It’s game time! In honor of this year’s NFL Super Bowl, we’re ranking 17 of the 2022 Super Bowl Ads. From Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen’s hilarious Lay’s ad to Eugene Levy’s “Fast and Furious” style action flick commercial for Nissan, we’ve come up with our official Tier List from a Paid Social Advertising standpoint. Which of the 2022 Super Bowl Ads will come out on top? See it first here!
What is going on? My name is Gabe, and today we’re going to be ranking 17 different Super Bowl commercials based on the performance that they are going to get with Paid Social. So, what does that mean with Paid Social? One, we’re focusing on acquisition, not brand. Just because you can make me laugh, doesn’t mean I’m going to buy. You have to be able to as best conceptualize what the benefit of the product or service is that you’re selling in order for me to actually click on the ad.
You also need to lead with that benefit as well. So if you are talking about what’s so great about your product at the very end of the commercial, it’s going to be a bear in the woods situation. Is anybody going to be there long enough to find out? Because if it ain’t interesting, audience are just going to scroll right past. We’re also neglecting the length of time on Paid Social. Typically, you want 15 seconds or less. However, with these commercials, they’re a little bit more in length and in that one aspect, we’re not going to hold it against them.
2022 Super Bowl Ads: Tier List
If you want to be able to see these commercials in full, they will be at the end of this video and we’re going to be ranking them in four different tiers. Our top tier is based off of the Super Bowl halftime show, where it’s Dre Day all day, greatest Super Bowl halftime performance of all time. Followed by Prince’s Guitar. They are the prince, they’re number two and Prince was pretty dandy in himself for his halftime show.
Number three, it’s just whatever the Pop Star is at the moment. It works, it ain’t that great or it’s typically not going to be that memorable. Hey, but you know what? You’re going to get decent ratings, because it’s what’s hip right now. And then the fourth is, There’s Food In The Kitchen. I ain’t going to be watching this halftime show. I’d rather chug down a couple beers so I can forget about all the parlays I’m going to be losing for the rest of the game. It is nothing special for me to care. I’d rather just stuff myself with potato chips and wings.
Amazon
Cool. All right, so let’s get into the first one, which is Amazon. I will turn off the volume, because social media ads are listened with the volume off. Funny thing about this one, this is Amazon and Alexa, where it’s actually a sound on world and they do a pretty decent job to start out with it, where they are able to show the capabilities of Alexa and they’re also able to push that narrative of what Alexa could be. So, definitively changing how you operate in your life and the cool thing is how they show different elements of the people’s life and how Alexa can be able to push that forward in a funny way. Not the dandiest, but man, that plays a nice tune. Amazon, you are getting Prince’s Guitar.
BMW
And let’s go to BMW. Okay yeah, this has no idea what it’s talking about, so they’re talking about… I’m listening with the sound off right now with Arnold Schwarzenegger and he’s Zeus or something, but the electricity has… I don’t know what that ties into, and it doesn’t really talk about what’s great about the electric car. There’s food in the kitchen. I got to get that protein anyways, don’t I, Arnold?
Cutwater Spirits
All right, Cutwater. I’m actually listening to the volume on, I apologize if it gives it less of an experience. Yeah, it’s not talking to me anything about what’s going on. It’s just motivational, inspirational. What’s the benefit? Why should I care? They don’t lead with the benefit. Same thing, there is food in the kitchen. You’ve got to captivate me, and I’ll be honest with you, it is really hard to captivate me when I know there’s Jalapeño Poppers in the other room.
eToro
Cool. All right, next one, we got eToro. Great beginning. So, it starts with him walking down the street talking about crypto. We know that it’s about crypto. Fantastic. Then we see the ecosystem of people going through. It gives it a social bump as well, or social proof as well, everybody’s doing it. You see more product visuals, strong for down funnel operations — down funnel flow, we’ll call it. You even see the Doge dog. Yeah, for a Super Bowl commercial, that is Dre Day. I actually know what you do. We’re grading this also under a spectrum. The majority of these commercials are very much brand and not about acquisition.
