Best Super Bowl Ads 2022: New Path Hot Takes

We spent our Valentine’s Day morning, as any rational team does, discussing the best Super Bowl ads of 2022 and our takeaways for the future of the marketing and advertising landscape.

This year we wanted to share our thoughts with you – we hope you’ll laugh and learn a few things with us.

Let’s start with the overarching takeaways:

1. Shorter ads – Maybe this is due to the fact attention spans continue to decrease, and the younger generations are used to social media ads and videos that often last 15 to 30 seconds. It seems 60-second ads are rare these days, unless you’re Coinbase, who spent their entire minute showing a bouncing QR code (which resulted in their website crashing and their app surging to the #2 ranking in downloads). Though you’ll often find extended cuts of the best commercials on YouTube to watch after the game.
2. We saw lots of newcomers (e.g., Planet Fitness, Rakuten Rewards, Cue Health) and not as many traditional big players (e.g., Coca-Cola, Burger King). There was a “Crypto Bowl” with FTX and Coinbase leading the charge along with other fintech companies. We also saw Polestar 2, an electric vehicle, that took aim at Tesla with a sleek, call-out ad.
3. We also saw a wave of nostalgia and celebrity endorsements. Lay’s Golden Memories commercial combined the two and Doritos Flamin’ Hot commercial added some humor with the help of the classic hip-hop song “Push It.” Uber Eats Uber Don’t Eats was full of familiar celebrity faces and many other advertisers, such as BMW, followed suit.

Overall, we saw plenty of new ideas and ways to advertise everything from food and drink to cryptocurrency. We also saw classic celebrity endorsements and those well-loved funny and heartwarming commercials. The best Super Bowl ads of 2022 were funny, quirky, and quick to grab and hold the viewer’s attention. The future is bright for creative and fun advertising.

Now to the fun part! Here are our team’s favorite commercials of the 2022 Super Bowl:

NPD’s Picks: Best Super Bowl Ads of 2022

Chris’ Pick: Don’t Miss Out with Larry David

I enjoyed the FTX spot featuring Larry David. First off, I love Larry David and his style of comedy, so it naturally hit home for me. More than that, I like the playful approach they used to mock that cynic we all know and/or the cynical voice we have inside ourselves.

They used things we know and love – wheel, forks, light build, democracy – to create an approachable sense of urgency around not missing out on crypto (i.e., it helped normalize crypto and made it feel less scary). FTX managed to make cryptocurrency feel like it’s the natural evolution of money and money exchange for society.

Emily’s Pick: McKeever Brothers

This year my favorite ad was the Toyota McKeever Brothers commercial. Toyota created a beautifully shot commercial that kept my attention until the very end. I found it to be an incredibly heartwarming and inspiring story about overcoming adversity.

The only downside is the McKeever Brothers’ story and its connection to the Toyota brand wasn’t clear, thus I found myself remembering them more than Toyota itself.

Devvkanth’s Pick: Your Cousin from Boston (Dynamics)

The latest Samuel Adams commercial caught my eye during the big game. I enjoyed how it connected both the past and future of Boston and showcased how much the home of Samuel Adams has to offer.

The best part of this commercial is the fact that the robots were actually doing everything from dancing to pouring drinks. No CGI was used, it was all expert programming! It was a cool look into the emerging technologies of the future while showing how fun the Samuel Adams brand is.

Caitlyn’s Pick: Robo Dog

Every year, without fail, my favorite ad includes an animal. This year I found myself starry-eyed over an adorable robot dog. Kia did a wonderful job creating a heartwarming and memorable commercial for their new electric car by showing this little “robo dog” on a journey to find his forever home.

They showed us a look into the future while proving that we still connect with those emotions that make us human – love and the desire to live our best lives. With the tagline “live fully charged” I found myself quickly googling the information and pricing of the new car just in case I might be interested in the future.

Kerry’s Pick: Sally’s Seashells

My favorite ad this year was the “Sally Seashells” ad from Square Space starring Zendaya. I am a sucker for a good pun/tongue twister and this ad certainly delivered.

Edgar Wright, director of Baby Driver, and superstar Andre 3000 teamed up as director and narrator for this flawlessly shot commercial that highlights an issue facing businesses of all shapes and sizes: customers easily finding your brand online.

Take a shell from Sally’s playbook and build a website that is intelligent, deliberate, and accountable. New Path is here to help when you are ready to get started.

Blog Last Updated on 2 years by New Path Digital