Well, folks, it has happened once again — and for the fifty-first time, it just so happens. A Super Bowl has seen its kickoff, its halftime, its drives, its turnovers, its calls both good and bad, and its final two-minute warning. While people may soon enough forget that on February 5th, 2017, the New England Patriots beat the Atlanta Falcons with a score of 24 to 10 to win Super Bowl LI, that’s what Google and Wikipedia are for. Who remembers things these days, anyway? No, really… who? We can’t remember.
And anyway, the football is essentially secondary anyway, right? The modern Super Bowl is little more than a vehicle for wacky halftime shows, a good deal of gambling, a great deal of drinking, and of course the chance for dozens of companies to create the best Super Bowl commercial they can possibly muster.
And indeed The 2017 Super Bowl saw its share of great commercials. It also saw some god-awful rubbish, but that’s not our concern right now. (We have another article dedicated to the advertising detritus from Super Bowl LI, of course.) No, right now we’re here to talk to you about some truly excellent advertising. Here, people, are the Top 5 Best Commercials of the 2017 Super Bowl!
(And yes, we do absolutely invite your ascent, your outrage, or your polite suggestions of ads we should have included. We may be the experts, but it’s not like we um… well… actually, let’s just get to the best ads of Super Bowl 51 before dig ourselves any deeper.
#5 – Â HONDA – Yearbooks
The 2017 Honda Super Bowl commercial managed to be both motivating and amusing, with comical turns from comical people (Steve Carell and Jimmy Kimmel, anyone?) and inspiring words from well-respected people (Robert Redford, e.g.) and, while it didn’t necessarily make us want to buy a Honda CRV or any other car, the ad is an undeniable pleasure to watch and did leave us with a warmer feeling for the Honda brand. And that smells like a success to us.
#4 – AVOCADOS FROM MEXICO – Secret Society
When something is genuinely funny, we don’t really care what it’s advertising, do we? We just appreciate the humor. So while the premise of the Avocados from Mexico commercial — namely a secret society that protects lots of huge secrets, one of which is the health merits of the avocado — does not necessarily make sense, the brand’s Super Bowl LI commercial was rich enough with comedy gold that we are more than willing to overlook the slightly tenuous connection between an odd underground cabal and a healthy, tasty food imported from Mexico.
#3 – T-MOBILE – BagOfUnlimited
We all love people who can poke fun at themselves, and Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg clearly have no problem doing that. The fact that their playful back-and-forth banter in this winning Super Bowl ad is both amusing and feels organic is a testament to good writing and good casting, but really it’s just proof that both Snoop and Stewart are quite comfortable in their own skins. Â And hey, the ad even teaches you a thing or two about what T-Mobile offers its customer!
# 2 – AUDI – Daughter
We all like to feel good, right? So it’s no great surprise that a commercial that makes us feel good is… wait for it… a good commercial. And if the Audi 2017 Super Bowl commercial doesn’t make you feel a warm tingling inside, then you might want to get your insides checked, because you might have a case of misogyny on your hands. This ad is well photographed, it calls us all out to be our best, and has a cute kid. So, in other words, it’s one of our favorite commercials from Super Bowl 51.
# 1 – BUD LIGHT – Ghost Spuds
You win this round, Bud Light. It’s not really a surprise that a brand with years of experience advertising in the Super Bowl and without concerns over budget could assemble a great commercial. And yes, many past Bud Light Super Bowl ads have been great, so we were even tempted to downgrade this ad just to give some other brands their due, but dammit, the 2017 Bud Light Super Bowl commercial is just very well made. The actor is great in his nonchalant everyman role, the dog’s voice acting is spot-on, and the several jokes in the commercial land on both feet. So this here is our pick, people: the 2017 Bud Light Super Bowl commercial was the best of the entire game.
