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The 49ers only lost by a few points, but these advertisers lost big, ticking off viewers with sexist or unfunny commercials. Watch the worst commercials of this year’s Super Bowl below. Disagree with our choices? Let us know in the comments.
Go Daddy: This commercial objectifies women and makes fun of unattractive people. Just another day at the Go Daddy marketing headquarters! As spokesperson Danica Patrick explains, GoDaddy is both sexy (represented by model and Leonardo DiCaprio ex Bar Rafaeli) and smart (represented by some nerd named Walter). They kiss. A lot. It makes sloppy wet noises, intended to gross you out.
Go Daddy: First impression: “Can it be? A Go Daddy ad without bikini-clad babes?” But look further and you’ll see that this ad is just as sexist as the rest of the company’s offerings. Wives around the world are harping on their husbands for not putting their big idea online. Why are the women all so angry? Why are the men the only ones allowed to have great ideas?
Doritos: A little girl wants her dad to play with her, but he is about to go hang out with the guys. But when he sees that she has Doritos, he changes his tune. Before you know it, he’s wearing makeup and a dress. The implication that a dad doesn’t want to spend time with his daughter unless she bribes him with Doritos is not very nice. (But the ad, directed by Providence High graduate Mark Freiburger, ended up getting positive ratings from viewers, ranking No. 4 of all Super Bowl ads in USA Today's Ad Meter.)
Volkswagen: This commercial, released early, has been controversial all week. An average white guy’s Volkswagen makes him happy — so happy that he speaks with a Jamaican accent. “You know what dis room needs? A smile,” says the man. “Who wanna come wit I?” Though VW’s chief marketing officer said the commercial checked out just fine with actual Jamaicans, many people wondered if it was racist. And when the conversation about your company becomes more about racism than your product, you have an ineffective commercial.
Gildan: After a crazy one-night stand involving fuzzy handcuffs, a dude tries to escape without waking the woman he hooked up with … except she’s wearing his favorite t-shirt, and he needs to find a way to get it off of her. The notion that a guy needs to sneak away to escape a woman he slept with, and the implication that she is crazy or promiscuous because of the handcuffs…. no, Gildan, no.
Bonus:
Century 21: Though a few of them aired before the actual game, every single one of the ads that Century 21 prepared for the Super Bowl comes across tone deaf at best, and mean at worst. Whether it’s a woman so preoccupied with her new wealth that she doesn’t notice that her husband is choking, a wife in labor who demands a new kitchen, or a mother-in-law so fearsome that a groom faints at the altar at the thought of living with her, women are not portrayed well in three out of the four Century 21 spots. And that dad is a jerk to his son, too.
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Super Bowl ads: Watch them now.
