What The Ad Industry Thought Was The Best Super Bowl Commercial On Yesterday’s Big Game.

super clio winner 2023

Everyone from your mom to the guy in the mailroom has their own idea of the best Super Bowl commercial from yesterday’s Championship Game. By now you’ve most likely come across numerous top 3, top 5 and top 10 lists. And of course there’s USA Today’s Ad-meter, gauging the tastes of the public and awarding the “top spot” annually based upon public opinion.

The Super Clio Ad Award Goes To…

When it comes to choosing the best super bowl commercial, much depends upon how one determines “the best.” The bar is pretty low when it comes to criteria for the average viewer. If they remember what it was for and it elicited an emotional response, that’s usually enough to garner their appeal.

Two of the most popular ads on Super Bowl 57 with dogs
Two of the most popular ads on Super Bowl LVII featured dogs

What resonates with an audience is often that with which they are familiar. Nostalgia, sentimentality and personally relatable situations commonly rank the highest. Emotional favorites from yesterday’s telecast include the dog-centric spots for The Farmer’s Dog (which was the #1 rated super bowl ad according to USA Today), Amazon’s Saving Sawyer (a far superior spot to The Farmer’s Dog) and a bunch of ads referencing past – way past – pop-culture such as Clueless, Caddyshack, Grease, Scrubs and Breaking Bad.

The 2 foot tall Super Clio Statuette
The 2 foot tall Super Clio Statuette is awarded to the best commercial during the Super Bowl by the Ad Industry

Celebrities as spokesmen were more prevalent than ever, either in character or as themselves. Some of the crowd favorites using the famous included Dunkin Donuts’ Ben and JLo, Bud Light with Miles Teller, Pop Corners’ Breaking Good with Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, T-Mobile’s Neighborly with John Travolta, Zach Braff and and Hellman’s Who’s In The Fridge? with Brie Larsen and Jon Hamm.

Global CCO of WPP, Rob Reilly, publicly awarding the Super Clio, Monday, Feb. 13
Global CCO of WPP, Rob Reilly, publicly awarding the Super Clio, Monday, Feb. 13

But are these the commercials the ad industry thought worthy of this year’s Super Clio? Nope. The ad industry uses different standards to determine how good a commercial is and originality has a lot of value along with strategic positioning, relevancy, production quality and of course, messaging.

TV streaming company Tubi may have received a lot of buzz for fooling several people at home into thinking someone was sitting on the remote, but it was their minute long “Rabbit Holes” that received the Super Clio, the honor for the best super bowl commercial during the 57th NFL Championship Game. The jury to determine the recipient is made up of 20 well-respected folks in the ad business.

The 1 minute spot, created by Mischief @ No Fixed Address, is terrific. It’s completely original, has the right amount of creep factor, is wonderfully scored and hasn’t a word of dialogue or voice-over to compete with the visuals. Just a single sentence appears on the end of the ad tapping into the simple truth that people go deep when it comes to searching for something to watch and often end up some place rather than intended.

We loved it.

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