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SALT LAKE CITY — While many tuned in to Super Bowl LVI this past Sunday to watch Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp, Von Miller, Aaron Donald and the Los Angeles Rams defeat the upset-minded Cincinnati Bengals to secure their second Lombardi Trophy, others were sprawled out across couches of all shapes and sizes, indulging in Super Bowl snacks of all variations for one reason: to watch the commercials.
To determine the winners and losers of the game of advertising, Utah's MāHK Advertising experts on Monday held their very own "Ad Bowl," where they ranked commercials and doled out superlatives of many different varieties to paint a clearer picture of the companies and advertisements that won and lost on Super Bowl Sunday.
Monday's Ad Bowl was the 27th in the company's history — the first used a VCR to play the commercials — and the activity is a company favorite, said Tal Harry, partner and executive vice president of MāHK Advertising.
"We get together (and) we look at all the ads. We cheer, we jeer, we do everything in between and kind of select what we think are the best ads of the Super Bowl," he said.
Harry has seen an abundance of Super Bowl commercials in the 27 years since Ad Bowl began and he said that there are two main themes he looks for and appreciates while digesting advertisements.
"There are a portion (of advertisements) that are always very topical and try to take advantage of some of the social issues or other trendy topics and others that are just creative and that's, I think, what we like the most — those that are just genuinely creative," Harry said.
For the Ad Bowl, MāHK Advertising employees gather and rewatch the Super Bowl commercials, giving a score between 1 and 5 for each one, establishing a ranking as more commercials are watched. At the end, employees vote among the candidates to award advertisements in seven different categories:
Most Valuable Ad Award
This description for this award goes without saying, as it is the advertisement that the MāHK Advertising team believed to be the overall best in terms of creativity, writing, production and messaging. After all the voting had settled, the winner of the 2022 MāHK Advertising Most Valuable Ad was Amazon's "Mind Reader" that asked the question, "What if our electronic devices really could read our minds?"
Best Low Budget Award
Best Low Budget was awarded to the advertisement that made the most of the resources it was able to allocate to a commercial, even if it didn't have the wow factor that more advanced commercials, like ones utilizing computer-generated imagery, are able to conjure. Coinbase, the winner of this category, produced a simple, yet memorable commercial that featured a floating QR code meandering around the screen to promote its cryptocurrency exchange platform.
Celebrity Sack Award
Everyone has disliked an advertisement that uses a celebrity. Maybe you aren't a fan of the particular celebrity, maybe you just don't think the advertisement showed their best qualities. Either way, we've all been there. This year, the distinction of Celebrity Sack was given to T-Mobile for their commercial featuring Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton, an advertisement that the MāHK Advertising team felt didn't do as well as it could have given that it contained two iconic and influential personalities.
Championship Chuckle Award
Some Super Bowl commercials become inseparable from the brands they're advertising for, usually sticking around in the minds of viewers for years after they aired for one reason: They made us laugh. While this category was a competitive one, with worthy nominees such as Bic's commercial featuring Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart, the award for the commercial that incited the most laughter was awarded to Amazon's 'Mind Reader,' making it the only advertisement from 2022's slate that took home multiple awards.
Illegal Use of Money Award
Have you ever seen a film with millions of dollars in production costs that you just didn't enjoy? Turns out, the same thing applies to commercials, especially considering advertisers pay around $7 million for a spot to run an advertisement during the Super Bowl. Fans of the "ManningCast" that featured brothers Peyton and Eli Manning and accounted for the top seven most-watched alternate broadcasts in ESPN history might not be happy, as Pepsi's commercial featuring the same duo was voted by the MāHK Advertising team as being the biggest waste of money among all of the commercials.
Creative Fumble Award
Some commercials seem like billion-dollar ideas in theory, but the execution leaves a little (or a lot) to be desired. This was true for Bud Light's "Land of the Loud Flavors" commercial that featured Food Network star Guy Fieri. The MāHK Advertising team viewed it as a decent idea, but thought it left a lot to be desired, especially with what they estimated to be high production costs.
Should Have Punted Award
Football is increasingly becoming a game of analytics, with coaches rolling the dice and going for it on fourth down at unprecedented rates, sometimes to the anguish of fans. The MāHK Advertising team felt the same way about a few of the advertisements in this year's slate, but none more than Budweiser's commercial, which featured its iconic Clydesdale horse. While the horse is iconic, and this year's rendition on the fixture features a Clydesdale who suffers an injury before eventually recovering, employees at MāHK Advertising felt that the bit has been played out and would have preferred a fresher spin on things.
Overall, Harry said that this year's commercials were strong, but not spectacular.
"I think the belief is there weren't as many great ads, but there also weren't as many really, really bad ads. It seems like in the past, we've had a little bit more separation, and a lot of bad ads," he said.
As far as the future of Super Bowl commercials, Harry said that he "absolutely" expects to see advertisements follow the lead of companies like Coinbase that featured interactive advertisements.
"Research is showing that consumers are actually spending as much time or they're multi-purposing on their devices. ... They're sending it to their friends and they're actually engaging, looking up ads, looking up brands, looking up products," Harry said. Those interested in watching more 2022 Super Bowl commercials can do so here.
