Matt McDermott on the Best Super Bowl Ads of 2024

Faves

DoorDash - All the Ads

The ad itself wasn't necessarily the best, but I love the marketing scheme behind it. To show that DoorDash can deliver just about anything, they're going to deliver one of every product advertised in the Super Bowl to a lucky customer. The copy was snappy, the idea of an endless coupon code clever, and the buzz it generated well worth the spend.

Verizon - Can't B Broken

Two things I love about this ad. One: Tony Hale (from Arrested Development and VEEP fame). He plays the perpetual bagman, this time to Bey, following her around to confirm that, no matter how viral each of her increasingly viral stunts gets, the Verizon network can handle the volume. He's made a career of transforming awkwardness and loyalty into comic magnificence. Two: The brilliant co-marketing component of the spot, teasing her new music. She's savvy as hell and has always delivered brilliant activations and cross-promotions.

Google Pixel - Javier in Frame

This is about Google doing a fantastic job of showing us the point of view of Javier, whose own view is visually impaired. Throughout the spot, Google Pixel's AI-enabled Guided Frame feature offers verbal direction and description to help him compose his shots. The ad is one of the few that made the product a co-star that balances out the human experience without dousing itself in saccharine-based gasoline.

Worst

American Values 2024 - Super Bowl Ad

This hacky retread ad for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is so shameless, it doesn't even waste time co-opting his dad's campaign ads: It cuts and pastes his face into his uncle's famous 1960 campaign spot. Politics loves to roll around in the slime of nepotism. But this square-peg-round-hole piece of shit is beyond cringy. Created by American Values Super PAC, it supposedly had no connection to RFK Jr's campaign, but tell that to his family who proceeded to tear him to shreds in the media.

Budweiser- Super Bowl LVIII Old School Delivery

I love dogs. I love horses. And I love beer. And yet I hate this ad. It was the tritest installment yet in the Budweiser Super Bowl ad canon. Once again they have to trot out (ugh) the Clydesdales to save the day/TV spot. Once again, they have a dog and horses working together towards the lofty goal of <rewatches spot> delivering kegs to a dive bar in a snowstorm. I wouldn't take the horses out in a blizzard to deliver insulin much less Budweiser — no matter how many times the horses ask. Somebody make it stop. All of it.