Frito Lay
All right, Frito Lay, let’s get into it. Oh man, I got a hot take on this one. I might catch some heat. Okay commercial, they show that the chips have a little spice in them, but really aren’t able to differentiate it. They really push the brand and just the funny.
Hot take, and I come from a musical background for whatever that is, having DJed and produced hip hop for many years. Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It” is one of the most overrated songs of all time, at least hip hop songs of all time. Super catchy eight bars and then it’s on repeat, and then it’s on repeat, and then it’s on repeat. But man, those bars made Salt-N-Pepa a ton of dough. They definitely spiced that up. As this commercial is okay, it does the job and it at least gives some narrative that there’s flavor in their Doritos.
FTX
All right, one of my favorites for an entertainment standpoint, where we have Larry David talking about the wheel, “I don’t think so.” Then he talks about the toilets, “I don’t think so.” He talks about forks, “I don’t think so.” But it’s not talking about the benefit of the product at all, and once they do have that catch at the end, it doesn’t talk about specifically what makes this crypto product FTX even better. It’s hilarious, it’s great for TV, it’s great for a commercial, but yo man, if I’m scrolling through, I’m going to be watching that cute puppy video or I’ll be watching that cooking video about how to make things for the Super Bowl rather than watch that ad if it’s going through my social feed. Real is real.
General Motors
And now to talk about Dr. Evil, let’s go to General Motors. Love that they had Austin Powers there. I don’t think anybody was… I think everybody was very happy to be able to see this cut going on. It’s funny. It’s a nice little wrinkle to add to the Austin Powers story and the Dr. Evil story, but they don’t tell us anything about what’s going on in the store, as I don’t expect, it’s just a brand play.
Kia
Now, we’re going into Robo Dog. Who exactly is this? Kia. Cool, so it’s a little bit more branding, very much branding. However, there is one thing that it does get across because it’s Robo Dog. Because we learn that’s electronics, it does have an electronic play that’s talking about its cars, which makes it a slight differential. It is very close to in the kitchen, but we’re just going to call this… Who are the guys that say doo wop dilly dop dop doo wop? If they ever perform the halftime back in their day, that would be the low end Pop Star. It’s in the moments, but man, it is on the low end of Pop Star.
All right, so you can tell a lot of these Super Bowl commercials, they are paying for branding. They’re not getting acquisition campaigns, which is totally cool. A Super Bowl commercial is different than an ad on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok. Totally, totally get it, but we’re under the prism of Paid Social.
Lay’s
Now, this is my favorite ad, the Lays ad with Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen. It’s fantastic what they do. So, product placement of Lays throughout, it’s actually hilarious product placements of Lays throughout, where they talk about the different extravaganzas as they were growing up, like the first time they panicked. I think that’s hilarious as they’re breathing out a bag, they’re breathing out of a potato chips bag. They’re held hostage, the person gives them potato chip bags.
It’s very great product placement and then he gets married to a ghost or however you want to interpret it. I couldn’t stop laughing. When I first saw it, I couldn’t stop laughing, as I continue to see it. It is Dre all day. I wish I could sing Dr. Dre, I would’ve on there, just to show you how great it is. The only down part about that, it’s a really long commercial, but we are excluding the length.
Michelob Ultra
All right. Excuse me if I have to listen to this, this is Michelob ULTRA. I think this is a pretty strong commercial. Now, there’s no captions here, which is… Yeah, so they talk about the benefit right away, Michelob ULTRA, organic, zero sugar. I said that close to verbatim, so we have a pretty “lead with benefit.” This is why you should buy actual Michelob ULTRA. They tell you, they don’t just show you, they tell you. Awesome, that is good. And they continue to tell you throughout it as well. A good job of being able to put that benefit forward, you get a little guitar solo from Prince.
