The Best Super Bowl 55 Commercials

 Another Super Bowl has come and gone and for all the non-sporting fans that meant another round of fantastic commercials. This year, however, some major companies had decided to opt-out from having any ad time during the big game. Budweiser, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, and Ford all elected not to spend their money on ad space but rather invest in COVID relief funding to help the facilitation of the COVID vaccine across America.

This noble effort meant that while the commercials lost some of the bigger names, it opened the opportunity for some other businesses to showcase their quirky side in the upcoming commercial slots. Yet, with an opening bid of $5.5 million for a commercial spot, it was great to see those big brands decide to invest in COVID relief instead.

As per the norm, many of the companies had decided to release footage of their commercial well before the airing of the Super Bowl. Bud Light even elected to release an entire teaser campaign simply for their commercials. This method of advertising goes to show just how companies decide to push the limits of quirkiness, innovation, and humor when it comes to Superbowl commercials, after all, with close to 100 million people tuning in for the game, these commercials need to be eye-catching and memorable. The companies that pre-released their commercials for Superbowl 55 were Tide, Chipotle, Bud Light, Pringles, Mercari, Michelob Ultra, Vroom, Cheetos, Doritos, and Amazon. While there were a lot more commercials during the game itself, these are the ones that fans of the Super Bowl commercials were able to enjoy well before the kick-off.

So, without further ado, here are our picks for the best Super Bowl commercials.

Jeep: The Middle

The Jeep commercial during the Super Bowl seemed to pull on heartstrings from all Americans as it cleverly encapsulated the desire to return to a normal American way of life after the past year. During the past year, Americans watched as they experienced hardships of economic struggles brought on by a global pandemic. There were also heated demonstrations as everyone became entrenched during a political battle that caused a deep rift between the people of this great nation. It seemed that the closing of the 2020 year came with a giant exhalation with the promise of a fresh change in the coming calendar year. This promise of a better year seemed to sit day dreamily on the mind of everyone from coast to coast as they remember days of immense American pride and the understanding of being united as a nation with the understanding that everyone seems to be bursting with national pride.

The beginning of the commercial depicts the heartland or middle of America being detached from the rest of the country. It also expresses the desire of middle America to be validated again as a place for hard work and the necessity of unifying the country through the “tough knuckles” of the Midwest region of the United States. Through the representation of Kansas, open prairies, tumbleweeds, and barbed wire fences, we are to understand that the “middle part” of this country is seen as a place of hard work and determination. As the commercial closes, there are depictions of men tiredly sitting on front porches which further drives home the notion of the Midwest being a place filled with hard-working people that also enjoy small, simple activities after a long day of work. As it calls for unity across the entirety of this country, it is easy to understand the heartstrings being pulled on every American after the difficult year we have all endured together.

 

Toyota: Upstream

Even a person that lends themselves to being a skeptic enjoys the sensation of feeling their heart glow from watching an advertisement. One of those ads this year was from Toyota with its “Upstream” commercial, celebrating the achievements and struggles of Paralympic champion Jessica Long. Using inspiring voiceovers, some brilliant set design, dramatic lighting, and inspired directing, this one-minute commercial follows Long swimming through the stage as actors recreate the call her adopted parents received, detailing their soon to be child’s medical condition and the necessity to amputate her legs.

In such a short window of time, it recaps her early struggles, her introduction to swimming, and her journey to becoming a Paralympic gold medalist. It is a story of inspiration and motivation – something we all need a little more of right now. Keeping an eye towards everything the country has experienced in the past year, from a global pandemic, riots, lockdowns, failing economy, and our Capitol being defiled, it is a complete “breathe of fresh air” to see an advertisement that has the ability to warm the heart and melt the soul.

 

Tide: Jason Alexander Hoodie

Tide returns this Superbowl with another great commercial. The commercial revolves around the trying times of a teenage boy’s Jason Alexander hoodie. For those unfamiliar with the name, Jason Alexander plays the lovable character, George Costanza in the uber-successful Seinfeld. The commercial itself is filled with humor as we see the face on the hoodie change expressions as it is put through various troubling situations, the funniest probably being the little piece of lettuce from the trash sitting perfectly on his open mouth. We even get a funny outro where Jason Alexander himself pleads for his face back, it pertains wholly to the power of the Tide Pods to remove stains, as many of their commercials have done so. The creativity they used within this commercial, however, places it higher above the rest.

Something that many people may have missed was the homage this commercial paid to the show Seinfeld and the character of George himself. The song playing in the commercial, “Believe it or not” by Joey Scarbury was parodied in the Seinfeld episode titled “The Susie,” where we get to hear Jason Alexander singing out his answering machine message to this same tune. For some reason, knowing this fact makes the commercial even better and the fact that Jason Alexander appears in all his George Costanza glory at the end places this ad as one of the best to grace the screen during the big game. Tide has successfully released a genuinely great commercial worthy of the Super Bowl ad space.

 

T-Mobile

T-Mobile boasted of their awarding-winning service and their reliable network in their commercials this year. They brought their A-game with three top-tier commercials this year featuring cameos from some of America’s most beloved stars. I think the T-Mobile commercial that takes it all must be the one that showed us that call between TB12 and Gronk. It was already a funny commercial, it just made it so much better because they incorporated the current situation into it. In my eyes, T-Mobile killed all the competition and went undefeated tonight.

Anthony Anderson’s T-Mobile ad was another extremely good one because it shows his entire family competing in flag football and as he is beating his mother’s team, she has a “distant relative” in Travis Kelce appear in the ad to dominate the rest of their game. Anthony Anderson has been a creative ambassador for T-Mobile and is inspiring by putting his mom in all his commercials as well.

 As always, The Super Bowl did not hold any punches with this year’s commercials, which makes it so hard to choose which one would be the best. Early on, we got to see Lil Baby in a Rockstar Energy Drink commercial, Drake in the State Farm Khakis, and even Cardi B joined UberEATS & the cast of Wayne’s World to tell us to eat local. Yet, these commercials stood out the most in our minds.

Another Super Bowl in the books and we wanted to congratulate the Tampa Bay Buccaneers one more time as well as Tom Brady for their superb win. Now, the big question on everyone’s mind is, what will the next set of Super Bowl commercials bring to the table?

Spectacular Magazine writers Greg Hansbrough, Matt Curry, and James Moore, Jr. contributed to this article.