The Worst of the Super Bowl LII Ads

Story posted February 5, 2018 in Arts & Entertainment by Arts Staff.

Each and every year, the Super Bowl is one of the most watched events on TV. With the game goes a host of brand new, very expensive advertisements from the nation’s largest company. As is the case with every year, a few companies trail all others on the grandest stage.

Dodge

Dodge had all of the components to make a brilliant commercial. Yet, for some reason, they decided that instead of just using some sentimental background music to accompany the scenes, they would use a famous speech from the late Martin Luther King Jr. to promote their trucks. The idea Ram had was to use King’s speech, which urges acts of greatness and love, to promote their tagline “Built To Serve.” Although Ram defended their ad by explaining their intentions, many viewers felt that using King’s emotional speech to sell their products was disrespectful and distasteful. – Jenna Minnig

Hyundai

Hyundai’s “hope detector” commercial is an excellent example of an advertisement with good intentions that completely misses the mark. The concept itself of converting metal detectors into “hope detectors” is hokey and the usage of “real people, not actors” is getting tiresome at this point. Sure, the commercial’s message about proceeds going to pediatric cancer research with every purchased Hyundai vehicle may be pure, but the execution is just plain awful. Who in their right mind would be okay with TSA leading them off into a dark room with no explanation? Hyundai tried to be heartwarming on Super Bowl Sunday, but they just ended up looking silly. – DJ Bauer

Diet Coke

This commercial was not only an egregious waste of money for the Diet Coke franchise (estimated 5.5 million dollars for a 30 second add space), but it also proved to be an even larger waste of time for the projected 111.3 million viewers tuned into the Super Bowl. With the commercials bright, jubilant color pallet, it almost seemed as if David Harbour was going to make an appearance, instantly ending the torturing awkwardness this add contained. Instead, viewers had to vigorously endure 30 seconds of nonsense speech, while a “quirky” actress performed the most uncomfortable hip gyrations ever publicized on national television. It’s no wonder Diet Coke hasn’t advertised in the Super Bowl since 1997. They seemingly can’t identify what content will entice new consumers to their product. After this, let’s pray is that in 2039, Super Bowl viewers are either given a half-decent Diet Coke commercial or never shown one ever again. – JonMichael Pereira

Pringles

While this commercial is much tamer than most of the others on this list, Pringles has created the least genuine advertisement of 2018. This Pringles ad misdirects its audience into believing it’s an amusing, natural comedy skit by employing the likes of Bill Hader to do the quickest laugh grab material: yelling. There’s no context to why the advertisement takes place on a movie set or why people are so interested in stacking Pringles flavors and there doesn’t have to be. It’s just entertainment in its simplest primitive form: loud, quick, obnoxious and “funny.” It’s upsetting after such a great year of Super Bowl ads that Pringles is seemingly stuck in 2016 with the likes of “puppymonkeybaby.” – JonMichael Pereira

 

Jenna Minnig is a freshman majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her, email jkm5756@psu.edu.

DJ Bauer is a freshman majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email metakoopa99@gmail.com.

JonMichael Pereira is a freshman majoring in Telecommunications. To contact him, email jqp5759@psu.edu.