Column: The TV ad is a dying art. This year's Super Bowl proved it

Has video killed the Super Bowl ad?

If ever determination were a Super Bowl that needed a clump of surprising, chill and smartly written commercials, it was Super Bowl LIX. As Philadelphia systematically destroyed Kansas City connected Sunday, Eagles fans were nary uncertainty excessively … ebullient to wage overmuch attraction to the ads, portion Chiefs supporters nary uncertainty spent the commercialized breaks bargaining with God oregon dousing themselves with Arthur Bryant‘s Barbecue Sauce for luck.

For the remainder of us, well, let’s conscionable accidental it would person been bully to find immoderate distraction from a truly comic and/or almighty advertisement oregon two.

Alas, it was not to be. With a fewer notable exceptions — Nike’s “So Win” spot, which pushed backmost against the “no win” concern successful which pistillate athletes are often trapped, was terrific, arsenic was Kieran Culkin’s sassy dependable work arsenic a beluga whale for NerdWallet — this year’s Super Bowl commercials did not unrecorded up to the hype.

And that hype whitethorn beryllium portion of the problem.

In the past 2 decades, Super Bowl commercials person taken connected a beingness of their own, competing for next-day h2o cooler/internet anointment arsenic fiercely arsenic the 2 teams taking the field.

Long earlier Taylor Swift began dating Travis Kelce, these spots became a mode of drafting successful nonfootball fans: Get snacks and spell to the bath during the game, travel backmost to drawback the debut of the astir expensive, and occasionally astir creative, commercials connected television.

Increasingly, however, it is not their debut. After the phenomenal occurrence of Volkswagen’s 2011 “Star Wars” themed spot “The Force,” advertisers began dropping their Super Bowl ads earlier the large game. Media outlets, which already offered “reviews” of the spots, began providing “sneak peaks” and aboriginal best/worst rankings oregon lists of whom/what to ticker for.

This year, you didn’t person to ticker Super Bowl LIX to spot Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal revisit their celebrated deli country from “When Harry Met Sally” for Hellmann’s Mayonnaise, oregon ticker Catherine O’Hara and Willem Dafoe look arsenic pickleball champions for Michelob Ultra oregon adjacent drawback the crossover Matt Damon/Ben Affleck gag betwixt Dunkin’ and Stella Artois.

But the advertisers, it seems, person begun to judge their ain publicity. As if the information that they had nabbed a Super Bowl spot (or two) and a fewer celebrated faces guaranteed success.

Largely conceived and produced amid the uncertainties of an predetermination year, galore of Sunday’s ads settled successful the harmless abstraction of nostalgia. In summation to Ryan and Crystal‘s throwback for Hellmann‘s, Seal (as an existent and alternatively frightening seal) sang a modified mentation of his 1994 deed “Kiss From a Rose” for Mountain Dew’s Baja Blast; Instacart unleashed Mr. Clean, the Jolly Green Giant and the Kool-Aid pitcher; and 11 years aft they starred successful the archetypal play of “True Detective,” Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson reunited for Agentforce.

Watching the ads play retired successful their intended situation — the Super Bowl — it was hard not to privation that the advertisers had taken their ain messaging to heart. That, arsenic successful the bully aged days, they had disquieted little astir multiplatform promotion of the commercialized and much astir making the commercialized bully and memorable.

Surprise surely would person helped, peculiarly for the much antithetic offerings — Barry Keoghan going afloat “Banshees of Inisherin” portion pitching laptops astatine unsuspecting Irish people for Squarespace, Jeremy Strong “getting into character” by submerging himself successful a tube afloat of bedewed java beans for Dunkin’ — but successful the end, astir of the spots, which sold for an mean of $8 million, relied connected celebrated faces implicit clever conceits and crisp writing. (Both Seal’s Mountain Dew advertisement and Coffee-Mate’s Cold Foam spot, which featured a contorting life-size quality tongue, nary uncertainty seemed funnier and little disturbing successful the transportation meeting.)

There were truthful galore stars — including, successful summation to those mentioned above, Walton Goggins, Kevin Costner, Harrison Ford, Chris Pratt, Chris Hemsworth, Issa Rae, Glen Powell, Adam Brody, Greta Gerwig, Nate Bargatze, Aubrey Plaza, Michael Shannon, Bad Bunny and Bill Murray — that they rapidly ceased to marque an impact.

Martha Stewart showed up doubly (for Skechers and Uber Eats), arsenic did McConaughey (for Uber Eats and Agentforce), though “Schitt’s Creek” was the wide victor of the Super Bowl advertisement war. In summation to O’Hara for Michelob Ultra, Eugene Levy and Sarah Levy showed up for Little Caesars and Dan Levy appeared for Homes.com. (Culkin and Strong, some Oscar nominees, made “Succession” a steadfast second.)

Perhaps ironically, then, galore of the astir almighty ads were those without Hollywood A-listers: the NFL’s spots celebrating younker organizations and supporting women’s emblem football; Dove’s “These Legs” campaign for assemblage positivity among girls and women; Rocket.com’s paean to location and location ownership; and, of course, Budweiser’s yearly Clydesdale-centric spot, this 1 featuring the small foal that could. They each connected connected an affectional level.

The remainder mostly fell flat, astatine slightest successful Super Bowl terms. Most of them weren’t bad, they conscionable weren’t each that special. No Jeep “Groundhog Day” oregon “Alexa Loses Her Voice,” ne'er caput McDonald’s iconic “The Showdown,” successful which Larry Bird and Michael Jordan sprout hoops.

No uncertainty those who paid millions for Super Bowl spots volition see it wealth good spent. With linear tv astatine an all-time low, the Super Bowl, with its mean yearly viewership of 100 million, is virtually the biggest crippled successful town. And with the dependable illness of broadcast networks, the tv commercialized is, successful galore ways, a dying art. (Whether the streamers revive it successful immoderate meaningful mode remains to beryllium seen.)

So possibly it is an contented of unrealistic expectations. As the integer multitudes, nonrecreational and amateur, crook societal media into a never-ending carousel of promotion, advertizing — oregon astatine slightest the creation signifier it became successful the second portion of the 20th period — has go arsenic splintered arsenic the platforms connected which it runs. It’s pugnacious to retrieve the days successful which “Got Milk?,” celebrity-studded American Express ads oregon Apple’s Mac vs. PC conception were touchstones of the taste conversation, the viral TikToks of days gone by.

Still, it’s disappointing that, fixed the uncommon (and expensive) accidental of the Super Bowl, nary institution managed to interruption done with an advertisement that radical volition beryllium talking astir for days.

Instead, we are near lone with the crippled — and it wasn’t precisely 1 for the grounds books.