james corden, mila kunis, timothee chalamet, superbowl adverts

Ranked: These are the most dreadful adverts from this year’s Superbowl

Of course James Corden had to appear

3 years ago

The Superbowl is an amazing annual event that truly brings all Americans together to sit themselves in front of the TV, eat and drink too much, and subject themselves to some of the most stomach-churning, depraved Superbowl adverts imaginable. Seriously, to think that people literally watch hours of this just to see the adverts is actually insane, but that’s exactly what people do every February, every single year.

Maybe it’s a British thing and I couldn’t possibly understand the pomp and circumstance surrounding such an occasion, but some of these adverts are so cringeworthy that they’ll make you need genuine acupuncture for how badly your back will tense up. So, from 2D Matthew McConaughey to a Cardi B recreation of Wayne’s World, these are the worst adverts that were on The Superbowl this year.

11. Doritos – Flat Matthew

First on the list of terrible Superbowl adverts is Matthew McConaughey’s appearance in this Doritos advert, and what can I say? It’s the top of this list because it’s creepy and worth talking about, but let’s be honest – it’s brilliant. Credit to whoever managed to get this one through the boardroom and into production because the premise is bizarre but it’s a really good time overall.

Something mildly upsetting about the accompanying hashtag #flatmatthew though, but here we are.

10. Oatly – Weird Piano Song

This advert came under a fair bit of criticism from many riled up yanks who expected a little more from a Superbowl ad, with some even vowing not to buy Oatly ever again. Yeah, it’s minimal and a little strange, but they obviously saved a lot of money which is more than can be said for Bud Light (we’ll get onto them).

It’s not a shock that Americans snubbed this for being a little quirky yet a quick browse on Twitter shows they’re in love with some of the worst offenders on this list.

9. Hellmann’s – Amy Schumer’s Fairy Godmayo

Besides Amy Schumer holding a similar status of celebrity appeal to the utterly despicable James Corden, the most preposterous part of this advert has to be that they’ve suggested making an entire Chocolate cake with their Hellmann’s mayonnaise. Hell-no!

8. Miracle-Gro – John Travolta TikToker

We’re really getting into the meat of it now with Miracle-Gro, a brand that you’d think would have no business interjecting a world sporting event with their advertisement. As expected from the rise of TikTok in the past year, there just had to be some boomer reference to people doing dances (and not the last on this list might I add) – and that comes in the form of John Travolta rodeoing to Surfaces’ Sunday best.

Never buying Miracle-Gro again 🥴🥴🥴

7. Bud Light – Post Malone confuses everyone

This ad is just all kinds of random, and I don’t use that word lightly.

It would be an impossible feat to easily sum up the premise of this video, from supermarket scene to weird Post Malone land and back again, because it just seems so unrelated to anything – let alone a beer company. Replace the product and branding with any other company and it would still be the same confusing video. In fact, it might even make more sense.

6. Fiverr – Opportunity Knocks

Fiverr were already in our bad books for the raft of preroll ads that seem to play before every single YouTube video on the platform right now (you know the one), but this offering is especially weird and seemingly as unlinked to their company message as the Bud Light ad above.

Had I never used Fiverr, a prospect which I’m increasingly becoming keener on, I would have no idea who the company are or what they do after this.

5. Squarespace – Five to Nine

Just to be clear, Dolly doesn’t actually appear, but instead gleefully sings about how we should all delight in working from five to nine – outside of our work hours. At least that’s what I got from this ad, but it really could be anyone’s guess what they were trying to achieve. Does it scream “build a website”? I’ll leave that up to you.

4. Paramount Plus – Sweet Victory

James Corden and Patrick Stewart have clearly made up since their very public spat at The Glamour Awards a fair old while ago, but that doesn’t stop either being extremely unwelcome in this advert. It’s like Paramount decided to get literally everyone remotely unlikeable on one film set, from Young Sheldon (yes, from The Big Bang Theory) to DJ Khaled – just to torture us.

It’s horrible.

3. Cadillac – Scissorhands

Winona please, why did you do this?! Well, obviously loads and loads and loads of cash, but still, why?!

If we’re becoming embroiled in Scissorhands-lore, it seems inconceivable that Winona would grow up, having been through all that trouble with Edward, just to have a son that has the same scissored hands. Did she have a child with Edward and then cut that child’s hands off to replace them with scissors? Or did the child genetically happen to have scissors for hands, taking after its father?

I wouldn’t want to be there for that birth.

2. Uber Eats – Wayne’s World and Cardi B’s Shameless Manipulation

In the number two spot is this painful recreation of Wayne’s World for Uber Eats. I know it’s hard for companies to come across as if they’re not trying to pedal you something, but this parody is verging on complete desperation. It’s a scream for attention in the absence of anything actually gripping to engage audiences, and there’s no greater celebrity to sum up that ethos than Cardi B.

And yup, there’s that horrible TikTok reference near the end. As expected.

1. Cheetos – Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher and Shaggy

And finally, at the number one spot of horrible Superbowl adverts, it just had to be Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher and Shaggy with this truly haunting rendition of his hit “It Wasn’t Me”. I know you’re likely thinking that I’m reading too closely into every advert here, but seriously what domestic scenario are these two living in in which they (two multimillionaires) have separate food items in a multimillion-dollar mansion?

“I even caught you on camera!”

I feel sick.