In one of the best Super Bowls ever played the Kansas City Chiefs rallied in the second half to outlast the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII, 38-35. In a shocker (not), quarterback Patrick Mahomes was named the game’s MVP (though I probably would have given it to linebacker Nick Bolton, because his defensive touchdown kept the Chiefs in it when the Eagles were starting to pull away).

Of course, the game on the field wasn’t the only competition of the evening, nor was it the only reason FOX wanted to broadcast the game. FOX ran only about 40.5 minutes of ads on Sunday (compared with almost 46 minutes in 2022), but still made more than $10 million more during the game because the cost per ad was so much higher (about $7 million per ad, compared with about $6 million a year ago). Overall, FOX expects to make more than $600 for Super Bowl LVII (including pre- and post-game revenue), which is a pretty good day at the office.

As for the big game ads, there was the good, the bad and the ugly. Here are my top 10 and bottom 9:

1. Farmer’s Dog – “Forever.” Somewhere, someone’s still tearing up over this ad. It was like a one-minute version of “Marley and Me,” but the dog lived. On a night where most ads relied on a celebrity, one without a famous face won the night
2. Google – “Fixed on Pixel.” One of the more fun ads. The early switch from sentiment to sass — plus a heavy focus on the phone’s camera features — placed this one near the top.
3. Disney – “Disney 100.” No other studio could possibly run a montage of its greatest hits that would touch as many hearts as Disney does.
4. GM + Netflix – “Why Not an EV?” Will Ferrell wins with the night’s funniest ad, while GM stands as the clear winner of the evening’s electrified contenders.
5. T-Mobile – “Neighborly.” Even though it’s getting harder to recognize John Travolta without his hair, the voice is still gold. Tell me more, tell me more…
6. Popcorners – “Breaking Good.” Of the night’s two movie “remakes,” this one wins ever so slightly. Walter White trades his meth for popcorn snacks, and the result is “tight, tight, tight”!
7. Michelob Ultra – “New Members’ Day.” The other movie remake, with Mich Ultra nicely repurposing Caddyshack. This one brought back a lot of good memories, but where was the gopher?
8. Uber One – “One Hit for Uber One.” A nice ad with some familiar musical faces (loving Montell Jordan and Haddaway), plus a great closing tag for viewers to remember.
9. Planters – “The Roast of Mr. Peanut.” The wordplay in the title alone made this ad a contender. I’d love to see the entire roast of Mr. Peanut, but we probably couldn’t air that in prime time.
10. Amazon – “Saving Sawyer.” A super-long 90-second spot evokes a lot of sentiment, but since it aired well after the top-ranked Farmer’s Dog ad, it lost ground because it looked too much like the other ad. But it was still very good.

Honorable mention: Pepsi Zero Sugar, “Acting.” (Both Ben Still and Steve Martin) Bud Light, “Hold.” NFL, “Run With It.” Disney, “Indiana Jones.” Workday, “Rock Star.” Coors + Miller, “High Stakes Beer Ad.” Jeep, “Electric Boogie.” He Gets Us, “Love Your Enemies.” DC, “The Flash.” Doritos, “Jack’s New Angle.”

Now for the bottom six:

6. Squarespace – “The Singularity.” Confusion is never good in advertising. Adam Driver is a familiar face, but multiplying him into infinite versions doesn’t make me like him more.
5. Busch Light – “Cold+Smooth Survival Skills.” Let Sarah McLachlan stick to raising money for sad puppies. Putting her into a beer ad didn’t work.
4. WeatherTech – “We All Win.” The ad’s title was ironic, because WeatherTech never wins in these things. At least not in the rankings. But they probably make a mean floor mat.
3. U2 – “Achtung Baby Live at the Sphere.” Running a national ad about a concert in Vegas? It was simultaneously confusing and odd.
2. TurboTax – “Dancer.” A guy dancing in front of a fountain. That’s it. If I’m having TurboTax do my taxes, I don’t want to be anywhere near that guy.
1. Limit Break – “Free Digital Collectible.” Ad Meter didn’t even include this in its rankings, but it was one of the first ads of the night. And for the second straight year, we got a QR code on screen for mindless people to scan. Apparently, it didn’t even go anywhere interesting — just to the Twitter account of the company’s CEO, and the free offer of a digital collectible didn’t work in many cases. Please, please, please, stop scanning random QR codes.

Dis-honorable mention: Bass Pro Shops, “Celebrating 50 Years.” Peacock, “Poker Face.” DoorDash, “We Get Groceries.” Remy Martin, “Team Up for Excellence.” Booking.com, “Somewhwere, Anywhere.” RAM, “Premature Electrification.” Avocados From Mexico, “Make It Better.” Pringles, “Best of Us.” Universal, “FAST.”

One note: This year’s ads were a cut below last year’s. Super Bowl LVI’s average grade came out about four points and a full Ad Meter point higher. It’s not that there were that many bad ads — there just weren’t that many really good ones.

Here is the full ranking of all of this year’s 52 ads: