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Why Are Super Bowl Commercials So Terrible Now?
The creative output will never justify the price tag
I watched every second of the first half of Super Bowl LVII without leaving my seat. Not because I wanted to watch the commercials — I was on a plane.
In the age of digital, Super Bowl spots are painfully scripted and often ask viewers to do something on their phones (where we already spend more time than watching TV). Many A-list celebrities take cringeworthy to a level beyond comprehension and deserve an immediate demotion to the B-list for these purely financial decisions. When brands are desperate enough to pay handsome sums of money for elderly rock stars to make corny jokes about workplace rock stars, the creative process is dead.
Blue Moon, ironically, had the least amount of airtime and grabbed a ton of attention for being featured as a final-second plot twist. In a world where content inundates us like a tidal wave, we can’t forget that 3 seconds regularly drives more interest than 30 seconds. The Vince Gilligan-directed “Breaking Good” also received praise as one of the evening’s top spots, but even that — a tribute to one of the greatest TV shows of all time — feels tainted when you see these iconic characters talking about chips and holding the bag in such an intentional way. Do you remember if it was a commercial…
