Entertainment

Best & Worst Super Bowl Ads of 2017

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We can all agree Super Bowl LI was one of the greatest games of all time. Although the ratings were down from last year (111.3 million compared to last year’s 111.9), the game’s ratings peaked between 10:00pm and 10:30pm ET to a point that was higher than any point during year’s game.

Getting an ad spot on the Super Bowl broadcast is hallowed ground for brands. Usually we see the best advertisements during the Super Bowl. Some brands spend millions of dollars for that big payoff, and some spend that money in vain because viewers don’t quite understand or like the angle of the commercial. Here’s our list of the best and worst ads of this year’s Super Bowl.

Best

Here are our top 5 favorite ads from the Super Bowl in 2017.

5. Mr. Clean

This ad seems to have a bit of a split opinion. Some thought it was a bit creepy to see Mr. Clean with sex appeal. However, this commercial received 5 stars based on a survey of 6,000 US consumers, according to market researchers ZappiStore and BrainJuicer.  It also received an 83 percent emotion-to-action score, which means the emotional response to this commercial translated into potential in-market business effects.

4. Skittles: Romance

Skittles brought it home again with its unique sense of humor. This ad also received 5 stars and had an 83 percent emotion-to-action score. The commercial featured a young man trying to get the attention of his love interest (Katie), but instead fed his skittles to Katie, her parents, her grandmother, a robber, a policeman, and a gopher (beaver?).

3. Kia Niro-Melissa McCarthy, “I Need a Hero”

This year’s Super Bowl ads showed a similar trend that humor sells if you can do it in the right way. Kia did the right thing hiring the hilarious Melissa McCarthy to promote the eco vehicles. In a knee-slapping montage, McCarthy sends a message that while it may be difficult to be engaged in every good cause, it is easy to drive Kia’s eco-friendly vehicle.

2. Buick-Cam Newton/Miranda Kerr

Cam Newton didn’t come close to making a Super Bowl this year, but he did make a Super Bowl commercial this year with Buick. Newton showed off his arm, and Buick showed off their cool cars in an ad that followed a humorous model to success. Buick had 7,300 mentions per minute on social media.

1. Stranger Things Season 2

The “Stranger Things” (Season 2) trailer was something viewers could not get enough of. The ad collected 554,000 social actions, ranking number one in the category. (Budweiser was second and Mr. Clean was third.) The hit Netflix series spent good money and received excellent reactions to its commercial.

 

Worst

While other ads performed well, here are the top 5 ads that didn’t.

5. T-Mobile-#UnlimitedMoves with Justin Bieber

 


To be fair, the Wyoming Police Twitter and Adweek seemed to hate this ad more than we did. Adweek ranked this ad number one in its worst ad list. T-Mobile had a lot of great ads during the Super Bowl, but this one was just awkward.

4. Sprint: Dad fakes death

At least T-Mobile doesn’t have the Sprint spokesperson on its spot. You know, the guy who used to ask “Can you hear me now?” Maybe using this guy works, but this commercial seems over exaggerated. Also, some found Sprint’s ad to be insensitive because it made light of a father committing suicide.

3. Budweiser: Immigration

This Budweiser ad did not do well in terms of its rating and only got 2 stars, according to BrainJuicer and ZappiStore. There were several polarizing, political ads during this Super Bowl, and this ad wasn’t the only one with a pro-immigration message. Viewers didn’t react well to this message because the country seems to be split on issues such as immigration.

2. Hulu: A Handmaid’s Tale

This ad received a 1-star rating and received an emotionally-neutral response from viewers. It received comments such as “boring” and “didn’t stand out,” according to ZappiStore and BrainJuicer.

1. Cure Auto Insurance

Sometimes, trying humor just doesn’t work out. It is a delicate practice in advertisements. This ad received a 1-star score and had a high-contempt and disgust score. It was just creepy.

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