The Super Bowl is a yearly event where two groups of fans get psychotic about teams they probably don’t even like. More importantly, it’s an event that shows just how over-the-top advertisers can really get.

Of all efforts made this year, here are five Super Bowl 52 commercials that really stood out above the rest.

Tide

Let’s be honest- every year, there are gag-inducing, stereotypical ads: the beer commercial, the car commercial with a celebrity appearance behind the wheel, and the perfume commercial with dramatic music and a scantily-clad model in the center. Tide knows this and used it to their advantage. “It’s a Tide ad” was inserted with a wink into every fake-commercial segment, featuring bright-whites and stain-free clothing. The company surprisingly dodged the controversy around teenagers eating Tide Pods for fun and instead showed they reign supreme over all other laundry detergents because of their prevalence in Super Bowl ads every year.

Stella Artois

Charity probably isn’t the first thing people associate with beer, but this ad broke the mold and took a more serious route for advertising its product. Partnering with water.org and featuring Matt Damon drinking tap water from a Stella-imprinted chalice (fancy beer glass, I guess), the ad proposes the purchase of one of these glasses will give clean water to people in need for five years: a hefty but memorable proposal. By convincing viewers that beer can be associated with doing good, the commercial ranks higher than most.

M&M’s

Taking third place is M&M’s commercial featuring America’s sweetheart, Danny DeVito. After the iconic red M&M finds a “lucky penny” on a casual stroll through city streets, he wishes to be human so no one will eat him. Transforming into DeVito, he happily gets rejected by fellow bystanders who refuse to eat him before dropping the penny and getting hit by a bus. You can’t make this stuff up. The commercial, while not overtly trying to sell the product, is definitely memorable. If there’s one thing Americans love more than watching men tackle each other over a ball shaped like “Hey Arnold!”, it’s outlandish comedy, and this commercial served the people well.

Budweiser

If Stella Artois’ ad didn’t pull at viewers’ heart strings enough, yet another iconic beer company took the emotional route and made a commercial that probably made even the most manliest of men tear up (we’re looking at you Tom Brady). Featuring a slowed-down version of Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me,” the commercial features a brewery canning clean water and then sending it out for distribution for disaster relief across the country. Beautiful production makes this commercial just a notch better than Stella’s efforts, again asserting the point that beer companies are able to do more than just promote partying and watching sports from the couch. The Budweiser brand knows they have a large range of customers and with this commercial, made efforts to appeal to even more. While not offering the extreme comedy of other advertisements, the sentimental value and charitable message will be remembered.

Doritos Blaze vs. Mountain Dew Ice

Peter Dinklage, Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliot, and Morgan Freeman: at first an unlikely mix, but the chemistry works perfectly. Dinklage eats a handful of Doritos and then proceeds to rap Busta Rhymes’ iconic verse from Chris Brown’s hit “Look at Me Now,” with Rhymes supporting from the background, watching him “spit fire” (the slogan for the chips, displayed across the screen as this portion of the commercial ends) and while it seems to be over, the scene is then changed to an icy Morgan Freeman rapping Missy Elliot’s song “Get Ur Freak On” after sipping on Mountain Dew’s new lemon-lime flavored endeavor. This commercial did a wonderful job of combining celebrity appearances while still emphasizing the product being sold, and is sure to be something that trends (and is even meme-d) for weeks to come.

—

For more information or news tips, or if you see an error in this story or have any compliments or concerns, contact editor@unfspinnaker.com.