By Owen Gorsuch, Staff Writer

Super Bowl Sunday has seen its fair share of iconic advertisements over the years, from Apple’s “1984” inspired commercial in 1984 to Mountain Dew’s infamous Puppy Monkey Baby commercial in 2016. 

Following up last year’s commercials was always going to be tough, as Super Bowl LIX featured great commercials from the likes of Jeep, Bosch and Anheuser-Busch. This year, the big game was marred by weight loss and AI ads the same way that Super Bowl LVI was marred by cryptocurrency ads. 

One of the better ads from the Super Bowl this year was from State Farm, starring actress Hailee Steinfeld, as she deals with two insurance agents for the spoof “Halfway There Insurance” agency. The agents were played by comedian Keegan-Michael Key and actor Danny McBride. They tried serenading her with a parody of “Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi, complete with a keytar. 

After wishing she had State Farm, a red convertible arrived with Jake from State Farm and none other than Jon Bon Jovi himself. Bon Jovi asks Steinfeld “Need a lift?” and the three of them drive off, concluding one of the best uses of 80s nostalgia in this year’s commercials. On a side note, there were so many 80s songs in Super Bowl ads this year that it was hard to keep track. 

Keeping with the theme of 80s nostalgia was the Instacart ad, “Bananas,” starring Ben Stiller and Benson Boone in an 80s inspired music video. When Boone did his signature backflip, Stiller tried to one-up Boone by front flipping off some stairs, causing him to crash through the drum set like he was a Bills fan jumping through a table.

The journey through this year’s Super Bowl ads goes from 80s to 90s nostalgia. The Dunkin’ Donuts ad was a sitcom version of the 1997 movie “Good Will Hunting” starring Ben Affleck titled “Good Will Dunkin.’” This version had Affleck’s character working at a Dunkin’ Donuts with Jason Alexander of “Seinfeld” fame as his manager and Matt LeBlanc from “Friends” as one of his friends.

At one point, Affleck used LeBlanc’s “How you doin’?” catchphrase from “Friends.” It would not be the last time the show was mentioned, as Affleck later mentioned he was “on a break” from his girlfriend, played by Jennifer Aniston. Speaking of Aniston, she later appeared with a new boyfriend, played by Tom Brady, with Ted Danson from “Cheers” also making an appearance. Dunkin’ Donuts once again produced a fantastic Super Bowl ad.

One ad that would not work on paper was Pringles’ ad about someone creating a man out of Pringles, but when that someone is Sabrina Carpenter, a woman well known for her witty humor, it becomes one of the best ads of the Super Bowl.

The ad features Carpenter and her Pringles boyfriend in various settings like a dinner table, stadium and a red Alfa Romeo that possibly references the 1967 film “The Graduate.” The ad ended with the Pringles man getting trampled by a crowd of Carpenter’s fans, leaving her to sadly snack on her boyfriend like Homer Simpson snacking on Pinchy the lobster.

It would not be the year of America’s 250th anniversary without a patriotic ad. Budweiser stepped up to the plate and produced their latest excellent Super Bowl ad, which began with a baby horse encountering a baby bird on a farm.

The horse then gave the bird shelter from the rain and the pair were shown growing up together to the tune of “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. This culminated in the now-adult horse galloping below what is revealed as a bald eagle. A farmer watches with tears in his eyes, which he blames on the sun.

Much like the Pringles ad, Budweiser’s ad does not work on paper, considering how overplayed “Free Bird” is. Thanks to the right storytelling decisions, Budweiser made an ad that is patriotic without being overbearing.

Overall, the Super Bowl ads this year were like Sam Darnold’s performance against the Patriots: not great, but good enough to get the job done.