Ads for 2020 Super Bowl mostly violent, unimaginative

I'm not a football fan, but I watch the Super Bowl every year to comment on the ads to see if they continue to be violent, sexist, and ageist.

This year, the game itself and the ads this were so violent, with dozens of ads for violent TV shows and violent movies. It was discouraging. After being blasted with all the violent ads, it hard to even concentrate on the others to see if there was anything worthwhile.

I was also disappointed with the half time performance. When it came time for women can take part in the Super Bowl, we had scantily clad women singing and dancing. It was so discouraging that women's role in the Super Bowl and on TV continues to be as sex objects. As one of my friends said when I commented on this on Facebook, let's have a marching band.

However, I didn’t see any sexist or ageist ads, which is a big improvement from years past.

This year, the most expensive 30-second ads cost advertisers $5.6 million.

Best ads

Google: An older man asks Google to see photos of his late wife, Loretta.

Jeep Gladiator: An older Bill Murray, of “Groundhog Day” movie fame, finds an orange Jeep in downtown Punxsutawney, kidnaps the groundhog, and goes on a series of adventures, saying “No day is the same in a Jeep Gladiator.”

Hyundai Sonata: Chris Evans, John Krasinski, and Rachel Dratch extol the features of the cars self-park feature.

Michelob Pure Gold: Buy a six pack the organic beer and 6 square feet of land will be converted to organic production.

Microsoft: Katie Sowers, the first woman to coach in the Super Bowl, is featured.

Worst ads

Michelob Ultra: Guided by wrestler John Cena, Jimmy Fallon learns to get over his distaste for working out amid athletes Usain Bolt, Brooks Koepka, Kerri Walsh Jennings, and Brooke Sweat.

Quicken Loans: Jason Momoa “takes off” his muscular arms and chest and his long hair because he can be at home in his home financed by Rocket Mortgage. Note: Compare prices carefully before you get any loan through Quicken Loans.

Mr. Peanut: He’s buried at a funeral, but after a tear falls on the ground over the grave, a baby peanut who looks like him pops up out of ground. He says about his death, “Just kidding. I’m back.”

Budweiser: “Typical Americans” are showed doing ordinary and extraordinary things. However, Budweiser’s attempt to do another patriotic falls short.

Snickers: The idea to “feed” the world a giant Snickers by dropping it by helicopter in a huge hole to fix the world, with singers using Coke’s famous “teach the world to sing” idea, wasn’t bad. However, the snarky comments about politicians and the surveillance state made the ad miss the mark.

Tide: Two of its ads had the theme that you can now wait to clean up your clothing stains and not worry about stains setting in. Cameos by Bud Light Knight and Wonder Woman didn’t save them. I’d recommend Tide, so well known, try a patriotic or moving ad about something rather than cleaning clothes, a market it’s been leading for 70 years.

Proctor and Gamble: Sylvia Vergara throws a party and a pot of chili hits a fan, spraying it everywhere. All of Proctor and Gamble’s brands – Bounty, Mr. Clean, Charmin, Olay, Febreze, and Old Spice assemble to clean up the mess or comment on their features. Vergara says, “When we all come together, it’s amazing what we can do.” Again, a corporate giant should do something inspiring, please.

Turbo Tax: “All people are tax people” was sung while a variety of people did wobbly legged dance moves. As a Turbo Tax user, I would have liked to see something about why its program is good.

Cheetos: A guy uses having cheesy, orange fingers from eating Cheetos to get out of various unpleasant things – including changing a baby – to let consumers know they can get its familiar powder as a coating on bagged popcorn.

SodaStream: Water is brought back from Mars, and Bill Nye, the Science Guy, drinks it by mistake.

Bud Lite Seltzer: A man's inner voices, shown mostly as tattooed research-like figures, fight a battle over his drinking Bud Lite Seltzer or Bud Lite, so he staggers around in a convenience store knocking packages of chips all over.

Reese’s Take 5: A woman uses clichés about people who haven’t heard of the bar, and they turn into the cliché, such as being under a rock and being born yesterday.

NFL: A kid playing a football game leaves his game, runs through the streets, and is greeted by famous people and football Hall of Famers along the way. They say, “Bring it home.” The kid runs into the Super Bowl stadium and presents the game ball.

Hyundai Genesis: Chrissy Teigen makes snarky comments about people at a party, then she cues John Legend in the car, and he misses his cue.

Coca-Cola Energy: Martin Scorsese waits for Jonah Hill at a party and Hill doesn’t immediately answer the text. Hill grabs a Coca-Cola Energy to make it to the party.

Facebook: In its first TV ad, Facebook tries to turn attention away from its problems, such as election manipulation or doctored videos, by showing a lot of Facebook groups that organize on the platform.

Walmart: In one ad, Walmart shoppers do the shopping for space characters, with the ad touting “free pick up for everything for your journey” and “out of this world convenience.” In a second ad, United Towns, Walmart says when it looks at towns, unlike a birds-eye-view, it sees towns with sparks and hope, in the 1,000 towns it gets to call home. Hypocritical, since Walmart pays such low wages that a majority of its workers need to apply for food stamps.

Silly ads

Pop-Tart Pretzel: It’s just so silly, it felt like a waste of my time.

Pringles: People stack different flavors of Pringles to make new flavors, but they complain they’re trapped in a commercial.

Ads that missed an opportunity

Avocados From Mexico: Carriers, suitcases, and helmets to protect the important avocados were a bit much. I wish the ad would have covered the health benefits of avocados, which are many.

Olay: Lilly Singh, Busy Phillips, and former astronaut Nicole Stott give a jokey take on women in space, as they “man” a rocket labeled Olay.

Old and tired ads

State Farm: A woman wakes up at night and thinks her husband is talking to another woman, but it’s Jake from State Farm. I’ve probably seen this ad at least 100 times.

Update: In finishing this article and watching the ads again, I can see that some of them were meant to be funny. However, with all the violence of the football game and so many violent TV and movie ads, it was hard for me to see the humor in the ads.