Super Bowl commercials 2020: Ellen envisions life before Alexa, Bill S. Preston goes shopping – CNET

We know who’s playing in Super Bowl LIV. The San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs will meet for the big game on Feb. 2 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. But some viewers tune in mostly for the spectacle, including the famed Super Bowl commercials, which are often more like mini movies than your standard ads.

And the commercials aren’t a carefully kept secret these days. Clips and information about them have been trickling out since even before the teams were set. Here’s a look at the ads we know are coming. We’ll add to this post as more commercials are revealed.

Amazon: Before Alexa

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi imagine what life was like before Alexa, with the help of a number of funny fake flashbacks. Be thankful you’re not relying on a dude in a covered wagon to provide you with musical entertainment these days.

Walmart: Famous Visitors

Everyone needs groceries, including time travelers, space aliens and the like. Everyone from R2-D2 and C-3PO to Buzz Lightyear to Bill S. Preston, Esq. show up to utilize Walmart’s grocery pickup service in this spacey ad.

Snickers: Fix the World

Snickers’ Super Bowl ad humorously lays out some of the world’s problems (babies named Kale, home assistants spying on us) and tries to solve things by feeding the planet a giant chocolate bar. Hey, we’ll try anything at this point.

Bud Light: Vote for a Post Malone ad

Bud Light made two potential Super Bowl commercials featuring rapper Post Malone, and wants fans to vote for their favorite. One features the musician choosing between Bud Light and Bud Light Seltzer with help from his brain’s control panel, while the other shows the reactions from his various body parts to a sip of mango-flavored Bud Light Seltzer. (Remember Pixar’s Inside Out? Both ads are kinda like that.)

Saucony: One small step

How about reducing our carbon footprint by starting with footwear? Saucony’s Super Bowl ad reveals that the shoe brand is developing its first biodegradable shoe.

Saint Archer Gold: Patience

Saint Archer Gold is a new premium light beer from Molson Coors. In this ad, professional skateboarder Paul Rodriguez skates through San Diego trying to find the beer, to the tune of Guns ‘n Roses’ “Patience.”

Michelob ULTRA: Jimmy Fallon works out

The late night talk show host doesn’t love working out, until his training partner, John Cena, helps him liven things up. Who wouldn’t be more enthused about jogging around a track if The Roots are offering you a live soundtrack?

Discover: No

Famous movie and TV scenes and other short clips where people spout “no” are used to drive home the idea that the card has no annual fees. Aw, John Candy, we miss you.

Discover: Yes

As a counterpart to the “no annual fees” commercial featuring various clips of people spouting “no,” this one features a batch of faces (Kenneth the page from 30 Rock!) saying “yes,” as in, “yes, we accept Discover.”

Google: Loretta

Calling it now: This tear-jerking, 90-second ad from Google will be the most buzzed-about Super Bowl ad. In it, an older man uses Google to help him remember facts about his presumably deceased wife. The man is the 85-year-old grandfather of a Google employee, and the company says they used facts from his real life to create the commercial. I’m not crying, you’re crying.

Little Caesars: Best thing since sliced bread

When Little Caesars pizza delivery is dubbed the “best thing since sliced bread,” the statement wreaks havoc at Sliced Bread headquarters.

Take 5 bar: Where’ve you been?

Reese’s Take 5 bar isn’t as ubiquitous as the company’s peanut butter cups — the candy bar includes peanut butter, chocolate, caramel, peanuts and pretzels. The ad features an office worker who’s shocked that her co-workers haven’t heard of the candy bar, and all of them have reasons that play off cliches for being ignorant. One guy even has his head up his — never mind. Kinda can’t believe they went there.

Microsoft: Be the one

This Super Bowl features the first-ever woman to coach in the big game, thanks to 49ers offensive assistant coach Katie Sowers. Microsoft’s ad celebrates her breakthrough achievement and lets viewers learn about her lifetime love for football.

Dashlane: Password Paradise

Password manager Dashlane drops a guy into a scene reminiscent of Dante’s Inferno in this amusing spot. To make it into paradise, he’ll need to remember his password, which he can’t of course. 

Michelob ULTRA Pure Gold: 6 for 6-pack

It’s a beer commercial with an ambitious social goal. This ad promises that for every six-pack of Michelob ULTRA Pure Gold purchased, the company will help transition 6 square feet of farmland to organic. Drink up!

New York Life: Love Takes Action

New York Life’s commercial may be the only Super Bowl ad ever to teach viewers some ancient Greek. The commercial explains four different Greek words for love, settling on “agápē,” which is described as “love as an action,” and draws a parallel to the company’s 175 years in business.

NFL: Inspire Change

This dramatic and serious ad has aired before, but the NFL will run it during the Super Bowl. Retired NFL wide receiver Anquan Boldin tells the story of his cousin who was shot to death by a police officer in Florida. The ad promotes the league’s Inspired Change initiative, which works to showcase NFL employees working to create positive change, and awards grants to social justice groups.

Porsche: The Heist

In a very Fast-and-Furious-style ad, someone apparently steals an all-electric Taycan Turbo S from the Porsche Museum in Germany, and the museum’s security guards all pile into the other Porsches on exhibit to chase him down. Pity the poor dude who gets stuck with the Porsche tractor.

Budweiser: Typical American

A Super Bowl ad from Budweiser takes negative-sounding words and phrases about what a “typical American” is — show-offs, competitive, uninvited — and turns them sideways, depicting heartwarming acts by Americans that can be described in those same ways. Fun fact: The spot was directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow.

