The 5 Best Commercials from Super Bowl 49

Unlike last year, the commercials weren’t the best part of last night’s Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. We actually got to see an awesome game—and I totally called the score…but didn’t enter it in our company pool (doh!). But that’s neither here nor there.

While my wife and four year old may not enjoy watching the game as much as I do (the calls for the Puppy Bowl are getting louder and louder), at least we can all agree that the commercials are great. This year’s batch took on a much more somber tone, and there were some that just plain missed the mark, but there were also some ads that stood out above the rest. Let me know if I missed any when I was up getting “daddy juice” (that’s what we call beer in my house) in the comments section.

Here are my top 5 from last night:

5. History Revised — TurboTax Revisits the Boston Tea Party

Anyone else been watching Sons of Liberty on the History Channel? I wonder when they’re going to get to this part. While it wasn’t dead-on accurate (or, really… accurate at all), TurboTax did a nice job of entertaining and showing the difference a free tax filing makes. Well alright then…

4. BMW — Katie Said She Thought This Was a Car

It is one of my favorite videos. Ever. 21 years after the infamous, “Allison, can you explain what Internet is?” (and that infamous hairdo), Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel take back to the air waves to introduce another big new concept in their own confused way. Also, I need to figure out what a “fanbine” is.

3. Esurance — Is Dr. White In?

Paging Dr… Heisenberg. I really enjoyed the Esurance set of “sorta you” commercials. In them, we see Lindsey Lohan trying to pick up children from school, a parent-teacher conference with “Sorta Mr. Craig” and, in my favorite, we visit Walter White at your local pharmacy. While the commercial itself is entertaining, it also does a great job of illustrating the point that Esurance allows you to customize your insurance policy…

2. Clash of Clans Liam Neeson Commercial — Watch Out BigBuffetBoy85

We’ve all heard it 1,000 times by now- sometimes said by Liam Neeson, sometimes said by your little cousin Chris, “I have a particular set of skills.” Has anyone gotten more mileage out of a great movie line than Liam Neeson? And, on a related point, will someone please get this man a security system so they’ll quit stealing his family?!?!?! Clash of Clans is an online game that many people probably have never heard of until last night, but if you think you can ignore them now, think again…

1. Grab Me a Tissue… And A Beer — Budweiser’s Lost Dog Commercial

Budweiser has cute and memorable down to a science. I mean, it’s scary how good they’ve gotten at carrying on a singluar theme for Super Bowl commercials year after year- and, by the way, they can do that because you remember last year’s commercial (because it was so good, too). Instead of showing the stock beautiful, fun people doing fun things in beautiful places, we get a story that tugs at your heart. Why? Because the best marketers don’t sell a product, they sell a feeling.

Did your list agree with mine? What did you think of last night’s commercial set? What were your favorites? Let us know in the comments section.

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