Super Bowl Commercials: Here Are the Winners and Losers of 2017

A still from this year’s most controversial commercial ‘The Entire Journey. (Photo Courtesy: Youtube screengrab)

Millions of Americans – more than the number at Trump’s inauguration (?!) – were glued to their television sets to watch the final showdown of the annual Super Bowl. America’s most popular sporting event, however, seems to have more takers for the commercials than football.

Like any year, other than the winning and losing football teams, there were also winning and losing commercials.

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Melissa McCarthy in ‘Hero’s Journey’

The advertisement was funny, poignant and had a message about the environment – a subject that America is currently divided on, given US President Donald Trump’s take on global warming as a hoax.

This weekend has also been a win for Melissa McCarthy after her impersonation of White House spokesperson, Sean Spicer, on Saturday Night Live. It ruffled some feathers but was largely applauded for its humour.

84 Lumber’s ‘The Entire Journey’

The advertisement resonated with people in a way that caused the company’s website to crash! The company released a teaser for the advertisement that portrayed the journey of an ‘immigrant’ woman and her child, and to watch the rest of the advertisement, people would have to go to their website.

It spoke to the masses, given the recent rhetoric of building a wall between US and Mexico and the travel ban imposed by the new administration.

Also Read: Lady Gaga Soars Over Super Bowl Stage With a Message of Inclusion

Honda’s ‘Yearbooks’

The larger message was ‘never give up on your dreams’. It worked because it humanised celebrities by portraying them as their awkward teenage selves in their high school yearbooks.

As teenage Steve Carell says:

Believe in yourself. Do you think any of these folks believed that I would make it?

World of Tanks’ ‘Teensy House Buyers’

You’d think that this advertisement doesn’t make sense to an Indian audience since it’s out of our context. Turns out even Americans had trouble relating to it.

USA Today ranked this ad as one of the ‘losers’ in the list of Super Bowl 2017 commercials.

Mr Clean’s ‘Cleaner of Your Dreams’

This commercial did nothing more than make people uncomfortable. The idea is to make cleaning ‘sexy’, especially if a man does it. But it also seems to suggest that a man who cleans will be rewarded with sex from his female partner.

What is up with that?