Squarespace: Winona Ryder goes home

Actress Winona Ryder stars in a Super Bowl ad for Squarespace, and revisits Winona, Minnesota, the city for which she was named. A three-minute film available online shows the actress wandering the town and then making a website (apparently, this one) on Squarespace with the help of a friendly waitress.

Heinz: Find the goodness

Heinz ketchup found a way to combine four separate ads in one, including a clown, a family of villains, another planet and a candelabra lit by a ghost. All four stories come together for a ketchup-related ending. The four-in-one ad was directed by Roman Coppola, son of Francis Ford Coppola, and one of the developers of Mozart in the Jungle.

Avocados from Mexico: Molly Ringwald

The Avocados from Mexico marketing group has had some great ads, including the 2015 ad where countries draft various foodstuffs and animals (“the United States selects … wheat”). In this year’s commercial, actress Molly Ringwald hawks a number of home-shopping-network-style products for avocados, including a tortilla chip-shaped pool float.

BudweiserCanada: Whassup again

The classic series of “Whassup?” ads for Budweiser ran from 1999 to 2002, creating one of those catchphrases that was fun at first and almost immediately became annoying. But 20 years have passed, and a Super Bowl ad for BudweiserCanada reimagines the catchphrase spouting from a whole apartment full of smart devices. (The Roomba is the best.) There’s an Uber tie-in at the end, as the ad encourages those drinking during the game to contact a ride-hailing service.

SodaStream: Bill Nye

SodaStream, the gadget that lets you make bubbly water at home, has enlisted Bill Nye the Science Guy for a Super Bowl ad. AdAge says the commercial will run right before halftime, and will promote the idea that making your own water with SodaStream will help the Earth by using less single-use plastic. 

Facebook: Sly Stallone and Chris Rock on Rocky steps

In December, Rocky star Sylvester Stallone hinted at a return to the Philadelphia Museum of Modern Art, whose steps he famously runs up in the 1976 film. He later said it’s for a Super Bowl Facebook ad with Chris Rock, and a brief clip shows dozens of sweatshirt-clad runners making the iconic jog.

Planters: Mr. Peanut dies

Kill off your mascot? Bud Light did it last year in a Super Bowl ad, and now Planters nuts is trying that theme. In an ad that will run before the Super Bowl, monocled giant peanut Mr. Peanut gets into a car accident with actors Wesley Snipes and Matt Walsh, and gives up his life for his friends. According to an email from Planters, a third-quarter commercial will broadcast Mr. Peanut’s funeral. R.I.P.

Pringles: Rick and Morty

The Pickle Rick episode of Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty featured mad scientist Rick turning himself into a pickle. It was kind of a big dill. Peter Dinklage of Game of Thrones even recorded an audio commentary for the episode, and there’s a classic blooper. It was later announced that Pringles is making Pickle Rick-flavored Pringles, and on Jan. 28, Pringles released their full Rick and Morty-themed Super Bowl commercial. The ad focuses on the idea of stacking differently flavored Pringles for different flavor sensations, and leave it to mad scientist grandpa Rick to discover the family is trapped in a Pringles commercial.

Doritos: Old Town Road

Old Town Road was an enormous smash hit for rapper Lil Nas X in 2019, and Doritos is playing off its popular Cool Ranch flavor to make the connection between Cool Ranch and the western-themed song. Two trailers have been released so far, one featuring honey-voiced actor Sam Elliott reciting the song’s lyrics, which he makes sound like stark poetry, and another featuring Lil Nas X himself riding into town.

Cheetos: MC Hammer

What time does the Super Bowl start? Hammer Time. The ad for Cheetos features MC Hammer belting out his famed line “can’t touch this,” and reminding a hapless dude not to touch anything when your fingers are covered in orange Cheetos dust.

Mountain Dew: The Shining

New Mountain Dew Zero Sugar is playing off the movie version of Stephen King’s famed The Shining, with Bryan Cranston as ax-wielding Jack Torrance and Tracee Ellis Ross as his terrified wife, Wendy. Nice homage to the elevator scene and the creepy twins, too.

Pop Tarts: Jonathan Van Ness

Queer Eye grooming expert Jonathan Van Ness has problems with pretzels at a craft table. Since it’s a Pop-Tarts ad, we bet he soon discovers the toaster pastry now has a variety with a pretzel crust.

TurboTax: Tax People

TurboTax’s ad declares that all people can do their own taxes, from museum guards to cowboys to birthday party entertainers.

Hyundai: Boston accent

Was Hyundai so convinced the New England Patriots would be in the Super Bowl that they commissioned a Boston-accent-themed ad to fit in? The Pats and Tom Brady (and his ENORMOUS coat) are usually a good Super Bowl bet, but not this year. Look for Rachel Dratch, John Krasinski, Chris Evans and former Red Sox player David (Big Papi) Ortiz all in an ad campaign based on speaking Bahhhhstahn. Guess a Kansas City- or San Francisco-accent themed ad wouldn’t be quite as funny.

Cell phone company Verizon will have a 60-second ad in the Super Bowl, AdAge says. The company’s been building up to it by releasing other ads along the same line of that commercial, which apparently will show how 5G can help medical personnel save lives.

Originally published on Jan. 21, and updated as new ads are revealed.

source: cnet.com