The best way for celebrities to win over audiences at the Super Bowl? Show they can laugh at themselves. Adrien Brody leans hard into the role of a pretentious dramatic actor desperate to remind everyone he’s an Oscar winner. While Brody wants to “tap into the pain of tax season,” the TurboTax ad director just wants him to “dial it down.” Brody’s committed performance sells it, and the commercial is refreshingly different for the category.
Hellmann’s | “Sweet Sandwich Time” by VML, WPP Unite, and Edelman
Hellmann’s assembled all the key ingredients of a delicious Super Bowl snack: nostalgia, big talent, and pure silliness courtesy of Andy Samberg. The comedian plays “Meal Diamond,” singing “Sweet Sandwich Time,” a twist on Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.” The puns are so easy, how did no one think of them before? Meal Diamond steals the show and will likely make everyone hungry.
Manscaped | “Hair Ballad” by Quality Meats
Your first reaction to Manscaped’s ad might be, to quote a colleague, “Ewww.” Clumps of anthropomorphic hair, freshly shaved from various body parts, croon a ballad about missing their male counterparts. I thought I’d be repulsed, too, until I looked into those hair monsters’ wide eyes and heard their soulful voices. Who needs Sabrina Carpenter when your stars have charisma like this? The ad made me laugh, and I’ll be thinking about those surprisingly cute hair balls for days to come.
Squarespace | “Unavailable” (in-house)
Squarespace brought together director Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone, whose reunion alone justified a Super Bowl ad. Luckily, the result doesn’t disappoint. In just 30 seconds, it manages to pack in the unsettling drama and dark absurdism that defines their collaborations, feeling less like a commercial and more like a natural extension of the Lanthimos universe. That Squarespace managed to bottle that weirdly wonderful sensibility without diluting it is the real achievement.