Nissan
All right, Nissan. Let’s see, love it. It’s a hilarious video. It does showcase the car and its capabilities to the extreme, in a very fun animated way, so it does showcase the brand, it’s not completely random and the car is at the center. It is much more branding, but it definitely does put the benefits forward. And as Levy is dressed here, he is a star. He is a Pop Star, a cheesy one at that, with that haircut. Great cinematography and a funny story as well.
Planet Fitness
All right, let’s get into the next one, which is Planet Fitness. Oh, yeah. Okay, this one is bomb diggity. So, what’s wrong with Lindsay? You see her working out at the 24 hour fitness… Not 24 fitness, Planet Fitness. So, they say Lindsay’s different, she’s better, they lead with the ultimate benefit. Then they have the sequence that supports what is making her better. Where we talk about she’s intelligent, she’s answering things on Jeopardy, she’s beating Dennis Rodman, she’s sleeping better. She is taking up hobbies, because she is working out, which is the benefit that they started and then they’re building on that story. Great stuff. And at the end too, as she’s walking out of Planet Fitness, she’s got that glow on her. Visualization. We’ve got a Dre Day, all day.
Pringles
All right, Pringles time. Now, who has not done this before? I’m pretty sure that I’ve actually done this intentionally and beat up a friend or something with it and just start smacking on them. But it doesn’t tell me anything about the product. Actually, if anything, it’s a negative response, because I don’t want to live until I’m 70, or actually, he dies. I don’t want to do that and live with a tin of Pringles on my hand, that’s a negative. It’s a funny negative, but it doesn’t tell me anything about the product.
Rakuten
All right, now we’re getting to Rakuten. Yeah okay, so it doesn’t lead with the benefits. There is a little bit benefit as it goes along, that you can be able to buy different things online as they’re doing the poker table like, “I bought that too. I bought that too.” But I’m still not aware really of what their service is and then you find out with Rakuten, you can be able to save a little bit of money and that is at the very end instead of being at the beginning. So because of that, it’s a Pop Star. It’s a Pop Star.
It does a little bit of the benefit so this is under a spectrum. However, if this was normal ads, if they were made for Paid Social, most likely it would be down a lower tier. But with the mold that these videos are, it is a Pop Star.
Salesforce
All right, next one, Salesforce. This is a straight branding, it tells me nothing. Salesforce is at the point, and so are a lot of these companies, where they don’t care about acquisition, they’re into it for the long, long play, so that’s why they’re trying to mold our minds in thinking about how they work. But yeah, from an acquisition standpoint, no one is ever going to click on that ad. Or people will, maybe they just want Matthew McConaughey’s number, find out if they can do any deeper interactions with him.
Sam’s Club
All right, Sam’s Club. Kevin Hart. Good. So, you find out that you can scan and go right from the get go. It makes you laugh, lets you know that you can be able to cut lines. It tells the benefits. I wish it could give a little bit more into how it actually works, but it does a good job. It does stand out amongst the bunch and good job there.
Verizon
All right, now we’re going to end with our last one, which is Verizon. We are not going to be doing Squarespace, so it was 17 videos in total. Jim Carrey, it doesn’t lead with the benefit, but it’s close enough in a sense. No, actually that’s being biased. It doesn’t lead with the benefits, but it does talk about what’s great about Verizon’s internet, how it’s mobile, you can be able to do it yourself. Not mobile, but just you can be able to do it yourself, it’s small and compact. A person’s able to run their business from it.
I wish it could have done a little bit better job of separating itself, but actually I’m going to put that… That’s the best Pop Star. We’ll call that a Justin Timberlake or Britney Spears. I’m sorry for that controversy, but if they perform at the halftime show, you know people are going to be watching it. Not the best references, but you understand the category of good pop stars, popular pop stars that are going to stay long in the public zeitgeist for longer than two years.
Final Thoughts
So, good stuff on there. Let us know what you think about the rankings. Is there a different one? Oh, Lay’s, tip top. Would you have a different video at the top? Would you have any different rankings throughout this Tier List? Let us know in the comments below and you can be able to watch these commercials (2022 Super Bowl Ads) now just right after I’m out of here.
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