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It’s Super Bowl time again, which means it’s also time for the Puppy Bowl and Nickelodeon’s slime-filled broadcast. But amid all of that, we’ll have the biggest collection of ads anyone looks forward to watching.
We probably won’t see much in the way of crypto ads, but we probably will see at least some AI ads, and you can bet Apple will be at the ready with a Vision Pro commercial. Of course, companies want to get all the mileage they can out of these frequently big budget commercials, so lots are already out there.
Ahead of the Super Bowl, Microsoft released a Copilot AI ad for “the big game.” Google has one for the Pixel phone’s AI-powered Guided Frame camera accessibility feature. I’m conflicted about Patrick Stewart singing along to Creed’s “Higher,” but Paramount Plus’ Super Bowl commercial is probably a net good.
The Kansas City Chiefs are going up against the San Francisco 49ers this Sunday, February 11th, at 6:30PM ET. It’s been four years since the Chiefs beat the 49ers in 2020’s NFL championship game, and a year since the Chiefs’ victory against the Philadelphia Eagles. The Apple Music-sponsored Usher halftime show should be a big production. Barring any issues with her flight from Tokyo, Taylor Swift will be there watching her boyfriend, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, and you can bet many among her legion of fans will tune in as well.
CBS is broadcasting the Super Bowl this year, but you can also catch it on Paramount Plus.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes gets a new trailer.
The latest trailer for Wes Ball’s take on the Apes story aired during the Super Bowl, giving a closer look than the first trailer did at the society that has sprung up generations after the chimp from the first movie, Caesar, ended his reign.
“The future is in good hands.”
Jon Hamm narrates this Super Bowl trailer for Despicable Me 4 that shows the great, erm, promise of AI-generated imagery.
Naturally, AI image creation has improved, and pictures with glaring errors like those here are somewhat fewer and farther between, but yeah, this is probably what Minion-prompted AI art would look like.
Now I am become death, destroreo of worlds.
Oreo’s Super Bowl ad imagines a timeline where history pivots on the twist of its cream sandwich cookies, which carries with it dark implications, if you draw certain conclusions from the inclusion of the (likely mythical) Trojan horse that led to the burning of the city of Troy.
Doritos made the best action sequence I’ve seen in months.
There’s a ton of action crammed into this one-minute Super Bowl spot, including a fight scene, car chase, and even zip-lining with a kids’ scooter as two grandmothers chase after a bag of spicy snacks.
And apart from a couple of goofy shots, it’s more believable and fun than most recent Marvel films.
Tim Cook, Usher superfan?
The fact that Apple’s CEO didn’t answer Luda’s call with “Good morning!” seems like a missed opportunity in this Apple Music commercial ahead of the 2024 Super Bowl, but nobody asked me.
Cook does sell being really upset that they can’t seem to find Usher, though. (I think he’s hanging out over in that BMW commercial.)
Squarespace gets a Martin Scorsese film under its belt.
How will we notice aliens hovering overhead when we’re all too busy scrolling? They’ll make a Squarespace website, obviously.
That’s the goofy premise, anyway, of Hello Down There, a Scorsese-directed Squarespace Super Bowl commercial.
“We throw the child.”
When I was still watching reruns of Star Trek: The Next Generation twice a week on UPN in high school and listening to Creed’s Human Clay album on repeat (to my shame), I never saw those two things colliding.
But here we are, and as conflicted as I feel about this Paramount Plus Super Bowl ad’s mash-up, I’m calling it a net good.
What do Zach Braff, Donald Faison, and Jason Momoa have in common?
Well, as of a couple of days ago, they’ve all sung about T-Mobile for a Super Bowl ad. Is it a good commercial? That depends on how much you liked Scrubs.
Is this a day in the life of Christopher Walken?
BMW’s i5 electric sedan Super Bowl commercial makes good use of Walken, who forever seems like a good sport.
It’s hard to know how close this ad is to showing what it’s like moving through the world while being Walken, but the constant barrage of impressions from random people feels right.
Microsoft brings AI to the Super Bowl.
Microsoft’s Super Bowl ad focuses on the idea of using AI to be creative. It walks a fine line between empowering people to create images they’d previously need to be skilled in and concerns over AI replacing jobs — particularly in the creative industry. Microsoft is using this minute-long commercial to highlight the company’s new Copilot mobile apps for iOS and Android. But it’s all part of a broader AI effort at Microsoft that you can read about here.
Yeah!
Apple Music has posted the trailer for its Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show — and I have to say, it has gotten me pretty pumped for Usher’s performance.