Superbowl

As expected, Super Bowl LII had its fair share of commercials. There were some good ones, and there were some bad ones. None of them, though, were as controversial as the Ram commercial that used a portion of Martin Luther King Jr’s speech. To say that it wasn’t well-received would be an understatement. It was panned, criticized, and obliterated for using the speech as a means to sell Ram trucks, a clear misinterpretation of the actual message of King’s speech. But given what we’ve come to know since, was it really a case of insensitivity on Ram’s part or was it all a big misunderstanding of the ad’s real purpose?

Maybe your team lost, or maybe you sided with the Patriots before they started to make that massive comeback. One thing that was sure to make you happy either way was the various car commercials that debuted during the game. There was certainly something for everyone, like the Lamborghini Monster ad for supercar freaks or, if you’re into Offroad, the Jeep commercials. Hell, the Ram commercials hit us right in the feels on a number of levels. Needless to say, if you didn’t watch the game, you should probably catch up on all of the car commercials. They didn’t all have the pizzazz that we’ve come to love from the past, but they are all worth their weight, that’s for sure. So, with that said, we’ve compiled them all down below. If you haven’t watched them, take a half hour or so out of your day to enjoy each one. You might be happy that you did.

Apparently, Hyundai still knows how to choke us up with its Super Bowl commercials. As much as the ad featuring the Hyundai Kona did that for all the wrong reasons, the Korean automaker’s other Super Bow commercials legitimate brought a tear to our eyes, and it’s not an ad for any one of the company’s models. Instead, Hyundai took an entirely different approach by reminding all of us that a part of the proceeds from every Hyundai that has been sold in the last 20 years went to Hyundai Hope on Wheels, a non-profit organization the Korean automaker started in 1998 to support life-saving pediatric cancer research.

Jeep has a long history of producing Super Bowl commercials that resonate with its owners. The automaker’s commercial for Super Bowl LII follows along that same blueprint. There are no celebrities trying to fit inside the SUV to make a pitch. There are no witty lines and slapstick comedy routines. There are, however, plenty of beautiful shots of America’s roads and expansive highway systems. There’s also a brooding voiceover that emphasizes the importance of roads in today’s world and the need to, on some occasions, look past them.

There’s something to be said for a commercial that nails it with the subtlest of hints. I’ll submit this ad for the new 2019 Ram 1500 pickup as a perfect example of that. The theme of the ad centers around a group of Icelandic Vikings who make the trip to Minnesota from Iceland to watch Super Bowl LII, presumably because they thought the Minnesota Vikings were actually playing in it. From there, hilarity — and a fitting closing tagline — ensues.

Toyota will run no less than three ads this Sunday in a string of highly coveted time slots during the Super Bowl, a first for the Japanese auto behemoth. The ads will go heavy on the sports and feature athletes from the Olympic and Paralympic Games, with the theme being “Unity, Courage And Inspiration.”

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Keanu Reeves will be in the house for Super Bowl LII. Ok, so he’s not going to be in somebody’s house, but he will be on our TVs because he’s the star of Squarespace’s Super Bowl LII commercial. In the ad, Reeves is riding an Arch KRGT-1 motorcycle, and he’s talking himself. His imagination — or is it conscience? — talks back to him in an aspirational tone, convincing him that he can do anything he wants if he sets his mind to it, including making a motorcycle and creating a website for it.

It’s not the only Reeves spot that’s going to air at the Super Bowl LII. Another ad shows him surfing the same KRGT-1 bike while sing-speaking along to Will Powers’ affirmation-heavy song “Adventures in Success.”

The two ads aren’t exactly the best Super Bowl LII ads we’ve seen so far, but they do a good job promoting both Reeves’ Arch motorcycle brand — he founded it with his friend, Gard Hollinger — and Squarespace’s own “create-a-website” service. The two parties decided to create a Super Bowl LII after Reeves used Squarespace to create the website for Arch Motorcycle. Since then, the relationship between the two companies have grown.

