5 Essential Early Release 2018 Super Bowl Commercials

The expansion of Super Bowl commercials from one-time TV-watching experience to internet activity that starts two weeks before the big game was in many ways inevitable. After all, look at Black Friday. Or the Rocky series. If anything gets popular enough, the powers that be will inevitably find a way to give us more.

So it is with Super Bowl advertising. The online marketing tailgating party just seems to keep getting bigger and longer. Brands tease and launch ads. News outlets buzz about them. Social networks share, like and comment on them. In many ways, Super Bowl commercials are what the web was made for—something we can watch and chat about endlessly.

But with more inevitably comes less. Because so many of the online ads are repeats of what we see on Super Bowl Sunday, all this commercial pre-gaming can take away from the actual game day experience; making it seem a little less “super”. To preserve the Super Bowl commercial-watching experience for you, we’ve whittled the field down to the must-watch pre-release ads…

The Pre-Game Super Bowl Commercials You Gotta See

This is the highlight reel—the best of the best. Check them out and then vote for your favorite below.

#5 – M&M’s “Human”

Although M&M’s ads seldom make our list for great advertising, this one might break every rule we’ve ever put in place. Why? Danny DeVito. He’s the perfect human choice we didn’t know existed for the red M&M. That alone pushes this ad spot into the “best of” for this Super Bowl. Simplicity, humor and downright genius casting brings new life to the M&M’s characters.

#4 – Squarespace “Make It Happen”

It’s official: With Squarespace’s 2018 Super Bowl ad series, they now officially have a thing. What is that thing? Taking actors with a slightly strange and mystical aura and putting them in the center of odd (and fictional?) tales about how they used Squarespace to create a website. Jeff Bridges in 2015, John Malkovich in 2017, and now… Keanu Reeves. Not only do we get Keanu being otherworldly, we get him performing an ACTUAL motorcycle stunt. The message: You can do anything you imagine with Squarespace.

#3 – Skittles “Possible Super Bowl Ad – Sandwich”

This one comes from a longer series of ads. While you don’t need to see them all to get the gist (that Skittles is airing a Super Bowl ad so exclusive only one person will see it—and you may be watching it right now), it certainly adds to the enjoyment. These commercials are among Skittles most bizarre (and that’s saying something) and hilarious. They feature a great concept for an ad series and some career-best work from Friends star David Schwimmer.

#2 – Amazon “Alexa Loses Her Voice”

First, Amazon hit us with a teaser commercial featuring founder and CEO Jeff Bezos with the narrative that Alexa has lost her voice. Then they came out with this, the extended version, where some surprising new voices are given a chance to fill in for her. The famous voice that pops up at the very end in particular is note-perfect. It’s a great concept, one that’s carried out with comedy and star power, and effectively promotes Alexa at a key moment for the technology. This ad is sure to be a game-day favorite.

#1 – Doritos “Blaze” vs. Mountain Dew “Ice”

This one all comes down to the sheer hypnotic state these rap battle-style commercials create. Watching Peter Dinklage from Game of Thrones lip sync to Busta Rhymes is mesmerizing. That guy has moves and we don’t care if it took some post-production editing magic to make it happen. Then you get acting legend Morgan Freeman delivering a rock-solid (or should we say “rap solid”) performance that brings down the house, literally, with ice.

Of course, using celebrities in Super Bowl commercials is nothing new. The power they have is astonishing and if the advertiser picks the right celebrities at the right time, it can rocket their Super Bowl stock into the stratosphere—like it does here. It’s also worth mentioning this ad has a cross-brand component to it where viewers can show their support for the brand/rappers they think won the battle on social. #Spitfire