My Top 5 Super Bowl Ads of 2019

It’s that time of year again! Well, actually… I guess I skipped the past couple Super Bowls. But I’m back for my kinda, sorta, almost annual list of my top five favorite Super Bowl ads from the big game, as advertisers refer to it (side note: I think a Super Bowl spot making fun of advertisers using ‘the big game’ instead of ‘Super Bowl’ would be quite funny). You can view previous top five Super Bowl lists by clicking the ‘Super Bowl Ads‘ category. I feel like I’m keyword stuffing my blog now. On with the show…

5. Stella Artois — Change Up The Usual

The Big Lebowski and Sex and the City in the same ad? Brilliant! There’s something for everyone here. The Dude’s pronunciation of Stella Artois is what put this in the top five for me.

4. Washington Post — Democracy Dies in Darkness

With Tom Hanks narrating, this one grabbed my attention right away. But regardless of the narrator, this is a powerful spot championing journalism with many memorable moments and a touching tribute to journalists who have have been murdered. The ad ends with it’s famed Democracy Dies in Darkness tagline.

3. Colgate — Close Talker

With its extreme close-up of Luke Wilson and the fast-paced cuts, this one feels like a throwback to the hilarious Super Bowl ads from the ’90s. It would maybe be my No. 1 ad this year, but it was lacking a strong punch at the end. Also, this ad got me more excited to watch Seinfeld reruns (there’s that ’90s throwback again) than to run out and buy toothpaste.

2. Amazon — Not Everything Makes the Cut

This ad already had me roped in with Forest Whitaker trying to brush his teeth with his Alexa-connected toothbrush, but it kept my attention with Harrison Ford’s dog ordering and reordering tons of dog food. Closing the ad with a Queen hit was a timely, solid choice. At 90-seconds, it’s amazing to think Amazon spent some $15.6 million on this single spot; it could definitely be trimmed my :30 seconds.

1. DEVOUR — Food Porn

It was only a matter of time before some food brand came along and took advantage of the internet phenom known as ‘food porn.’ This ad is a cleaned up version of the original banned-from-the-big-game spot. I admit, the uncensored version definitely went too far. The :30 second spot is in much better taste.

Honorable Mentions:

Olay Killer: Skin — great play on the rise of facial recognition software, but lacking in execution.
bubly: “Can I have a bublé?” — this one had people talking at work, but it was a little too drawn out to make the cut.
Burger King: #EatLikeAndy — Here’s another one that got people talking. Overheard at work: “It was some guy dressed like Andy Warhol, but he looked weird.” I assure it was Andy Warhol.
Michelob Ultra: The Pure Experience — Makes the ‘honorable mentions’ list because ASMR.
T-Mobile — This was a series of cute, but all-too-true spots about how people communicate via text messaging.

What was your favorite Super Bowl ad of 2019?