The commercials at this year's Super Bowl had a light touch of humour, with a positive and uplifting tone.
More than half the brands advertising had used the Super Bowl as a platform last year.
Generally they stayed away from the problems of the day, including Black Lives Matter and the pandemic (no face masks).
Several commercials stood out, with a range of analysts pointing out high points, smarts and at least one oddity.
Programmatic video marketplace Unruly declared Toyota's Upstream the most effective ad of the Super Bowl.
The auto brand ad, featuring 13-time Paralympic gold medalist Jessica Long, was the campaign most likely to have the biggest impact on brand and business metrics, according to analysis by Unruly.
Jeep’s call for national unity, The Middle, starring Bruce Springsteen, and Bass Pro Shops’ Get Back To Nature were joint second.
M&Ms’ Come Together was fourth and the NFL’s As One fifth.
Other brands to make it into the top 10 include Doritos, DoorDash, Anheuser-Busch and Cadillac. Ads from Amazon, Bud Light and Tide did not make the top 10.
Northwestern University's Super Bowl Advertising Review placed snack food Cheetos on top of the strategic ad rankings with its It Wasn’t Me spot.
Other brands earning top marks included Amazon, Bud Light Seltzer, Doritos and jobs platform Indeed, according to a rankings system developed at the university's business school.
Georgia Phillips, COO at brand and communications consultancy Luma research, spotted two brands using elements of the same stock footage -- Mortgage company Guaranteed Rate and job search engine Indeed (See her Super Bowl commentary below).
And here's a run down on what took the eye of Michael Klaehn, an educator in communication and social media with QUT College, and a regular ad commentator:
Rocket Mortgage Certain is Better
"The ad is the ultimate 'show, don’t tell' as to why the line 'Certain is better', taking away any ambiguity from 'close enough is good enough'. Great visuals, celebrity loaded, action packed."
Michelob Ultra Organic Seltzer’s All-Star Cast "This one was a surprise. It hinted at things which were not quite right but then the reveal at the end included the VO. Where and how did they find all of these people and I wonder if it was the deciding factor on who they would cast? You would think he would have got a yacht with a helipad though."
Jeep’s The Middle
"Wow, the last line. The Re-united States of America. Icon driving an icon, bit cold though. Really captured the heart and mind to put them (the Americans) back on track. I hope it works."
Cadillac’s ‘ScissorHandsFree’
"The brands are really homing in on the '90s vibe. Great way to show a need for hands free driving. Entertaining story nicely works into the original movie. Also, does Wynona Ryder get any older? Edward Scissorhands was made in 1990, for the record."
Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade’s Last Year’s Lemons
"Great, what to do with lemons? You would hope that maybe other things were positive apart from the drink. High budget and action packed, showing what everyone was thinking already."
General Motors’ No way Norway
"Love this, just craziness and exactly what you expect it to be. Great way to launch your EV strategy. I don’t know what they were going to do when they did actually get to Norway."
Doritos’ Flat Matthew
"Another funny one, McConaughey having to struggle through life as a two-dimensional person. It tells the story without having to hear what’s being said. Love the ending."
Phillips at Luma Research, says Super Bowl is her favourite day of the year.
"There were some absolute crackers like T-Mobile’s hilarious ad with Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton and Adam Levine," she says.
"And this was not the only ad to feature a celebrity couple," she says. "Cheetos also ran a brilliant and funny ad with Hollywood power couple Mila Kunis and Ashton Kunis set to Shaggy’s No.1 hit It Wasn’t Me."
About half of the brand ads featured the famous. "And I don’t just mean one famous face in each ad," she says. "There were lots of other ads which multiple celebrities like General Motors ad starring Will Ferrell, Awkwafina and Kenan Thompson."
And insurance company State Farm’s ad with Drake, Paul Rudd, Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes.
"But it was the tone of the ads which was most striking," she says. "The majority of the ads had a positive and uplifting tone, with around 60% using some sort of humour as the key creative device.
"It was pretty clear that most brands wanted to be light-hearted and distract people from the tough times. M&M's did this really well with their ad which proves that M&M's can make almost any bad situation better."
Food delivery giant UberEats took a light-hearted approach, drawing on nostalgia with Waynes World.
And competitor DoorDash ran a '60s Sesame Street spin off to keep things family friendly.
"There were some good sentimental and emotive ads about racial division and support during COVID-19," says Phillips.
"In a strange coincidence, two brands (Mortgage company Guaranteed Rate and job search engine Indeed) used an element of the same stock footage.
"It was bound to happen at some stage with resourceful brands making use of the imagery available whilst there are production restrictions – but maybe it is worth paying the extra to ensure you pay for exclusivity – especially when both paid to have a '60s spot."
The two ads:
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