by: Colin Horan ‘21

Each year as the Super Bowl approaches, viewers across the country prepare for Super Bowl Sunday’s greatest spectacle- the commercials. Football’s fans are graced by companies going all-out, spending millions on 30 seconds to entertain the 100 million who turned into the big game. Commercials often go at viewer’s emotions, like with Budweiser’s infamous “Puppy Love” or they try to go big with star power as when McDonalds got Michael Jordan and Larry Bird to have an epic game of H-O-R-S-E for a big mac. With each year, there are always hits and misses, but for now let’s start with this year’s two biggest successes.

On January 22, The Estate of Mister Peanut, announced in heart-wrenching fashion that food and cultural icon Bartholomew Richard Fitzgerald-Smythe, more commonly known as Mr. Peanut, had sacrificed his life to save Matt Walsh and Wesley Snipes after a tragic car crash. In what became one of the most anticipated commercials this year, Planters delivered. In what began as a sentimental tear-jerker, Walsh and Snipes, as well as other figures such as the Kool-Aid Man and Mr. Clean, stood together at the funeral of everyone’s favorite peanut. Then, in a shocking turn of events, the tears of the Kool-Aid man fall onto the grave of Mr Peanut, reviving him into the new and improved Baby Nut. This absolute masterpiece of cinematography and marketing put Baby Nut at the top of my Super Bowl commercials for 2020.

Doritos also takes a top spot this year with its “The Cool Ranch” commercial. In late January, Doritos released a teaser with actor Sam Elliott saying the lines to the song “Old Town Road,” then heading out of a saloon. In the Super Bowl continuation, Lil Nas X rides up on a horse to “The Cool Ranch” in order to get a tasty bag of Doritos. Then in classic spaghetti western fashion, the two lineup in the town’s dusty main road, and the only logical course of action ensues- a dance battle. The moves pulled off in the ensuing dance battle could rival dancing with the stars for the best dancing on TV. Despite Elliot’s efforts, Lil Nas X busts out the best moves west of the Mississippi, winning himself the bag of Doritos. Despite the commercial being about undoubtedly the worst flavor of Doritos, the well done combination of star power and plain entertainment puts Doritos at a solid number 2 for this year’s commercials.

Despite 2020 being a pretty mediocre year overall for Super Bowl commercials, it produced some pretty good ones, and set some hopeful trends of character icon crossover as well as generating pre-commercial hype with trailers.