The Very Best of the 2022 Super Bowl Commercials

Chips, beer, and ScarJost round out the early teasers from this year’s ad slate.

If there is one day that unites most of America, it’s the Super Bowl. You might have guessed it would be something like Memorial Day, or the Fourth of July, or the ever-elusive Honda Days, but no, it’s the Super Bowl. For the sports fanatics, there’s obviously The Big Game™. For the foodie, there’s a whole smorgasbord of treats. For the pop culture obsessed, the halftime show. And for the odd balls, the commercials. Yes, ads are a dying breed, what with everyone streaming everything these days, but once a year, they dominate the conversation. So gather the kids in here for a short story.

Back in the day, before the big tuh-dum of Netflix, there were these interruptions that happened while TV was airing. Kind of like the thing you watch at the beginning of YouTube videos. We call them commercials. Though they may not be as ever-present as they once felt, the Super Bowl? That’s when they come to life again. Hell, the Super Bowl commercial lot used to be so good that you couldn’t even risk going to the bathroom for fear of missing an instant classic. (Fortunately, they’re all uploaded online now, giving your bladder a much-needed reprieve.)

We have collected the best of this year’s lot, like a little time capsule of 2022. They’re ambitious. They often pander. A few of them are actually entertaining. Watch for yourself.

Intuit Quickbooks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6R8L6Bqrm4

Cancel the Super Bowl. The perfect commercial is already here.

Planet Fitness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnoVFlMMdK8

Planet Fitness is here to help you live your best life, find health goals, etc. etc. but can we also have a discussion about how great it is that Lindsay Lohan is finding work and thriving out here? Next to Dennis Rodman, no less!

Planters

A Community reunion is on the horizon! Ken Jeong and Joel McHale come together to discuss the very important decision of how there is only one way to eat nuts. (It’s Ken’s way, I’m sorry.)

Bitbuy

Cue the one guy at the Super Bowl party who will now insist on explaining the blockchain to everyone else in the room. What hell have you wrought, Kyle Lowry?

Rocket Homes and Rocket Mortgage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDGoCWLK4F8&feature=emb_imp_woyt

Cue the one guy at the Super Bowl party who will now insist on explaining the blockchain to everyone else in the room. What hell have you wrought, Kyle Lowry?

Rocket Homes and Rocket Mortgage

Mailchimp

Mailchimp remains good and weird. The company has a strategy to “level the playing field,” driving Super Bowl viewers to social media to take in ads from small businesses who can’t afford the extravagance of buying a spot during the Big Game.

ClickUp

If you’re a slave to an oddly specific file naming mechanism, you’re not alone. ClickUp is literally here for FinalDraft.doc, FinalDraft.v2.doc, FinalDraft.FORREAL.doc. Let the madness end.

Pringles

Once you pop, you really can’t stop. Sometimes, that means having a can for a hand… forever.

Peacock’s ‘Bel-Air’

Sometimes the best commercials get to the point quickly, which is what Booking.com did with its spot featuring Idris Elba… even if they’re shit at naming. Idris’s words! Not mine!

Booking.com

Sometimes the best commercials get to the point quickly, which is what Booking.com did with its spot featuring Idris Elba… even if they’re shit at naming. Idris’s words! Not mine!

Avocados From Mexico

Listen, I don’t understand what is considered a good enough yield to warrant buying a Super Bowl ad, but I’m grateful for Avocados from Mexico, which each year has one of the weirdest ads. They’re strange, and I love them.

Vroom

We love a musical. So does Vroom. And if you’re ever interested in singing and selling your car, then my guy, do I have a company you should look into.

Miller 64

The Super Bowl game is getting petty. With the help of world-renowned mathematician, Ken Ono, Miller is setting out to drag its competitor. We’re here for it

Toyota

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3dfl51FBAY&feature=emb_imp_woyt

Listen. It’s hard enough keeping up with the Joneses when they’re non-specific people who have things you want. But when the Joneses are none other than Tommy Lee, Rashida, and of course, Leslie? Well that just feels like an impossible task.

