The 31 best Super Bowl LVIII commercials, ranked

Jeff Goldblum in a little remake of Asteroid City is a pretty fun reminder of how good that movie is. Instead of visiting Apartments.com, consider watching Asteroid City, now on Peacock.

From the Twisted Mind of whoever recently saw a Lil’ Penny commercial comes Dr. Umstick, a puppet-sized spokesperson whose name comes curiously close to a Scrubs joke. Dr. Umstick is pretty cute, though, and Eric Andre’s performance as a diarrhetic passenger is as convincing as those too enraptured by Drumstick ice cream cones to care.

Wait, are they selling Baja Blast in stores now? That is a significant loss for Taco Bell and Mountain Dew. For one thing, the magic of Baja Blast is in its exclusive connection to Taco Bell. Without the Fire Sauce, it’s just another dude in a world of Dew. Apparently, this is in celebration of the Bajaversary, which freed Baja Blast from its Cheesy Gordita prison, and America’s sweetheart Aubrey Plaza makes a good case for Blast’s new plastic bottle form. Or, at least, distracts us from the obvious fact that it will not taste as good as it does when we live más.

Those who grew up in the 2000s will likely never feel comfortable with the great mullet revival of the 2020s. This was Joe Dirt’s haircut and the subject of a thousand Jackass jokes. We can never go back. The business-in-front/party-in-back hairdo will always be a mystery, but Kawasaki’s commercial comes closest to finding someone who actually looks pretty good with a mullet: Steve Austin. We don’t know why or how he ended up in this spot, but he looks better than the bald eagle.

One of the best things about Beyoncé is her selectivity. She doesn’t just do anything. After her initial spate of acting roles, which saw her playing the love interests of Austin Powers and Inspector Clouseau, she more or less backed off until Nala, a role she could not turn down, came around. The one thing Beyoncé has never been capital “G” great at is acting. Thankfully, this ad doesn’t lean on that too much, leaving much of the comedy to Tony Hale, who does his best with a cliche ad. It’s not a commercial worthy of Beyoncé’s incredible and unique talents, but it did launch a new Beyoncé album, Renaissance Act II, which probably places this spot among the most culturally significant advertisements ever produced. Verizon and Beyoncé fulfilled the prophecy and broke the internet.

Move over Sierra Mist, Slice, and Teem; Pepsi has a new lemon-lime soda to square off against Sprite and 7-Up. Unfortunately, the ad featuring Ice Spice in a polycule with an anthropomorphic cartoon lemon and lime is deeply disturbing. Obviously, the idea of a romance between Munch and two animated fruits is bizarre, but when a man personifying a deeply vulnerable Sprite enters the fray, it becomes an exercise in Cronenbergian body horror. Forget that . There’s new lemon-lime nightmare fuel in the fridge.

Perhaps the most famous song in their catalog, The Band’s “The Weight,” is a cinematic cheat code. Play that steady rhythm behind any motion picture and immediately imbue it with, well, weight. It might even help viewers forget that Anheuser-Busch was accused of mutilating the tails of their beloved equines through a process called “docking,” which requires cutting through the tailbone. , but should we hold this against them? Yes! We’re glad you stopped torturing your beer mascot, Budweiser, but the special thing about this ad is the song.

This ad absolutely rules for the first 13 seconds. A Super Bowl party reduced to spit takes, conniptions, and self-harm due to Reese’s changing the formula is kind of brilliant and very funny. The turn is a plot twist we can do without. It sounds like another limited-edition candy that isn’t as good as the original. At least the OG is there for us.

Is this the only sentimental commercial of the year? It might be. Google Pixel is touting its new AI-powered accessibility feature, which is maybe the most effective advertisement for this technology we’ve seen yet. It is a fascinating commercial and one of the few that shows how the product might actually work. Shown from the perspective of a visually impaired Pixel user, the commercial stands out amid a sea of ironic celebrity cameos and Flashdance parodies.

Who doesn’t love the M&Ms? Always sneaking up and killing Santa. But often, the more anthropomorphic they become, . Er, the more strained their logic. Take this Super Bowl “Almost Champions” spot, which centers on the peanut butter M&M, a Reese’s Pieces stopgap if there ever was one (speaking of which, could you imagine losing out on E.T. and then releasing an inferior product? So embarrassing.) Now, there’s nothing wrong with peanut butter M&Ms (aside from not being Pieces). It feels thematically correct to call them the “almost champions,” if only because they sound better than they are, as opposed to the notorious Almond M&M, which came in a grey bag that screamed, “grown-up candy.” As far as star-laden Super Bowl commercials go, casting Scarlett Johansson as an “almost champion” breathing her Oscar-losing breath on M&Ms is pretty good.

