This year’s Super Bowl commercials avoided the controversial and political for the most part while sticking to entertainment and laughs. There were a few surprising guest spots as well as unexpected punch lines.
Celebrities helped boost the humor in some ads and fictional characters provided comedy in running gags by companies. Although staying non-political, at least a couple of commercials included messages.
As in the past, humor did dominate Super Bowl ads. Here are the seven best Super Bowl commercials for 2018:
1. Amazon — A star-studded cast graced “Alexa Loses Her Voice” to find a replacement for Amazon’s Alexa. Academy Award-winning actor Anthony Hopkins can be seen feeding a peacock while there were other appearances by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, actress Rebel Wilson, and rapper Cardi B. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos also joined in, taking time out from his business duties.
2. Tide — A series of mini-ads ran throughout the Super Bowl. The commercials seemed more like ads for other products. David Harbour of “Stranger Things” provided laughs with jokes during each segment. In the end of each ad, he reminded everyone that these were indeed Tide ads.
3. Bud Light — In a “Game of Thrones” world, Bud Knight comes to the rescue during a two-part commercial. He takes advantage of Bud Light’s “Dilly Dilly” phrase to help the underdogs win a battle over a threatening army. Of course, he rewards himself with cases of the beer.
4. Lexus — The Black Panther jumps into the driver’s seat of a Lexus LS 500 F Sport to also promote the Marvel film of the same name. Diving through the luxury car’s sunroof, the hero leaps into the air as a reminder of what is to come in the movie.
5. Groupon — Viewers are reminded to support local businesses with the help of comedian Tiffany Haddish. To push the point further, the commercial turns to a wealthy man who says he doesn’t support local businesses. Suddenly, he takes a blow to the stomach from a kicked football. Haddish reminds viewers that it must not have felt so good.
6. NFL — The NFL scored with a charmer that showed New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning and wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. performing the choreography from the movie "Dirty Dancing" — complete with their version of Patrick Swayze's iconic lift of Jennifer Grey.
7. M&Ms — Danny DeVito makes a surprise visit to the Super Bowl ad category, playing an M&M. He walks around asking people if they would like to “eat me.” When they’re not interested, he celebrates until he gets hit by a truck.
And now some losers:
8. Coca-Cola. Diet Coke attempted to be quirky by showcasing a woman awkwardly dancing to a rap song, but it garnered a lot of negative comments on social media when the approach came off more weird than quirky.
"It has no clear message and it's not really interesting," said Kimberly Whitler, a marketing professor at the University of Virginia.
9. Fiat Chrysler's Ram Trucks. Ram trucks used a speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., to illustrate its motto, "Built to Serve." The ad, timed to the 50th anniversary of the speech, showed people doing good deeds. But some thought the connection to the civil rights hero was too tenuous.
"Ram is being heavily criticized for its spot," said Tim Calkins, marketing professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. "The use of MLK to promote Ram trucks strikes many people are crass and inappropriate."
(The Associated Press contributed to this article.)
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