Headspace

Headspace is debuting its first Super Bowl ad, featuring John Legend, which makes perfect sense. Who has a more calming voice than this crooner?

Michelob Ultra

What happens when a bunch of GOATs get together to bowl a few games? That’s what Michelob sets out to answer with some of the best athletes in the world.

Stella Artois

Life is severe. Jntense. Zoom meetings. Screaming children. Taxes. Make time to jump in a fountain or eat at a restaurant or befriend a cartoon dog. Live your own personal Life Artois.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEuEBT0TWQE&feature=emb_imp_woyt

Dr. Evil has lost his edge, at least when it comes to his partnership with GM. These people want to solve emission issues, even if it’s not in this man’s nature.

Turbo Tax

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFFmnRg1CmE

There are two things you have to do in life: die and pay taxes. Turbo Tax is here to help with one.

Amazon

Ah, the married life! With totally relatable celebrity couple Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost! The gag: What if Alexa could read minds? Turns out that ScarJo has morning breath. Again. Relatable!

Rakuten

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YresqeUWXl0&feature=emb_title

To be honest with you, I’m not sure where this one is going—or how to pronounce Rakuten, still—but any commercial starring Hannah Waddingham is a good commercial.

Hellmann’s Mayo

This year’s offering from Hellmann’s Mayo utilizes a classic football ad trope: Big Football Player Tackle Small People. One of those small people is Pete Davidson.

Oikos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yyow-HW6P7E&feature=emb_title

For this year’s spot, Oikos taps into that classic father-son rivalry dynamic, which is usually playful—that is, unless your dad is Deion Sanders.

Bud Light Seltzer

Devastated that this commercial takes us to the “Land of Loud Flavors” and not Flavortown, itself. Guy Fieri, as he always does, saves it.

BMW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxXrtoZh6_k

BMW’s teaser features Arnold Schwarzenegger as Zeus, god of the sky. More specifically, he controls the lightning… use context clues to figure out where this is going.

Captain Morgan

Chaos reigns in this absolutely absurd teaser from Captain Morgan, promoting a punch bowl that actually interacts with the game. This isn’t a prototype, it’s a real punch bowl that you could win. Total lunacy, and yet, you want one, don’t you?

Uber Eats

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of8H4PDn2lk

Just because you can get something delivered from Uber Eats doesn’t mean you should, you know, eat it. The delivery and ride share service is teasing its ad with three spots featuring Gwyneth Paltrow, Trevor Noah, and American treasure Jennifer Coolidge.

Budweiser

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPBxJ2yar-A&feature=emb_title

Budweiser, you manipulative jerk. This year’s installment, “A Clydesdale’s Journey,” brings in all the fixins: the beloved horse breed, the inclusion of a great dog, and a good reason to cry. Never change, Budweiser.

Lay’s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KjatG0hqwE

Lay’s is back at the Super Bowl after 17 years (seriously!) with a spot featuring the ageless Paul Rudd and the nearly ageless Seth Rogen. The commercial, titled “Golden Memories,” taps into the notion that we all have beautiful memories attached to eating Lay’s.

Flamin’ Hot Doritos

Ahh—sss—push it. PUSH IT REAL GOOD.

For the new crossover chip, which combines the cheesy goodness of Doritos and the hotter than hell spice of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, the powers that be pulled fashioned Charlie Puth into a fox and Megan Thee Stallion into a songbird to introduce the snack.

Wallbox

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzcdP90akWM

Can Seth embrace electricity again, after getting struck by lightning? Well, that’s what Wallbox hopes to answer in its new Super Bowl ad. (Until the official spot drops, please revisit this incredible sequence from Intervention where a woman claims to be allergic to energy, including electricity.)

Busch Beer

Ok, some Super Bowl ads are weird, so we’ll let you suss this one out on your own.

Sam Adams

Yeah, the dog robot is cute, but anyone with any working knowledge of robots knows that they’ll be our overlords soon enough. Depending on your state of mind, this Sam Adams spot is either feel good or truly apocalyptic. Drink up!

By Justin Kirkland