Oikos’ “HOLD MY OIKOS” spot opens in media res, with Shannon Sharpe explaining how his golf cart ended up in the drink. Though both are dry as a bone, Martin Lawrence decides to wade the murky waters for the buggy, raising it over his head and throwing it back down on the course. As impressive as Oikos’ promise of 20 grams of protein is, we still like the first half of the commercial best, if only to imagine how strange it must’ve been for Sharpe to watch Lawrence dive into a yogurt cup mere moments after ejecting himself from a careening golf cart.

Is there anything more beautiful than the Coors Light train? Conducted by LL Cool J, the train barrels across the U.S. and delivers the ice-cold taste of the Rockies to empty mouths and Corona commercials everywhere. We’ve never related to an ad more than when the father of the bride turned away from the happiest moment of his baby’s life to gaze upon the train in all its glory and shed one frosty tear. Tap the Rockies, indeed.

There is a subgenre of Super Bowl commercials in which the joke is, “Doesn’t this celebrity have a funny voice?” State Farm based its whole campaign around Arnold Schwarzenegger having an accent, as hard as that is to believe. But while Walken impressions are played out, the man handles this tired concept with quiet bemusement, and it works.

We respect any star willing to take a job so their cat can get a paycheck. Kate McKinnon has had difficulty finding herself in her post-SNL career, but this Mayo Cat is a star and she knows it. Add a couple of points for the sharp bowtie, and a surprisingly good Pete Davidson joke, and Hellmann’s finds itself near the top of the list.

Great news, everyone! Dorito’s makes Takis now. Doritos Dinamita, purportedly named after Jenna Ortega’s grandmothers, Dina & Mita, is an action-packed romp of a commercial that locked down Ortega for a whole afternoon. Wednesday fans will be disappointed by the lack of goth in their teen queen here, but there’s plenty of Danny Ramirez parkour, and the ladies are fun in this Crank-inspired corn chip advertisement. They must find out who took all the Frito-Lays branded Takis. Their granddaughter will not go Dinamitaless.

Super Bowl commercials are good for one thing: Getting Patrick Stewart to acknowledge the existence of Arnold—whose last name is apparently “Shortman.” This collection of Paramount+ heavy hitters includes Lt. Dangle, Knuckles, Master Chief, Jeff Probst, Creed (because we have to pretend Creed is good now since there hasn’t been a new mainstream rock band since 2003), and Drew Barrymore (still rehabbing her image after the strikes). It’s a template Paramount’s been pushing for years now. Some of this is great (“Barrymore, shut your face”), and the Peppa Pig button is a delight. But is this overstuffed, like we’re getting into the hat-on-a-hat territory? Probably. Still, whenever he gets to do comedy, , Stewart absolutely crushes.

Throughout this Super Bowl commercial season, we’ve concluded that we’re suckers any time an elder statesman maps their creative process onto a frivolous commercial. The Scorsese ad worked for us, and despite the unseen hand of Ryan Reynolds on this one, we love seeing Sir Anthony Hopkins get into the character of Wrexham FC mascot. This two-time Oscar winner puts in the work regardless of the role.

Sure, this one is fine. The use of the Perry Como song is excellent, and who doesn’t like looking at chocolate being poured into a mold? Playing it safe a bit, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

It certainly isn’t a surprise that celebrity-based commercials dominate the line-up this year. But for Dove and Google, which opted for emotion, the lack of famous faces helped the ads stand out. “Hard Knocks” from Dove, once again, taps into the brand’s ability to unite a poignant message with relatable imagery. Sure, it’s funny and cute, but the final image leaves space for an actual problem that needs attention.

Directed by Tim & Eric, the Michael Cera CeraVe advertisement is a celebrity endorsement worth paying attention to. Aside from introducing the world to unicorn dolphins (which speak a language Cera is fluent in), the ad is instructional, finally teaching people around the world to pronounce CeraVe.

Truth in advertising. Pluto TV is harvesting couch potatoes with its expansive programming and lack of payment. The ad takes a solid pun and expands into a pitch-perfect parody of ads for the heartland’s farmers with the ridiculous big stupid costumes of Fruit of the Loom or old-timey Chestfield cigarettes. You just can’t beat this type of on-screen chemistry.