Whether you were watching for the commercials or the game, and whether or not you know who won or lost, we can all agree this was a historic super bowl! The halftime show was epic, the commercials top quality and there was a surprise victory in the second half… the most prolific comeback in sports history. Just in case you were eating Triscuits during the breaks or going to the refrigerator for beers, let’s recap.   

There were the semi-political progress-oriented commercials including: the high-budget budweiser ad about its immigrant founder, the 84 Lumber one that featured south americans traveling towards the US border, the Kia story where Melissa Mccarthy found an easier way to be an ‘eco-warrior’, the Airbnb spot that called for acceptance, and the Audi father-daughter cart race bit that advocated for equal pay.

Lady Gaga’s halftime show didn’t seem too political to me, but my friend put forth: it was a big win and a reach for her to sing ‘born this way’ on the Fox network. Her inclusion of This Land is Your Land in her repertoire resonated with the pro-immigration stance of various ads, all of which moved against Trump’s travel ban. My sister thought she deserved major kudos for her base jump into the stadium, but others felt it was reckless endangerment of Lady Gaga, for what? The main question among the people I watched this with was how she got around and changed costumes so fast. It was agreed upon by all she was an uncommonly talented singer. Two separate people told me they thought it was quote: “One of the best halftime shows of all time.”

But theatrics weren’t just confined to that sector. There was dancing in the touch-down ad with Justin Beiber for T-mobile and the ‘sexy Mr. clean’ snippet.

As far as commercials for snack food go, the skittles plug with the guy throwing them as pebbles had me wondering if all those actors were really catching actual skittles in their mouths or if it was just computerization.The live snickers spaghetti western where everything went wrong never showed anyone eating a candy bar. Still, it was a fun scene… and maybe their sales will go up for innovation.

The Buick promotion where a kid football player turns into Cam Newton harkened back to the Betty White Snickers commercial of old civilians changing into famous people.

The consensus my friends reached was they like the baby one for the NFL best, with football players reimagined as babies. Another one that touched on football was for Avocados from Mexico: a secret society member claims responsibility for deflating a football in reference to (someone told me) a recent NFL drama. In one more for football literates Terry Bradshaw, a player turned commentator, gets a stain on his white shirt, goes berserk to try and replace it and gets help from Jeffrey Tambor.

All in all, it was a fun season and will be back again next year. We’ll be going without the best ads, or bereft of football until then. Draft off the Patriots energy or Lady Gaga’s and perform at the top of your game!