$2 million to feature on the Sphere.

NFL sponsors such as FedEx, Verizon, AB InBev’s Budweiser and Adidas all placed unique ads on the Sphere during the Super Bowl week, each making the most of the 360 screens.

Plans for a UK version of the Sphere in Stratford were scrapped at the start of 2024 after the US investors backing the project said they’d grown tired of the “political football” surrounding its approval.

However, after seeing its potential during the Super Bowl and with the Euro 2028 football tournament taking place in the UK, politicians may regret their decisions.