“There’s something about Squarespace that’s really accessible yet sophisticated,” Reeves said in a statement. “The design and functionality share a similar ethos to Arch Motorcycle. When I was approached to make this commercial, we were already using the platform, which makes it a really organic fit.”

Organic fits notwithstanding, here’s to hoping that Reeves’ commercial stands out against a crowded pack of ads from the auto industry. We’ve already seen a handful of them, including those coming from Toyota, Lexus, Kia, and Hyundai.

We’re just a few days away from the Big Game, and the commercials are coming at us fast and furious. Earlier this week, we got a preview of Kia’s spot with a 30-second clip that showed a pair of Stingers lined up on an old, abandoned race track. Leaning up against one of the high-powered four-doors was Formula One and Indy 500 champ Emerson Fittipaldi, while inside the cabin of the other was a mystery celebrity sporting a big silver ring and two-tone nail polish. We speculated that the finger belonged to none other than Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler, which turned out to be spot on.

In this new one-minute, 14-second update, Tyler slams the Stinger into reverse and performs a big smokey burnout. He continues to accelerate, lapping the abandoned race track faster and faster, until suddenly, he’s transported back the ’70s, complete with screaming bell-bottomed fans and a rejuvenated Tyler. It’s the classic Superman spin-back-in-time trick, and certainly speaks to the Stinger’s impressive power potential.

Look for the full 60-second ad spot to air in the third quarter of Super Bowl 52. Check out this latest update below.

As a reminder, the Kia Stinger GT is equipped with a twin-turbo 3.3-liter V-6 engine producing upwards of 365 horsepower. 60 mph arrives in 4.5 seconds.

The all-new Hyundai Kona is getting premium placement at Super Bowl LII with a commercial of its own, or at least that’s what it seems like on the outside. The 60-second commercial features the Korean automaker’s punchy new crossover, but it’s not actually the star of the ad.

Instead, we get to see a children’s soccer game that devolves into a red card fest, all because the referee wants to catch the game between the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles. The unsuspecting parents (and coaches) eventually buy in on the referee’s charade, and when no one’s left to play the game, everybody scampers back to their homes to catch the game.

Apart from a few shots at the start and end of the commercial, the Kona is hardly visible in the entire ad. It’s not exactly the best way to spend millions of dollars on a 60-second commercial, but fortunately, the voice-over’s tagline in the end — “it’s designed to save the day” — helps tie the concept of the commercial together.

If you were underwhelmed by this commercial like I was, there’s a silver lining coming from Hyundai itself. In a similar move to what Snickers did last year, the Korean automaker is also filming a live Super Bowl spot that will showcase the company’s philanthropic efforts with the Hyundai Hope On Wheels childhood cancer fund.

Other automakers like Kia and Lexus have also tipped their hats with their respective Super Bowl ads. Hyundai’s sister company will focus on a spot featuring Emerson Fittipaldi and a pair of Kia Stingers while Lexus’ whole Super Bowl ad strategy will revolve around its partnership with Marvel Studios and the latter’s upcoming movie, Black Panther.

Normally, if you wanna drive around in a new Tesla for a little while, you gotta have a trusting friend with one already parked in his or her driveway. Now, one rental company in Minnesota is offering folks a shot at experiencing a Tesla first-hand by renting them out during Super Bowl week.

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Do you have a smartphone, a finger, and an astounding amount of free time? Then you could very well win a pumped-up German luxury two-door in Mercedes’ latest promotion.

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Hyundai is gearing up for its big Super Bowl advert, with plans to finalize it with footage shot during the game in a last-minute editing blitz right before it goes live. The advert will highlight the company’s philanthropic efforts with the Hyundai Hope On Wheels childhood cancer fund.

