TACO

Director of Inter-Species Relations

The Wegovy pill ad puts more energy into explaining their celebrity cameos than explaining the news: that Wegovy is now available in a more convenient pill form. When the biggest benefit gets buried, that’s not $ well-spent. #SuperBowlAds

I really like Andy Samberg. I really don’t like mayonnaise. Independent of that, Hellmann’s ad isn’t $ well-spent. Mayo for mayo’s sake isn’t brand building — it just made me want to vomit. I said what I said. #SuperBowlAds

I usually love self-deprecating celebrity cameos in #SuperBowlAds, but Raisin Bran’s “Will Shat” spot with Will Shatner takes potty humor a step too far. Mixing poop jokes with a food brand just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. You're welcome for that image. Not $ well-spent!

The Alexa+ ad is tightly tied to the brand and clearly shows what the tech can do. But leaning into our fears about AI feels like a very expensive misstep. Effective storytelling, maybe — but not $ well-spent if it's more scary than attractive. #SuperBowlAds (2 of 2)

Noticing a pattern: I expected AI ads this year to reflect our fear and unease. I didn’t expect AI brands themselves to be the ones reminding us. With the Alexa+ ad, the call is coming from inside the house. #SuperBowlAds (1 of 2)

I'm noticing a pattern tonight: a ton of SNL talent in these ads all night — Bowen Yang, Kenan Thompson, Marcello Hernandez, Michael Che, Colin Jost and more, yet very few spots actually let their charisma or comic timing shine. That’s a creative miss, not a casting problem. #SuperBowlAds

Side by side, the contrast is stark. Grubhub repeats the brand and the benefit until it sticks. Uber Eats delivers spectacle, but less clarity. In a Super Bowl ad, memorability beats cleverness. #SuperBowlAds

“Grubhub will eat the fees!” is exactly the kind of message that earns the Super Bowl stage. Big news, broad audience, instantly clear benefit. That’s how you make the money work. $ well-spent. #SuperBowlAds

The Ritz ad mistakes “salty” for a brand idea. Bowen Yang and Jon Hamm can’t save a strange premise with little payoff. I’m not laughing, and I’m not learning anything new about the brand beyond “we exist at parties.” Thin for this stage. Not $ well-spent. #SuperBowlAds

The Xfinity Jurassic Park reboot isn’t scary because of the dinosaurs — it’s the effort to make Laura Dern, Sam Neill, and Jeff Goldblum look frozen in 1993. Reliable Wi-Fi is one thing. Time travel is another. #SuperBowlAds

It’s not #SuperBowlAds without the Budweiser Clydesdales, and the brand is inseparable from the idea. But when the eagle and horse merged into one patriotic fever dream, my eyes nearly rolled out of my head. Awkward CGI didn’t help. Not $ well-spent. #SuperBowlAds

I hated that Ring ad. Boo to the surveillance state. I don't want to talk about it. Ugh!

Pringles’ Sabrina Carpenter spot really nails it. Ludicrous in the best way, clearly branded, and memorable for the right reasons. No one will forget what the brand is all about (craveable snackage). $ well-spent. #SuperBowlAds

Prostate cancer is NO JOKE, but humor can be a smart way to defuse discomfort. Unfortunately, Novartis’ “Tight Ends” spot stretches the pun so far that the brand becomes the butt of the joke. Not $ well-spent. #SuperBowlAds

Bud Light’s #SuperBowlAds spot keeps reinforcing the same idea: this is the beer for parties. Consistency is a real brand asset, and this one is far more fun (and confident) than last year’s effort. That makes it $ well-spent.

I was unimpressed when TurboTax kicked off its Adrian Brody ads, but the core idea is smart: positioning the brand as the antidote to tax-season drama in a mostly undifferentiated category. The message works. The runway was just too long. #SuperBowlAds

The Rocket spot is too expensive to be this subtle. If you miss the racism being decried — or forget it was Rocket — the message floats free. Good intentions don’t equal brand building, and that makes it not $ well-spent. (2 of 2) #SuperBowlAds

I was unimpressed when Intuit Turbo Tax began their series of ads with Adrian Brody, but building the case that Intuit makes taxes drama free is pretty good branding. $somewhat well-spent. I wish they'd gotten to it sooner, though. #SuperBowlAds

Liquid I.V.’s singing-toilet spot is weird in a way that actually works. By telling us to “look at your pee,” they’re reframing the brand from hangover fix to daily hydration. I think this #SuperBowlAds spot is $ well-spent.

That Coinbase ad was a colossal waste of money. Which is par for the course for crypto, right? NOT $ well-spent. #SuperBowlAds

I don't want to comment on that Good Will Dunkin' ad and you can't make me. #SuperBowlAds

New context on Uber Eats: they’ve actually released 14 Super Bowl–adjacent spots with a huge cast and let users remix their own ads. That’s an enormous investment. It will probably bolster ad recognition — but I’m not sure it sharpens what the brand stands for. $ well-spent? Debatable.

The Uber Eats ad gets points for being context-specific, since it's all about the game. That helps some, but the brand needs to be much more prominent for this kind of investment. It's not egregious, their investment's not misspent, but I dunno that it's $ well-spent. #SuperBowlAds

The Nerds spot with Andy Cohen feels mismatched to the Super Bowl. The idea is small, the brand message unclear, and the creative doesn’t earn the scale of the platform. This didn’t need #SuperBowlAds. Not $ well-spent. #SuperBowlAds

Dove’s The Game Is Ours builds on over 20 years of consistent body-confidence messaging. It’s emotional, uplifting, and unmistakably on-brand — a great example of equity paying off. This one feels genuinely $ well-spent. #SuperBowlAds

I wondered whether we’d see a Super Bowl ad that acknowledges how divided the country feels right now. Rocket/Redfin’s “America Needs Neighbors Like You” does it with a surprisingly light, humane touch. My heart appreciated it as a small gift, BUT... (1 of 2) #SuperBowlAds

I thought the cola wars were long over, but Pepsi’s polar bear having an existential crisis because he prefers Pepsi is a smart reset. When the differences between colas are thin, making “it tastes better” feel fresh and funny is a good use of the #SuperBowlAds stage. $ well-spent.

T-Mobile’s Backstreet Boys ad leans hard on nostalgia and pink branding, but that’s doing more work than the idea itself. When the song outshines the strategy, it’s entertainment — not brand building. Not $ well-spent. #SuperBowlAds