DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa. — Update, Feb. 14: The polls closed yesterday at noon, and The Pavone Group officially knows which Super Bowl ads spoke to Americans.
Some top contenders jumped out early in the voting. Check out the ranking of the most-loved commercials:
- The Farmer’s Dog: “Forever” – A dog and its owner experience life together.
- Amazon: “Saving Sawyer” – A destructive pooch is calmed by the arrival of a new dog.
- He Gets Us: “Be Childlike” – He Gets Us reminds us that Jesus gets us and encourages us to be kinder by being more childlike.
- Heineken: “Shrinking and Drinking” – Ant Man breaks the rules with Heineken’s zero alcohol beer.
- Kia: “Binky Dad” – A dad captures the nation’s attention when he embarks on a race home to get his daughter’s pacifier.
If you missed the commercials during the big game, you can watch them by clicking the links in the ad titles above.
Previously: The Super Bowl is all about the best teams in football, but some people tune in for entirely different reasons.
Super Bowl commercials have a life of their own, drawing millions of viewers in with their celebrity spokespeople and no holds barred comedy.
This year's group of ads featured many famous faces—but it might not have helped.
"Generally [star power] does [help advertisers], but I gotta say, some of the leaders that we're seeing right now don't have celebrities in them," David Shoffner, communications manager of the Pavone Group, said. "So a celebrity isn't always the magic bullet."
"Binky Dad," a KIA commercial, proved this point well. However, the advertiser ran into a different commercial hurdle.
"The biggest challenge for an advertiser is making sure your brand is memorable, and people remember the brand behind the commercial," Shoffner said. "I think KIA made a good, entertaining commercial, but I don't know that a lot of people are going to remember that this was a KIA ad."
The Pavone Group, a Dauphin County-based agency, conducts an annual poll to get a feel for what ads Americans liked best. This year was the 20th SpotBowl—and it was a good one.
The most popular ads seemed to be the ones that appealed to viewers' emotional sides, like "Forever" by The Farmer's Dog. It is currently leading SpotBowl's polls.
"First-time advertiser in the game, and I think... this one pulled on the heartstrings," Shoffner said. "I think ads in the game can do a lot of things, they can make people laugh, but I think if you can make people get a little choked up, like this one did, you're gonna do well."
The polls are open until noon today, so vote here for your favorite Super Bowl LVII commercial.