My picks for awesome, awful, inclusive and weird super bowl ads

For years, I did a post about my top 10 Super Bowl ads. I think this year warrants a different approach. I felt it was an odd mix. Sure there were some awesome ads and I’ll go through them first. There were some that I thought really missed the mark. In the current political climate, where anything inclusive is being wiped away from our government and the NFL had to remove “End Racism” from their end zones, there seemed to be a number of ads that went out of their way to be inclusive and honor marginalized people. This included
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Tubi is my ad of the week

When I first watched the latest Tubi ad, I thought “Oh boy, they’re really laying it on thick here.” It had the stirring music swelling with emotion. It had a warm voiceover talking about how proud they were to offer free streaming to first responders, educators, volunteers building houses – complete with slow-motion hero footage. But then, the twist came. They were also proud to give it free to some of the less savory people in our society, day nappers, couples stealing copper pipes out of walls and kids who skip school and throw rocks at windows. It was a
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McClure Marketing ad of the week: Jim Bean 7 Stages of Defeat

As a lifelong Detroit Lions fan myself, I figured this ad featuring Keegan-Michael Key outlining the 7 stages of defeat (how to cope with your NFL team’s loss in the playoffs) would be cathartic. After all, we suffered the unexpected early loss to Washington this year after the soul-crushing defeat to San Francisco last year. I’m not sure which was worse, but I digress. In the ad, part of a bigger campaign, he walks through some of the stages fans are experiencing, including someone in the Surrender Cobra position for the “Shock” stage. He gives a dejected fan banging his
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You would think an ad depicting Dollar Shave Club, as a snooty, exclusive club you have to know the right password to get into would not work. After all, they disrupted the razor industry by offering inexpensive, quality shaving supplies direct to consumer. But it does work. Why? Because it is played with the same kind of irreverence that has always been the undertone of their brand. In fact, if feels more like a Saturday Night Live skit than a commercial. Even the robe given to the young man once he gets the password right is somewhat reminiscent of the
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