2021 Super Bowl Commercials: Our Top Picks

We analyze our favorite advertisements from the 2021 Super Bowl and discuss what we liked about them.

It’s that time of year again! 

As a creative studio, we naturally spend a little time after the Super Bowl chatting about our favorite commercials. It’s just a part of the tradition. 

We thought we’d share some of our favorites this year and why they stuck out to us .

BEST ALL AROUND

All-Electric Cadillac LYRIQ | ScissorHandsFree

Edgar Scissorhands?! Are you kidding?!  We found this piece to be all around brilliant. 

The nostalgia, the storyline, the production design, the casting. 

This piece broke hearts and then pieced them back together in the best way possible. 

The detailed approach to production design drew people in and the storyline fit perfectly with the features of the Cadillac they were promoting.

Not to mention the perfect pairing between Winona Rider and Timothée Chalamet!

It made us more than happy to think back to its 1990 inspiration.

BEST HEARTFELT COMMERCIALS

The Middle – Jeep

After a year of sentimental commercial fatigue, Jeep somehow found a way to bring heartfelt sentimentality back into our sites without filling the ad with eye-roll-worthy cliches. Their beauty shots and messaging seemed to resonate well. Oh, and Bruce Springsteen always helps. 

Even though ‘The Boss’ might not be driving any vehicles through the Midwest (or anywhere else) anytime soon, it was a good run for this piece while it lasted and our hearts go out to Jeep’s PR team.

Jessica Long’s Story – Toyota

This one was a pleasant surprise. Jessica Long’s story is meaningful and heartfelt as it is, but instead of just relying on these features to create a good commercial, Toyota and their partners used creative visuals and unique production design to really give this story the attention it deserves.

It was a great day for car commercials!

BEST ADVERTISING IDEAS

In a world where everyone tries to go for the most avante garde option, sometimes you have to give a little recognition to good, all around solid advertising ideas. 

Two companies that brought us back to basics while still keeping things fresh were T-mobile and Rocket Mortgage. 

T-mobile’s two Big Game Ads featuring the Judges of The Voice and a duo between Tom Brady and Gronk, were examples of a great idea that translates to many situations. 

Rocket Mortgage’s ‘Certain is Better’ also did this as well. 

The creative idea won in both of these ads. With a strong use of humor, they showed the negative alternatives of choosing an option you can’t rely on.

They were simple, concrete, funny, and memorable – all qualities to aim for in a great advertising campaign. They successfully tapped into the proven process of advertising while still making their ads fresh and pleasantly surprising.

BEST USE OF SONG

We know, we know – this may sound like an odd category – but we do custom scoring for our own pieces! How can we not notice a great use of song?

Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade 

Going into this year’s Super Bowl, we were curious how many companies would harp on the difficulties of 2020.

This had the potential to be a downfall for many companies of overdone concepts or an overuse of sentimentality, as we mentioned earlier. Even with our suspicions about this, this Bud Light Seltzer Ad was a pleasant surprise.

Without their use of such a classic and fitting song throughout, I doubt it would have had the same comedic effect. The 1950’s crooner classic fit perfectly in this piece.

Jason Alexander Hoodie

While we’ve heard mixed reviews about the overall commercial itself, this Tide Commercial has one of the best hidden gems we could find. 

While it may not have resonated with the younger generation, for those of us raised by Seinfeld reruns, hearing Joey Scarbury’s ‘Believe It or Not’ as the score for this commercial was enough to make you drop a chicken wing and do a double take. 

For those of you not familiar with the significance of this song in the world of Seinfeld, we will happily refer you to the scene where George creates his own answering machine message with his own parody of the 80s hit. 

This was a great touch that had us smiling and singing his answering machine tune on the way to get another slice of pizza. What a great detail! 

HONORABLE MENTION

Oatly – Wow, Wow No Cow

As much as this piece was a little odd, it certainly caught some attention. Whether or not viewers were turning their head sideways at this interesting concept, they were certainly watching it. 

Additional points go out to Oatly for the use of a low budget option. Whether this was a strategic financial move or one born out of necessity, we’ve all been there. We get it.

An oat field, an old keyboard, a glass of (non-dairy) milk, an eccentric CEO and his strangely catchy jingle?

Simple but effective.

No artificial badness here.

We respect it! 

While there were many aspects of other commercials we loved as well, these were just a few of our favorites that stuck out to us.

Creative ideas are our lifeblood and passion. We always look forward to seeing what ideas make the cut every year in one of the biggest annual advertising face-offs.

Let us know what your favorites were and why!

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