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South Korean brand Hyundai is once again returning to the big game this February, dropping a 60-second ad spot during the third quarter of the 52nd Super Bowl between the Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots. The ad is set on an old abandoned race track, where we find a pair of Kia Stingers staged up for what we can only assume to be a race. Leaning up against one of the high-powered four-doors is none other than the mutton-chopped two-time Formula One and Indy 500 champion Emerson Fittipaldi. Meanwhile, in the other car, we have a mystery celebrity, who kicks over the Stinger’s twin-turbo 3.3-liter V-6 with a single, slender, be-ringed and nail polished finger.

Kia provides few cues as to who’s driving the other Stinger, merely stating the ad features “two eternally youthful legends who have logged seat time in some of the most powerful and exotic cars in the world.” Based on that description, plus the silver ring and two-tone nail polish, there’s really only one candidate here – Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler. It makes sense, considering Tyler’s previous rides have included such insane machines as the Hennessey Venom GT and Shelby Cobra, among others.

Either way, make sure to tune in on February 4th to see the entire 60-second ad spot. Something tells us that rubber will be burned.

As a reminder, the Kia Stinger GT produces 365 horsepower and can hit 60 mph in 4.5 seconds.

Super Bowl 52 is less than two weeks away, with kickoff between the Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots scheduled for Sunday, February 4th. And that means its time to ramp up the blockbuster commercials. Lexus is getting ahead of the game with the release of its latest Black Panther spot, which you can view in its entirety right here.

The ad is 60 seconds in length, but a shortened, 30-second iteration is scheduled for the third quarter on Super Bowl Sunday. The ad features the LS 500 F Sport, Lexus’ flagship four-door, as well as the hot-to-trot Lexus LC 500 Coupe, both of which slice and dice through the ad in heroic tire-burning fashion. We also get to watch Black Panther snagging some stolen vibranium before pulling up to a world leadership conference, giving us a preview of the costumes and props from the film.

All told, the ad should do well to expand Lexus’ target audience, which typically ranges from the old to the very old.

Make sure to check out Marvel’s Black Panther movie when it hits U.S. theaters February 16th.

Super Bowl LII is a little over two weeks away. As is customary in the weeks leading up to the game, automakers begin announcing their plans for the Super Bowl Sunday, including the lineup of commercials that they’re set to debut before, during, and after the game. Toyota took a hiatus from the frenzy last year, but it’s back with a vengeance this year with a pair of 60-second commercials. For its part, Lexus is also in on the fun with its own commercial that will have ties to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

There are still a couple of months before Super Bowl LII kicks off and already Kia has announced that it will run an ad campaign for the ninth straight year. There are no details about the advertisement campaign as of yet, but Kia is known for going above and beyond for these campaigns and typically involves a celebrity or two. As an example, the brand has commissioned folks like Christopher Walken, Pierce Brosnan, and even Melissa McCarthy, among others. As such, you can assume that Kia will kick it up a notch again this year. After all, these Super Bowl ad campaign’s cost a small fortune and Kia doesn’t want its ninth year to be a dud.

With that in mind, Kia’s 2018 ad campaign will be overseen by Saad Chehab, the man who put together Chrysler’s “Born of Fire” ad a few years back with Eminem as the main star. With a man like that behind the ad, you can bet it’ll be good – he does have all the right connections, right? And, while there aren’t any details, Chehab seems to have the right idea:

“Kia doesn’t lack advertising success in the Super Bowl. It’s more now, how do you continue this great work that they’ve already done and start introducing additional customers to your brand that have not yet considered yet?”

The man has a point, don’t you think? What do you expect from this year’s Super Bowl ads? Let us know in the comments section below.

So, Super Bowl LI was a pretty remarkable game, wasn’t it? It had generous helpings of drama, including the greatest comeback in the history of the game. That tells you the magnitude of what Tom Brady and the New England Patriots accomplished when it rallied from 25 points down to beat Matt Ryan and the Atlanta Falcons, 34 to 28.

Apart from the history-making game though, Super Bowl LI will be remembered for its commercials. That’s been a recipe of the Big Game for years now, and just as it was back then, this year’s game featured plenty of commercials, including a significant number of ads from the auto industry. There were definitely a lot of them, and while some of those commercials bordered on the bad to the outright ridiculous, there are those that stood out, including the five commercials you’re going to read about below.

These ads are, for lack of a better term, the most memorable car commercials of Super Bowl LI. As you can expect the treatment of these ads differ from one another. There’s one that used the power of a celebrity to get its message across. There’s also another that touched on its own future. Then there are the ads that carried with them deeper societal meanings that extended well into the treatment of their commercials.

Remember, this isn’t a list of the best commercials among automakers during Super Bowl LI. It’s a list of commercials that stood out in different ways, whether it’s through laughs or empowerment. Personally, I liked all of them, and for what it’s worth, all five do place in my rankings of best car commercials during Super Bowl LI, which itself will be otherwise remembered as the Super Bowl that solidified Tom Brady’s place as the greatest of all time.

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There’s no question in anybody’s mind that the Super Bowl has become an annual tradition for Americans. It may not have the historical significance of Independence Day or the rich story behind Thanksgiving, but Super Bowl Sunday has morphed into a weekend holiday for this country. One really cool thing about the spectacle is the traditions that have been created out of the tradition, and one in particular, is close to the hearts of the automotive industry. See, every year, the player who gets named Super Bowl MVP wins more than just a spot in the NFL’s history books. He also wins a car; and it’s usually a pretty good one at that.

That tradition goes all the way back to the first Super Bowl in 1967 when Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr received a Chevrolet Corvette for leading the Packers to a 35 to 10 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. A year later, Starr once again took MVP honors in Super Bowl II – a 33 to 14 win over the Oakland Raiders – and he once again took home a Corvette for his efforts.

Over the years, we’ve seen a number of cars handed over to Super Bowl MVPs. That tradition has continued in the last decade and change when the keys to cars like the Cadillac Escalade and the Chevrolet Corvette were given to the game’s best player. In fact, if you go all the way back to Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004, the Escalade and Corvette have dominated the MVP’s winning car. All told, since 2004, the Escalade has been awarded to the Super Bowl MVP a total of five times. The Chevrolet Corvette is second with a total of two models while the Cadillac XLR, Chevrolet Camaro, Chevrolet Silverado, Chevrolet Colorado have been awarded once. Only twice in that span – 2010 and 2016 – when no cars were awarded to the game’s MVP. Tough luck for Drew Brees and Von Miller.

Now that we’re a week away from Super Bowl LI, let’s take a drive down memory lane and go back to Super Bowl XXXVIII to see which Super Bowl MVP got which car for his exploits in the game.

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Super Bowl LI is less than two weeks away. We all know what time it is then, right? A number of automakers are already gearing up for the Big Game with their Super Bowl commercials, and as the days wind down to February 5, 2017, we’re going to see more brands roll out their ads in one of the year’s biggest night in advertising. For now, Lexus seems to be the first to the party after unveiling its 60-second extended spot for the Super Bowl, titled “Man & Machine.”

The star of the ad is the new Lexus LC, the same performance coupe that Lexus hopes will pose a strong challenge to established rivals like the Porsche 911. That goal won’t be realized overnight, but at the very least, Lexus wants the LC to make a strong impression to the American buying public, which is why the automaker pulled out all the stops to make this ad as meaningful and as memorable as possible.

The treatment of the ad itself is indicative of Lexus’ mood for the LC. There are no cute storyboards or witty lines. There are no gimmicks or cheap pops either. There’s only the coupe taking center stage with noted street dancer Lil Buck providing the entertainment with his trademark style of dancing to the tune of Sia’s “Move Your Body.” A voice-over joins in half-way through the ad with a short comment about how some machines can inspire emotion, alluding, of course, to the Lexus LC and the reactions people get upon seeing the car and the emotions felt when driving it.

As far as the whole commercial goes, it’s not the kind of hard-sell ad that we’ve come to expect from Super Bowl commercials. Instead, it takes a different approach in establishing the LC as a car that’s worth our attention. On that level, the ad succeeds in doing just that, for better or worse.

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