And here we go — it’s time for the Super Bowl commercials to start rolling in. These days you don’t have to wait for the big game, because where’s the profit in that? For $5 million per 30-second spot, companies need to get all the publicity they can from these commercials, so releasing them pre-game is the way to go. As the new spots come out, we’ll be keeping you up to date right here, and when we get enough we’ll rank ’em. Check back every day until Feb. 5.
UPDATES:
* GoDaddy has a teaser trailer: cats on Roombas!
* Mr. Clean is in every room of the house and he is watching you.
* Snickers will air the first-ever live Super Bowl commercial.
* Heinz is sitting out Super Bowl LI, but its presence will be felt.
The Full Ads
Skittles checks in with their new ad, and it’s an upgrade from last year’s bizarre Steven Tyler nightmare-inducer. “Katy! …”
TurboTax is back for the fourth consecutive year with a 45-second spot, starring Humpty Dumpty.
Wix would like to remind you that it’s easy to make your own stunning web site. Although what that has to do with busting up a restaurant is unclear.
Intel apparently thinks that people will watch Tom Brady do anything — even brush his teeth before eating a pancake off of the floor. After taking it away from a dog. I would have re-thought this one.
Teaser Trailers
We don’t know exactly how this is going to work, but Snickers‘ 30-second spot will be live to lead off the third quarter of the game. It will feature Adam Driver (Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and be preceded by a 36-hour livestream, at SnickersLive.com (noon ET on Thursday, Feb. 2, until midnight Friday night. Here are four teasers, combined for your convenience. None of it makes any sense so far.
GoDaddy is under new management (a new ad agency), and is back after skipping Super Bowl 50. Instead of Danica Patrick we get, a cat on a Roomba? Hmm. According to them, the ad will feature “a new, yet-to-be-released product” an will “personify the internet.”
Proctor & Gamble makes its Super Bowl debut, boasting that Mr. Clean is “the official cleaner of Super Bowl LI”. But this is a very different Mr. Clean … apparently he wants to sex you up, in every room of the house.
Avocados From Mexico is back, and the ad — to be shown during the first commercial break of the game — will focus on the avocado being a health food. Since more avocados are consumed during the Super Bowl than during any other time of the year, it’s surprising that AFM have only been in the past three big games. Here’s the teaser trailer, featuring Jon Lovitz:
Kia is going to make you wait awhile to see what’s chasing Melissa McCarthy.
PepsiCo will be touting its line of bottle water products, Lifewtr, with its Inspiration Drops spot. Featured will be a songby John Legend.
Not participating this year
Butterfinger, Doritos, Mini USA, SunTrust, Taco Bell, Toyota, Visa. Heinz, which gave us the entertaining Weiner Stampede during last year’s game, is also not returning to the Super Bowl. But they saved a few mil by running an ad right after the game, and releasing an extended version online (which may be the wave of the future).
Thanks to AdWeek, Ad Age, USA Today.