In a highly entertaining Super Bowl LII yesterday, the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the New England Patriots 41-33 to win their first ever Super Bowl. Led by quarterback Tom Brady, the Patriots, as defending champions and five-time winners of the Super Bowl, had been the favorites going into the February 4th game at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. But in a thrilling game that set the record for most total yards in an NFL game, Philadelphia's Nick Foles and the Eagles proved unstoppable, winning the city's first Lombardi Trophy.
On average, over a third of Americans tune in each year to watch the Super Bowl, making it the most-watched television event in the United States annually. The game's high viewership accounts in part for the exorbitant going price of an advertising spot in this year's broadcast. NBC asked advertisers to pay a little over $5 million for each 30-second commercial aired during Super Bowl LII. But viewers have come to anticipate Super Bowl commercials, which are often elaborate or buzzworthy, and watching Super Bowl ads has become a ritual in its own right. Every year, the Super Bowl commercials generate lots of conversation, both on social media and in real life, and continue to garner millions of views on Youtube and other video-hosting sites long after the game has ended. Here are a few that stood out in this year's crowded field of advertisements.
Netflix and The Cloverfield Paradox Premiere
In its bid for Super Bowl-advertising fame, Netflix surprised viewers with a first look at the highly anticipated Cloverfield Paradox, a sequel to the 2008 box-office success Cloverfield, a horror film shot to look like home footage. The streaming company took the element of surprise a step further by actually making The Cloverfield Paradox available for viewing online immediately after the game. Before its surprise release yesterday, little had been known about the third film in the Cloverfield franchise, which was produced by J.J. Abrams, though speculation about the movie and its premiere have been mounting in Hollywood. Netflix's Super Bowl commercial for the film was the first released trailer for the film, a bold move that is characteristic of the Cloverfield movies.
Crocodile Dundee Trailer by Tourism Australia
Comedian and actor Danny McBride stars as Ryan Dundee, son of Crocodile, in what initially appears to be a trailer for a Crocodile Dundee sequel. McBride teams up with Chris Hemsworth, Australia's sweetheart, in a sequence that sees the pair exploring Australia's "beautiful beaches" and trying its "amazing wine" and fine restaurants. "This isn't a movie---it's a tourism ad for Australia," McBride realizes at the commercial's end. And it is---though the fictitious film used as its set-up is believable enough.
Tide: "It's a Tide Ad."
Even with the price of 30 seconds of airtime at $5.1 million, the detergent company Tide ran four advertisements, one in every quarter of the Super Bowl, in a clever campaign starring Stranger Things actor David Harbour. Riffing on Coca-Cola commercials, Old Spice's The Man Your Man Could Smell Like, and other famous marketing spots, the Tide commercials feature Harbour interrupting "typical" Super Bowl ads to remind viewers, "It's a Tide ad." By the fourth quarter, it did indeed seem like every ad might be a Tide ad.
Amazon's Alexa Loses Her Voice
Amazon's commercial for its voice assistant Alexa was a more standard Super Bowl offering, featuring several celebrity appearances as Gordon Ramsey, Cardi B, Rebel Wilson, and Anthony Hopkins step up to take Alexa's place after "she" loses her voice. Amazon's own Jeff Bezos also makes a cameo to call in the "replacements".
