Best and worst Super Bowl ads 2024

The Super Bowl ads this year followed a similar pattern of previous years: just a few good ones, many bad ones, a lot of silly ones, and my biggest complaint – violence being used to sell products and services.

Years ago, I didn’t like Betty White being tacked onto the ground to sell Snickers bars and seniors and women being victimized in ads. This year, in a Doritos ad, two older women chase after a young man to sell the chips.

Again, the violent game of football paired with violent ads to sell products and violent movie and TV ads makes one concerned about in the media and how all that violence affects kids.

Best

President Biden's shrinkflation ad: Biden says people notice shrinkflation and it needs to stop.

Bass Pro Shops. Simply about what fun it would be to buy a boat.

Dunkin’ Donuts. A costumed Ben Affleck storms into a Dunkin’ Donuts and an unapproving Jennifer Lopez watches.

Bookings.com. Tina Fey hires body doubles including Glenn Close.

Dove. Girls are encouraged not to quit sports.

NFL. One ad is on combating bullying in kids and a second one is on supporting mental health.

Puyallup Indian Tribes. The ad describes its heritage, accomplishments, and environmental protection goals and work.

The Google Pixel 8. The ad describes the phone’s accessibility features for those with vision impairments.

Silly

State Farm. Arnold Schwarzenegger says “neighba” instead of neighbor.

Mountain Dew. Aubrey Plaza with a deadpan expression says she’s having a blast with the soda in different scenes.

Coors Light. A train explodes through scenes to deliver the beer.

Nestle Drumsticks. A TSA employee takes one out of a cooler at the airport.

Etsy. Its new gift mode helps people pick out cheese to send to France.

Frito-Lay. They taste like winning the Super Bowl.

Popeyes. A frozen Ken Jeong is thawed to find out the company finally has chicken wings.

Starry. Ice Spice is seeing the soda instead of her ex, lemon-lime soda.

Kawasaki. Buying the jeep causes the new owner and men and animals he drives by to grow mullets.

Bud Light. A genie grants wishes.

T-Mobile. Jason Mamoa sings and does a summersault to sell home internet.

Michelob Ultra. Lionel Messi doesn’t get his beer right away so he kicks a soccer ball around the beach for a while.

Hellmann’s Mayonnaise. Kate McKinnon has a cat that says “mayo.”

Uber Eats. Jenifer Aniston and others say when you learn something new you have to forget something else.

BMW. People talk in the same cadence as Christopher Walken.

Verizon. Beyonce tries to break Verizon’s 5G network.

Cerave. Michael Cera says he developed the skincare brand.

Worst

Paramount+ ad. Patrick Stewart throws an animated Pappa Pig.

Pringles. Chris Pratt buys some Pringles at a convenience store and a photo the clerk takes of him goes viral.

M&M. Dan Marino gets a Super Bowl ring made of compressed Peanut Butter M&Ms.

BetMGM. Tom Brady pretends to be other people because he’s banned from betting because he’s won too much.

Violent

Doritos. Two senior women, Dina and Mita, wrestle a package of chips away from a young man in violent scenes which seem to go on and on.

Peanut Butter Cups. Violence springs out when people are told caramel is going to be added to the top of the candy.

Spectrum. People punch holes in the walls to get a better internet signal.

Homes.com. Dan Levy takes over control of his great-uncle’s company with his helicopter blowing people around and oversized celebratory corks from huge champagne bottles smashing through the boardroom windows.

Especially bad

Pfizer. The importance of science, which looked positive until you found out it was paid for by the money-grubbing pharmaceutical company Pfizer.

VW. A historical review of the VW Beatle and other cars would be good, except this is the car company that lied about its pollution control devices on millions of its vehicles.

The cost of a 30-second Super Bowl ad this year is $7 million. That’s about the same as last year, but it’s a 55 percent jump from 2019.

What a waste of money and resources when our country is so short of funds for valuable programs to help people. As the poet William Wordsworth said “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.”