The Kansas Chiefs won the Super Bowl 38-35 and have been awarded the Vince Lombardi Trophy, but for those who are not a fan of the sport (or those who intently watch commercials) you could’ve tuned in for all the ads airing during this event. Super bowl commercials are always interesting, having to make use of the small time they have, advertisers are forced to make their ads eye-catching and fun.

Celebrity presences are very common in Super Bowl commercials. From A-listers to faces only certain people recognize, advertisers shove everyone they can into these ads. One of my favorites was a Hellmann’s Mayonnaise commercial. John Hamm and Brie Larson stuck in a fridge together because of their names made me laugh. The play on words was funny and the sandwich they made looked delicious.

Though none stood out, QR code commercials were also a frequent appearance throughout the game. Despite them being not as fun, they were fairly effective. A friend of mine scanned every one that was on the TV, which just proves that that technique works.

Another ad, that I didn’t enjoy as much, was the Tubi catalog commercial. What showed on the TV was what you would see if someone were scrolling through a streaming service, in this case, Tubi. This commercial got me bad. I thought someone was trying to watch, Ms. Congeniality. Cruel trick, good marketing technique.

Advertisers know their audience. There was many ads with pop culture reference, starting with my favorite, the Pepsi ad with Ben Stiller. In this ad he was basically copying his character from the movie, Zoolander. This movie has been on the uprise recently. Many people on TikTok and Instagram have been cutting out scenes and giving those scenes their own captions. For Pepsi to notice this and have Ben Stiller in their commercial and appeal to many audiences was a smart marketing move.

The other pop culture ad that I enjoyed was the Pop-corners Breaking Bad commercial. I’ve heard a lot of students enjoyed this one and I think it was fun to see the faces of familiar characters that I’ve seen all throughout media.

Lastly, movies. What are super bowl commercials without the upcoming movie trailers? Movies from Cocaine Bear, being released at the end of this month, to Indiana Jones, which comes out June 30, were advertised last night. For me, I am most excited for Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (coming out March 31). Good thing for this ad, I had no clue how big this movie was. With names like Chris Pine and Hugh Grant, this trailer has my standards set a bit higher.

Super Bowl advertisers need to be smart. They have to make all these commercials vibrant, unique and funny while still staying relevant to the thing they are trying to sell. I’d say this years batch of commercials were phenomenal, only a few strayed from the subject they needed to be focused on and so many made me laugh.