Super Bowl Commercials 2023: Post-Game Twitter Reacts to Top Ads, Movie Trailers

Once upon a time, the name of the game for Super Bowl commercials (and the ad agencies that create them) was creativity, with brands competing to see who could come up with the funniest, most heartwarming or downright strangest ads.

It's not that the art has gone completely out of ads, but in 2023, the name of the game is celebrity cameos—a lot of them.

Whether it was Ben Affleck in his native Dunkin' habitat, a (meta) commercial about Bradley Cooper and his mom recording a T-Mobile commercial, Jennifer Coolidge applying e.l.f. primer, Alicia Silverstone reprising her iconic role as Cher Horowitz in Clueless for a Rakuten ad, Maya Rudolph settling into her role as the new M&M's spokesperson, Sarah McLachlan spoofing her song "Angel" for a Busch commercial, a somewhat puzzling team-up between non-Canadian Dave Grohl and Crown Royal, or Serena Williams starring in two different commercials for Remy Martin and Michelob Ultra, respectively, star power was the main theme of this year's commercials.

The Super Bowl is historically home to multiple hotly anticipated film-trailer premieres, and this year was no exception, with trailers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and The Flash enrapturing Marvel and DC fans alike.

Let's take a closer look at some of the most buzzed-about TV spots during this year's clash between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs.

Unfortunately for the NFL and its advertisers, one of the common takeaways from this year's ads was that they were underwhelming.

Even television veteran Dan Rather was unimpressed with this year's selection.

It's unclear if Stephen King was disgruntled with the quality of the commercials or merely the number of them, but either way, the man knows a thing or two about storytelling.

Perhaps all the money spent wrangling celebrities for cameos could have been better allocated toward comedy writers.

One commercial that relied on creativity over celebrity and got viewers talking as a result was Tubi's "rabbit hole" ad. It was the brainchild of new Tubi CMO Nicole Parlapiano, who joined the company just six months ago, and by all accounts it was a big hit.

The ad, which features a smart TV toggling to the Tubi app, had viewers looking around their living rooms to see who was messing with the remote.

Time has not dulled people's obsession with Breaking Bad, especially as its prequel Better Call Saul just finished a massively successful run. So, fans were delighted to see Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul return to the screen together as Walt and Jesse, collaborating once again on an in-demand product.

As for the trailer drops, fans are almost universally excited about The Flash, which has been in development for nearly a decade.

However, many pointed out the tightrope Warner Bros. Discovery is walking by featuring Ezra Miller so prominently, even as many suspect the film's Flashpoint storyline will be used not only to end Miller's time with the franchise but also to reset the DCEU entirely.

Other trailers that were shown during Super Bowl LVII, many of which had already been released online, included Fast X, 65, Scream VI, Air, Transformers: Rise of Beasts, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Creed III.