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. Hellmann’s – “When Sally Met Hellmann’s.” There are winning formulas, and the famous scene in “When Harry Met Sally” was a winner. Recreating it for Hellmann’s won the night for sandwiches.
2. Pfizer – “Knockout.” Sentiment was a big deal tonight, and no ad got the sentiment better than this anti-cancer feel-good commercial.
3. Little Caesar’s – “Whoa!” Who would have thought that eyebrows would be such a great sales tool?
4. Instacart – “We’re Here.” Winning ads from the past come back to help Instacart score big in the Super Bowl.
5. NFL – “Flag 50.” Girls’ flag football is a fast-growing sport, and the NFL uses its sponsorship of the sport to make a big splash on the big night.
6. Homes.com – “Homes.com Is the Best.” Watch it again and count how many times they say that before the end. And then try to get the catchphrase out of your head.
7. Google – “Dream Job.” More sentiment, but this time to try and get you to use Google’s Gemini AI service.
8. Dunkin’ – “DunKings 2.” It didn’t recapture all of the fun of the original, but it was close enough to help Dunkin’ have another good night.
9. Uber Eats – “Century of Craving.” Matthew McConaughey had a big night as a spokesman, starting with this fun reimagining of history.
10. Ram Trucks – “Goldilocks.” Glen Powell is hot right now and Ram uses his heat to help retell a fun story featuring their trucks.

Honorable mention: Duracell, “Brady Reboost.” Michelob Ultra, “The Ultra Hustle.” Homes.com, “Homes.com Is Still the Best.” NFL, “Somebody.” Angel Soft, “The Big Game Potty-tunity.” Dove, “These Legs.” Liquid Death, “Safe for Work.” Lays, “The Little Farmer.” Bud Light, “Big Men on the Cul-de-Sac.”

Now for the bottom 10:

10. NerdWallet – “Genius Beluga.” Cute at first, but ultimately just silly. And the guy never got his phone back.
9. Bosch – “The More You Bosch.” I know what they were trying to sell, but do you? And did you actually care by the end of the ad?
8. Marvel – “Thunderbolts.” Another Marvel movie most folks aren’t looking forward to, and this commercial didn’t move the needle on that.
7. Universal – “Megan 2.0.” Having a robot doll do a sexy dance just isn’t a good idea – ever. And especially not during the Super Bowl.
6. Red Bull – “Flying Penguins.” Red Bull ads all look the same to me, and this one was no different. Stick to PR campaign, Red Bull.
5. HexClad – “UFOs.” Gordon Ramsay + Pete Davidson = a bad idea.
4. Squarespace – “A Tale as Old as Websites.” I watched it again this morning and I’m still not getting why throwing a laptop through a window is a good idea.
3. ChatGPT – “The Intelligence Age.” The history of technology told through connect-the-dots. It’s only interesting if you’re a New York Times reviewer.
2. Coffee-mate – “Foam Diva.” I showed this to all of my students and their reactions were the same as mine – revulsion.
1. Totino’s – “Chazmo Goes Home.” Some people like awkward humor (including a reviewer at CBS who ranked this in his Top Ten). For most of us, awkward humor is just, well, awkward. Totino’s tried to use it to sell pizza rolls and ended up just giving us confused looks and even angry responses. Killing the cute alien and then laughing about it not only didn’t work – it earned Totino’s a place in Super Bowl commercial history’s “Hall of Shame.”

Dis-honorable mention: NYU Langone, “Football Team.” Dreamworks, “How to Train Your Dragon.” Go Daddy, “Act Like You Know.” Ray-Ban/Meta, “Hey Meta.” T-Mobile, “A New Era.” Tubi, “Cowboy Head.” FCAS, “No Reason to Hate.”

One note: This year’s ads were a big step down from last year’s. Super Bowl LVIII’s average grade came out about two-and-a-half points higher. Once again, it’s not that there were that many bad ads – there just weren’t that many really good ones. And the ads are definitely trending downward in the last few years. This is the lowest year since I started tracking these ads in 2020, and this year is about seven points below the high mark of 99.4 in 2022.

Here is the full ranking of all of this year’s 64 ads: