Culture

The Best Super Bowl Commercials, From Avocados to Zelda

Things may have gotten political this year, but that didn't mean the ads were humorless.
Image may contain Miranda Kerr Human Person Clothing Apparel People Helmet and Cam Newton

The Super Bowl, in its current form, is known for two things: football, and companies spending millions to get a 30-second spot on the air in between touchdowns. Super Bowl LI was no different. But this year, not too surprisingly, things got political. Just a week after President Trump signed his executive order on immigration, Budweiser's Super Bowl ad celebrated the contributions of foreign nationals. Audi's spot called for equal pay for women. Kia turned Melissa McCarthy into an eco-warrior. And 84 Lumber made an ad with a border wall—but that one was found to be too controversial to put on TV. But there were some fun ads, too. (To wit: The avocado lobby taking on the Illuminati.) The best of the best are below, just in case you were on a snack run when they aired.

  • Eberhard Anheuser meets German immigrant Adolphus Busch in this tale of the founding of one of America’s most well-known breweries. Is it a not-subtle commentary on President Trump’s immigration policy? Yes. But does it make its point? Also yes.
  • Audi gives a full-throated endorsement of equal pay for women in this ad where a father watches his daughter (spoiler alert) win a soapbox derby race. All together now: *Awwww*.
  • 84 Lumber's ad depicts a mother-daughter journey across many miles. The original version of the commercial, which contained [an image of a border wall](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/business/media/super-bowl-advertising-fox-border-wall.html?_r=0), was turned away by Fox, so the building supply chain cut the ad short and made the rest available on its website—like Go Daddy, except not gross.
  • The Illuminati, like Gretchen Weiners’ hair, is full of secrets. And in this ad, the biggest one they have to keep is about the health benefits of avocados. Hey, if they can keep the guac flowing, it might be a good PR move for them—especially after they got [disavowed by Beyoncé](https://genius.com/8640029).
  • Has the game distracted you from worrying about the world turning into a complete dystopia? Worry not, here's a trailer for Hulu's adaptation of *A Handmaid's Tale!*
  • “Why are you watching a game when you could be *playing* a game?” this first-ever Super Bowl commercial from Nintendo asks. Well, why? Oh yeah, because the Switch doesn’t come out until March 3. Carry on.
  • Want to see how Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton would fare on a pee-wee league team? Buick is here to show you. It would also like to show you that they can get model Miranda Kerr in their ad.
  • Brett Favre has a conspiracy-theorist yarn chart about who's really to blame for all of his interceptions. The culprit? Buffalo Wild Wings, for some reason. (Saucy fingers, maybe?)
  • John Malkovich evokes his vaguely (or not so vaguely) threatening persona for Squarespace. This is only medium funny, but the detail that Malkovich wants the JohnMalkovich.com domain because he's working on a clothing line makes it distinctly charming.
  • Honestly, we have no idea why Melissa McCarthy is playing an accident-prone environmentalist for Kia. But here she is!
  • Wix outdoes Squarespace in the battle of web-design firm ads by booking Jason Statham and Gal Gadot. Sorry, John Malkovich—you can't compete with Wonder Woman.
  • This new trailer for *Logan* didn't give us much we hadn't seen before in previous trailers, but it was definitely more action-packed. If this movie does, indeed, become Hugh Jackman's final turn as Wolverine, he's going out swinging.
Angela Watercutter is WIRED's senior editor for special projects. Prior to joining WIRED she was a reporter for the Associated Press. Watercutter was also a senior editor of Longshot magazine and a contributor to Pop-Up Magazine. She received a bachelor of science degree in journalism from Ohio University. ... Read more
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