One of the most anticipated days of the year in the United States is the Superbowl. It’s a day where we can eat way too much food, hang out with friends and watch good old fashion American football. Now, even the super-human athletes that compete in the Superbowl need a water break every now and then, and in that time, we get some great advertisements. We also get some advertisements that make us feel really uncomfortable. For some people, the Superbowl Ads are what they look forward to the most. Looking back on this year’s Superbowl Ads, how did they stack up with ones in years past?

This year, I found that the commercials we’re a little more serious in introspective than ones in previous years. They weren’t the gut-wrenching humor that we’ve all come to expect. There were also some that have been on air for weeks if not months now. There’s no place for old advertisements during the Superbowl! We don’t watch the commercials to see ones that we’ve seen before. Not to mention many of the ads, including the annual Budweiser Clydesdale commercial, were leaked prior to the big game, ruining the surprise and anticipation.

From Liam Neeson quoting his “I Will Find You” speech from Taken, to the trailer for Jurassic World, to Kim Kardashian, the Superbowl Ads this year were clever, witty, and sometimes strangely uncomfortable and morbid (yes NationWide, we’re looking at you). Around Bel Air High School some teacher and students talked about their favorite (and least favorite) ads from this year

“The best this year was the Brady Bunch commercial. The one were the guy from Machete was all mad and then he ate the Snickers bar and was back in the Brady Bunch cracked me up,” said Senior Jackson Struve. That one was pretty good, plus the little cameo from Steve Buscemi at the end pulled it together. Well done, Snickers, A+.

“I really liked the BudLite commercial where the guy was literally a human PacMan because it looked like a lot of fun!” said marketing teacher Mrs. Smith.

“While the NationWide commercial was sad, it sent a powerful messages,” said Spanish teacher Mrs. Kozak. NationWide was pretty split down the middle in fans this year. Tons of people (including myself) loved the “Invisible Mindy Kaling” ad where she tried to kiss Matt Damon, and a lot of people did not like the other one in which the child had died.

“Avocados from Mexico. I’ve been singing that song since Sunday,” said Senior Alex Munley.

“The puppy in the Budweiser ad was so cute!” said Junior Ali Nesbitt. Come on Budweiser, we get it, that puppy is certainly cute, but come up with a new gimmick for your ads. Get Don Draper in the room and find something else to market your beer besides a lost puppy, and an oddly melancholic cover of The Proclaimers.

“The Fiat commercial with the Viagra. That was pretty funny. But in a way that I laughed uncomfortably after because I felt it was supposed to be funny, and I was supposed to laugh. Plus the dude was wearing a cheetah-print bathrobe and that was… interesting,” said Senior Elijah Olsen. I couldn’t have said it any better myself Elijah.

Overall I enjoyed the majority Superbowl ads, and I’m a big sucker for a good movie trailer, but I wasn’t too impressed with any of them this year. They’re funny in a social gathering for the first time, but in the next four months when I keep repeatedly seeing Jeff Bridges meditate over sleeping people while I’m trying to watch the final season of Parks and Recreation, I’m going to get a little annoyed. But I guess we’ll just have to wait until next year to get a brand new round of Superbowl commercials.