Super Bowl Sunday is the day when the advertising industry is not only tolerated but celebrated. And as in years past, brands paid millions of dollars this year for the opportunity to make consumers laugh, cry and reach for their wallets. The advertisers for Super Bowl LIII seemed determined to steer clear of controversy for a second year after politically tinged spots stole the show in 2017. Instead, they offered commercials that championed women, looked to the future and also inspired nostalgia for the ’90s — accompanied, of course, by a parade of celebrities. Cameos included Serena Williams, Jason Bateman, Cardi B and the Backstreet Boys. There was a surprise mash-up between Bud Light and HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” and Burger King relied on vintage footage of Andy Warhol eating a Whopper for its Super Bowl moment. “It seems like there’s an awful lot of humor and light appeals, and that for advertisers it’s somewhat of a play-it-safe year,” said Charles R. Taylor, a professor of marketing at the Villanova University School of Business. “We’re not hearing about anything crossing over in politics.”<doc-sep>On Sunday 3 February, legions of American football fans watched as the New England Patriots beat the Los Angeles Rams in Atlanta, Georgia for the 2019 Super Bowl. For us Brits, the sporting occasion can be a pretty confusing time resulting in endless hours trying to understand the point of the game's yellow flags, Googling the definition of ‘tailgating’, and learning the differences between rugby and American football. What unites us with our neighbours across the pond, however, is a mutual love (or loathing) of the chance to sit back and indulge in yes, you guessed it, the Super Bowl adverts. Since its first 30-second advert in 1967, the Super Bowl has become the most talked-about advertising moment in the world, selling everything from beer and cars, to fizzy drinks and sweets. In 2018, consultancy group Kantar Media estimated the cost of a 30-second advert during the game climbed above £3.7m ($5.05m), with spending on the night soaring 87 per cent over the last decade. Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Show all 50 1 /50 Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Lead vocalist of Maroon 5 Adam Levine performs during the halftime show of Super Bowl LIII AFP/Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show AFP/Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Maroon 5 performs with Big Boi, Sleepy Brown and Travis Scott Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Reuters Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Adam Levine of Maroon 5, Big Boi, and Sleepy Brown Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show USA TODAY Sports Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Rapper Travis Scott and Maroon 5's Adam Levine perform EPA Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Reuters Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show USA TODAY Sports Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Adam Levine performs as Travis Scott is carried by the crowd AP Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show EPA Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Adam Levine of Maroon 5, Big Boi, and Sleepy Brown Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Reuters Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Reuters Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show EPA Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show EPA Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show EPA Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show AP Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show USA TODAY Sports Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show USA TODAY Sports Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show AP Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show USA TODAY Sports Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show Getty Best photos: Maroon 5 Super Bowl halftime show USA TODAY Sports From Cindy Crawford and Tiffany Haddish, to Cardi B and Betty White, some of Hollywood’s most in-demand celebrities have starred in the most famous Super Bowl adverts over the years. The world has watched the likes of Michael Jordan team up with Bugs Bunny for a game of hoops, pop singer Michael Jackson proclaim Pepsi as the “choice of a new generation”, and actor Rebel Wilson offer up her vocal skills as Amazon’s new personal assistant. Several of the adverts have have even become talking-points in their own right, from Snickers' homophobic ‘Kissing’ commercial to PETA’s sexist 'Sexy Vegetables' ad. Here are some of the best adverts from this year's Super Bowl: Steve Carell, Cardi B and Lil Jon in Pepsi's 'More than OK' advert ✕ Pepsi Super Bowl commercial: More than ok Pepsi has released it's long-awaited Super Bowl LIII commercial, starring Cardi B, Steve Carell and Lil Jon. The advert begins in a 1950s-themed diner, with a woman asking a waiter for a Coke. “Is Pepsi OK?” the waiter replies, to which a shocked Carell turns around, stands up and asks: “Is Pepsi OK? Is Pepsi OK?” “Are puppies OK? Is a shooting star OK? Is the laughter of a small child OK?” Carell continues asking the waiter. Before Carell receives a response, he clicks his fingers to role play with the diner employee, before teaching his fellow diners how to says “OK” with conviction. “OH-KAY!” Lil Jon exclaims from behind the counter, before Cardi B enters the restaurant wearing a sparkling dress and saying her signature "Okurrr". Michael Bublé stars in PepsiCo’s Buble advert ✕ Michael Bublé stars in bubly's first super bowl commercial Weeks after Michael Bublé popped out of the freezer in time for Christmas, the singer has returned to star in PepsiCo’s debut Super Bowl advert. In the clip, the Grammy-award winning singer can be seen sitting on the floor of a supermarket and changing the name of Pepsi Co’s sparkling water brand Bubly to Bublé in black marker pen. “Michael, don’t do that,” an employee at the supermarket tells the Canadian singer. The advert promotes the brand’s four new flavours - blackberrybubly, cranberrybubly, raspberrybubly and peachbubly – and marks Bublé’s first time starring in an American football commercial. Stella Artois' advert featuring Jeff Bridges and Sarah Jessica Parker ✕ Jeff Bridges returns as The Dude for Stella Artois advert Days after teasing their iconic characters, Carrie Bradshaw and The Dude, were respectively making a "comeback" to the small screen, actors Sarah Jessica Parker and Jeff Bridges have teamed star to Stella Artois’ Super Bowl advert. The advert comes as part of the #PourItForward campaign from Stella Artois, which sees the pilsner company team up with the charity Water.org to provide clean water for those without. The company says £2.37 ($3.13) from every Chalice sold will go to providing clean water from someone. Bradshaw introduces the advert when she walks into a bar and orders a Stella Artois — rather than her beloved Cosmopolitan cocktail —, much to the surprise of a waiter who drops their tray. Bridges then enters the room and orders the same beer, startling fellow diners. "Well, changing can do a little good,” says Bridges as he sits down at an adjacent table to Bradshaw. Google highlights the power of language with its ‘100 Billion Words’ advert ✕ 100 Billion Words - Google Super Bowl Commercial 2019 Google's '100 Billion Words' advert sends a unifying message, illustrating how language can bring people together all over the world, no matter where they're from or what their native tongue may be. The commercial shows individuals across the globe using Google Translate to translate words about food, friendship and sport and in doing so, forge stronger connections with one another. "Every day, the most translated words in the world are 'how are you', 'thank you' and 'I love you'," the narrator states.<doc-sep>Yes, the New England Patriots may have won Super Bowl LIII, but for many of us, all that matters is the commercials. So which ones captivated our attention this time around? From Cardi B rocking Pepsi-themed nails to Chance the Rapper remixing The Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” and everything in between, here are Billboard’s picks for the best and worst commercials of the night.<doc-sep>
The Super Bowl: it happened! If you’re looking for a play-by-play analysis of the winning touchdowns, our pals at SB Nation have you covered. But if you’re here for the objectively more entertaining part of this year’s big game — the commercials — then you’ve come to the right place. The Super Bowl is known for lavish ad buys with absurd concepts (not to mention a few high-profile trailer releases). This year delivered. From three separate commercials about robots longing for humanity to a Game of Thrones commercial that wasn’t actually for Game of Thrones, here are the ones worth watching: Pringles The unnamed assistant device in this trailer (let’s be real, it’s probably an Alexa) laments that she will never know the taste of Pringles. It’s a bit depressing, but the comedic timing on this one is gold. TurboTax A separate robot wishes to experience a piece of humanity (this time ... it wants to be an accountant?). RoboChild is noticeably way more creepy than the unnamed totally-not-Amazon-Alexa device. What does it hunger for? Taxes, apparently. Michelob Ultra This one is not here because it’s a particularly good commercial, but because it completes a weird trifecta. Michelob Ultra continues the robo-trend that we saw with Pringles and Turbo Tax. This poor robot will never get to enjoy the sweet delight of Michelob Ultra! But we superior human beings can, of course. Is this a response to our fear of Artificial Intelligence and our way of assuring that there are things (beer, chips, and kale salad with guac, I guess) that only we can enjoy? Sure. Alright. Blade Runner did take place in 2019, after all. Michelob ran a second commercial which was not really good, but just ... bizarre. It’s an ASMR beer commercial. You’ll have to watch it to really grasp what the hell is going on. Unless you fall asleep first. Pepsi Pepsi, self-aware enough to realize it is the inferior beverage choice, turns the classic “Is Pepsi OK?” question into a declaration of carbonated drink awesomeness. There are a few totally unrelated celebrity appearances to tie it all together. Overall, a good time! Olay Surrounded by high-stakes, action-driven trailers, Olay dropped a commercial that behaved like a slasher film. Ultimately, it’s an ad for lotion, but lotion does have a sort of stigma associated with movie serial killers, so good on Olay for playing into that. Bud Light Somehow, Bud Light is doing Game of Thrones. The normally cheerful medieval world of the Bud Light commercials got a dark, George R.R. Martin reality check. We hope that this means next season, some character will pour themselves a cool glass of Bud Light and reminisce about the fallen Bud Knight. Dilly dilly. Burger King This commercial was the fast-food joint’s first in 13 years. The footage, of pop artist Andy Warhol eating a Burger King hamburger, could not be more esoteric: The scene is a cinematic “postcard” collected by Danish director Jørgen Leth for his 1982 film 66 Scenes of America. Don’t say Super Bowl commercials aren’t art! Bubly This has no right to be as funny as it was, because at its core, this commercial is just a cheap joke at Michael Bublé and the word Bubly. But the pauses and delivery, cemented by the kid who comes in at the end, turn this one from a predictable bore into a solid chuckle. Bon & Viv Spiked Seltzer This one is pretty “eh” for most of the way through — but has a great little twist. The average viewer probably doesn’t really care about Bon and Viv of Bon & Viv Spiked Seltzer, so their prolonged appearance is a bit tedious, but it’s all worth it for that ending. (It’s SHARKS — Get it?) Microsoft There are always a few touching commercials amid the gags and humor. This year, the one that struck deepest was from Microsoft, which highlighted the Xbox Adaptive Controller. The focus is directly on the children that use the Adaptive Controller. By putting the narrative in their hands, the impact is all the more powerful.