Super Bowl commercials have dominated social media feeds for the last 24 hours, with a spike in Google searches for the ads this morning as many break down favorite moments, what worked and what turned off audiences.
Critics suggest this year's sponsors played it safe, largely avoiding controversy while many on social media said the tone of unity is what the nation needed.
Members of The Creative Circus in Atlanta helped provide 11Alive with insight from an advertiser's eye.
"Several sponsors took the unity/feel good angle: Toyota, Hyundai, Mass Mutual were a few. Then, when you combine in the heavy promotion of the Winter Olympics and Para-Olympics with their emphasis on personal stories and emotion, it skewed the night in a feel good direction," Dave Haan, Executive Director of The Creative Circus said. "There was humor, but nothing embarrassing or outlandish. The Tide ads were quite different, especially for Tide, but most brands were within their expected range. It was a decent year, not great."
For copyrighting student John Dillon, the night was "hit or miss."
"Inclusivity and unity were prominent themes. Some hit the nail on the head. Others didn't. Shout out to Tide for actually selling the product," Dillon said.
Student Whitney Repole recognized a more positive representation for women this year but overall found a gap in true inclusion.
"There was a lot of strong powerful women in the athletic area but something that was still very problematic was the lack of cultural and racial diversity in the spots - while there were women represented there was still huge categories of people that were largely excluded," Repole said.
USA Today's Ad Meter ultimately recognized Amazon's Alexa as the winner of the night.
But for some, the commercials just weren't the expected performers of the night.
"For a change, the game was better than the ads," Haan added.
