Just in case I did and I didn't remember, I looked through my history on Wailing And Failing. And then I realized that what I thought was my annual blog post wasn't. I was close to missing the one for last Year's Super Bowl LV, but I also missed one for Super Bowl LIV the Year before. And I have missed a few over the Years as well. So maybe doing such a post hasn't been that important to me, at least not in the past.
I also saw something when I went to review last Year's Super Bowl ads. I knew in my heart a couple of them were funny, but as I went down the list of rankings according to the Ad Meter of USA Today, I saw only a couple that I thought were funny at the time. I went back to 2020's Super Bowl LIV and same thing. So it's possible I had forgotten to do one or two or three of these "Best Of" blog posts because I didn't think there were enough good ones for me to justify a blog post on them.
But now, right now, I still want to do one recap. Actually, two. So as long as I have not regularly done such a post, and I have the itch to make up for past mistakes (even though it won't make up for all the Super Bowls after which I did not make a piece about its commercials), I think I'll talk -- not long, but I'll talk -- about the best commercials for the previous two Super Bowls. And I'll post the advertisements down here.
Super Bowl LIV
Third Place: Bud Light, "Inside Post's Brain"
Before this spot, I really had no idea who Post Malone was. What I knew was he was some sort of musician -- is he a rapper? Frankly I still don't know -- and he has a lot of distracting face tattoos. Call me a sucker, but after seeing this ad where he, well, shows up in muted winterish gear to a small neighborhood grocery, flings his body around while he's being "controlled" by people who either want him to buy Bud Light or hard seltzer, then deliver lines with expert deadpan, I think I would like this guy.
Second Place: Pringles, "Rick And Morty"
I don't quite remember this commercial, you know, like this. I may have seen a 15-second version of it. Anyway, similarly to Post Malone, I have never seen a single second of Rick And Morty. And similarly to the Post Malone spot, after seeing this witty, smart and somewhat paranoid commercial, I kind of want to get into the TV show. If I ever get cable, of course.
First Place: Hyundai, "Smaht Pahk"
Yeah, so it goofs on accents. I'll admit that I liked this commercial the most, and I am liking more commercials for Super Bowls these days, based on cameos. It was somewhat of a masterstroke to get Captain America himself, Chris Evans, The Office's John Krasinski, and Saturday Night Live legend Rachel Dratch to act as if they're old friends in a neighborhood back in their hometown of Boston while utilizing Artificial Intelligence to show off Hyundai's newest feature, remote parking and un-parking. Someone at the ad agency thought of the phrase "Pahk the cah in Hahvahd Yahd" and exhausted their budget in getting those three and adopted Bostonian David Ortiz. And I have to say it worked for me, more than any other commercial for Super Bowl LIV.
Super Bowl LV
Second Place: M&M's, "Come Together"
Of the five commercials I cite here, this probably is the only who's best attribute is the premise and not the famous people in them (although this is the one where Schitt's Creek's Dan Levy takes a funny turn featuring keeping the red M&M hostage in Levy's car). A series of vignettes featuring people giving M&M's to other people as a peace offering gets funnier with each situation, ending with Levy and the red M&M. Now I'm not a fan of M&M's -- I should blog post about why I hated M&M's as a child -- so I wouldn't pass out bags of M&M's as a way of apologizing. But this nonetheless is a clever spot.
First Place: State Farm, "Drake From State Farm"
The famous people make this advertisement -- Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers (who is a very good actor, just not some guy you should trust with dealing with the coronavirus), that guy who was in Rodger's State Farm commercials during the "Discount Double Check" campaign, and Ant-Man himself (and famous Kansas City Chiefs fan), Paul Rudd. But it's the last of the three stand-ins (for Rodgers, Mahomes and the ubiquitous Jake From State Farm) who are chilling alongside the stars they're standing in for in this "behind the scenes" spot that caught my eye the most: The stand-in for Jake From State Farm is ... Drake From State Farm. I'm not saying he should win an Oscar or anything, but I remember him in another Super Bowl commercial, the one goofing off of his "Hotline Bling" video for T-Mobile. I not only was impressed by his acting chops (even though he came from the acting world; his big break was his role in Degrassi High), but also his willingness to subsume his ego. By that I mean this: Can you think of any star, let alone any megastar rapper, who would don a costume of a red polo shirt with the insignia of an insurance company and khakis to play someone who is a lot less famous than he is? Drake has done that. I have a feeling that Drake wouldn't mind doing that again, whether it be in another commercial or, if the acting bug bites him again, a role in a TV show or movie. Somehow I think that makes him really, really cool. And the way he delivers his lines in this ad puts it over the top for Super Bowl LV.
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