Downy brought in a dog to add cuteness to its mystery-celebrity Super Bowl ads.
Video screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET
The Super Bowl isn’t just for football. It’s a showcase for companies to trot out their newest, wildest innovations, and for ad agencies to try to sell viewers those products and services in short commercials that are more like mini-movies.
Celebrities abound, special effects dazzle, some ads zero in on viewer tear ducts, while others unleash the jokes like seltzer in a clown’s face. Some of the ads are instant hits. (Alexa turning mind-reader in Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost’s home was pretty funny last year.) And others leave viewers as confused as Homer Simpson’s operatic, snow-globe smashing Mister Plow commercial left him and his whole family. (Lisa: “Dad, is that your commercial?” Homer: “I don’t know!”)
Companies are already releasing teasers and even full versions of their ads. As the big day approaches, we’ll keep updating this story with as many of the Super Bowl commercials as we can find online, posting the newest releases at the top. (Here’s last year’s lineup.)
Heineken 0.0: Ant-Man and The Wasp
Heineken will take the buzz out of Super Bowl beer commercials by advertising its nonalcoholic Heineken 0.0 in partnership with Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. The beer brand kicked off the campaign with a brief teaser starring Paul Rudd as Ant-Man.
Michelob Ultra: Caddyshack
Fans of the 1980 classic comedy film Caddyshack will want to follow the Michelob Ultra Super Bowl campaign. Yes, that’s former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo re-creating Bill Murray’s iconic role as greenskeeper Carl Spackler.
A second teaser shows soccer star Alex Morgan pouring a beer from her golf bag.
And a third clip shows boxer Canelo Alvarez driving a modified golf cart full of beer.
Pringles: Tick tock…
Pringles is keeping fans guessing about its commercial. The snack brand dropped a still photo showing a pink-clad person, face covered, digging manicured fingernails into a can of Pringles. Part of the caption reads “tick tock, tick tock,” so maybe a TikTok star is involved.
FanDuel: Kick of Destiny
Sports-betting site FanDuel will bring an element of suspense with a live commercial starring four-time Super Bowl champ Rob Gronkowski. Gronk, a tight end during his career, will attempt to kick a field goal. If he makes it, FanDuel big-game bettors will win a share of $10 million in free bets.
Downy Unstopables: Guess the celeb
Downy’s gag is that the fabric softener company has hired a mysterious star who keeps his face covered with a hoodie. He says he’ll keep sniffing the hoodie for 12 weeks, until Super Bowl Sunday, to find out if the claim that Downy Unstopables keeps clothing fresh that long is true. (Spoiler: YouTube guessers are pretty convinced it’s a certain Righteous Gemstones star.)
Doritos: Jack Harlow
Doritos first teased its big ad with a vague social media post saying, “a bag of Doritos BBQ, paparazzi and a mysterious person walk into a bar…” On Jan. 12, the snack brand released a video showing rapper Jack Harlow munching a chip as someone asks him about “a love triangle.” What does it all mean?
PopCorners: Breaking Bad
PopCorners, a popped-corn snack from Frito-Lay, is teasing its ad, which features Bryan Cranston apparently reprising his famed Walter White character from the AMC hit show Breaking Bad, which has been off the air for 10 years now.
View this post on Instagram
Stay tuned for more Super Bowl ads.
Correction, Jan. 17: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of the four-time Super Bowl champ starring in FanDuel’s upcoming ad. His name is Rob Gronkowski.