Super Bowl Ads 2018: The Best, The Weirdest And The Most Complicated

The cost was daunting: With well over 100 million viewers expected to tune in this year, NBC charged just over $5 million for each 30 second spot. So advertisers were careful about which messages they showcased on the biggest TV platform of the year.

Even so, many of the spots felt handcuffed or held back — so cautious about drawing a laugh or provoking viewers that the primary reaction was just, well, disappointment.

Last year, we saw nods to the nobility of immigration or gender equality or civil rights. Not this year. Perhaps because of fatigue over real-life political battles, marketers this year seemed to tone down the snark and avoid anything with a whiff of a political statement, beyond the idea that it's a good thing to deliver clean water to people in developing nations and communities ravaged by hurricanes.

With that in mind, here's my take on the best — and worst — of what I saw in between the big plays in Sunday's game:

Best Use Of Celebrities: Doritos Blaze Vs. Mountain Dew Ice

If there's anything cooler than watching Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage strutting through a sitting room on fire while lip-syncing lyrics by Busta Rhymes, it might be seeing Hollywood's favorite version of God, Morgan Freeman, bringing the chill while miming Missy Elliott. The spot featuring two snack food items is a joyful minute of pop culture craziness, complete with cameos from Rhymes and Elliott and a too-cute moment when Dinklage and Freeman face off. Totally cool, totally hot and totally fun all at once — a rare hat trick for Super Bowl ad makers, who are often too intimidated by the Big Stage to let their hair down and produce something that feels really fun.

Best Use Of A Running Gag: Tide's Commercials With David Harbour

A few advertisers tried a head fake with viewers, presenting commercials that looked like one kind of ad when they were really something else. Tide's spots with Harbour pulled this off best, starting out like a car ad or a beer ad and then revealing the Stranger Things star saying, "It's a Tide ad." Later in the game, Harbour crashed what looked like an Old Spice ad and a Mr. Clean commercial. This stuff was meta in the most wonderful way, playing with our notions of what a typical Super Bowl ad might look like while coming up with a wholly unique way to sell something as pedestrian as laundry detergent.

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