The Best Super Bowl Ad of 2022 (by far)

There is no shortage of Super Bowl ad reviews, naturally. I mean other than discussing the game, the next best thing is debating what spot was good and those who were, well, not worth effort, let alone the hefty price tag.

To save you the trouble of searching, here are three articles, all with their own take and grades on the spots.

• Super Bowl 56 ads: Grading the best, worst commercials at the Big Game (Yahoo)
• The Best Super Bowl LVI Ads: From Lizzo and Google to Lindsay Lohan and Planet Fitness (Newsweek)
• The best (and worst) Super Bowl commercials: Lizzo, cranky Zeus and more (NPR)

Before I get to the spot I believe was the best, here are some of my honorable mentions.

Dr. Evil – GM

Mike Myers returns as Dr. Evil, along with other original cast members and they pull it off.

Lays Super Bowl 2022 with Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd

This spot made me laugh and that in it of itself is saying something.

Lizzo in Real Tone

Great example of where you don’t need to be cute or funny; just tell us the story; show us what makes your product so different and they did that, perfectly.

Zeus & Hera | BMW USA

Arnold plus my all-time celeb crush Salma Hayek with Eddy Grant mixed in? Puh-leeze! I may make this my ringtone.

Drum Roll, Please…

As for the spot that I think was the best, here it is:

Why Steve?

• No dialogue. Absolutely none needed, none given. Perfect.
• The Sopranos is enjoying a resurgence, attracting a younger audience to go with its original fans. So the spot appeals to multiple demos.
• Notice the characters used in the spot. You did not see Christopher Moltisanti, Silvio Dante or Jennifer Melfi. No, you saw Meadow and AJ Soprano, two of the youngest characters who can relate much more to this younger crop of new fans. Very smart.

And did you catch the level of detail the creators went to? Sure, the same music, sights, buildings as the original but if you blinked you missed the detail right down to how Tony exited his vehicle each week to how his daughter did the same in the spot.

But Wait, There Is More

Here’s the thing boys and girls and you won’t read this while poring over article after article grading and reviewing the Super Bowl ads, except in this one of course 😀… It truly does not matter what I think of ANY Super Bowl ad. Nor does it matter what you or anyone else thinks. Unless you or I are in the target demo for a given brand, who cares what we think?

For example, lots of people hated the Coinbase spot.

Well, somebody liked it because it “was so popular it crashed the app.”

So it truly doesn’t matter what all the “experts” believe, say, and write. They, and that includes me, can voice any opinion we want. But unless we are either an existing customer or prospect of said given brand, no one cares.

Least of all the brand itself.