Super Bowl Ads 2013: Highlighting the Strongest Spots in This Year's Crop

The Super Bowl provided plenty of entertainment on the field, but this year’s slate of commercials also delivered plenty of laughs and memorable moments.

Discussing, criticizing and grading ads during football’s premier game has become a tradition. The world’s major companies did not disappoint and came through with plenty of fodder for ad-related conversation.

Some hit the mark, while others were way wide. There were tear-jerkers and there were a few ads with an appalling lack of taste (looking at you, GoDaddy.com).

But as always, there were a few ads that really stood out. Here are the companies who came through with the best commercials from the 2013 Super Bowl.

Allstate 

Allstate’s series of “Mayhem” commercials featuring a variety of hijinks from actor Dean Winters, but the company’s marketing team went to another level during the Super Bowl.

After recognizing that it had a successful formula, Allstate decided to just go ahead and make the most epic ad possible using the same character. It worked to perfection.

When paying mind-boggling amounts of money for a spot during the big game, a company should certainly try to make its time count. Traversing thousands of years of chaotic human history was definitely a wise use of the opportunity.

Wonderful Pistachios

The enthusiasm over PSY’s “Gangnam Style” has died down considerably, but Wonderful Pistachios continued their entertaining ad campaign by bringing it back.

A few months ago, it would have been unthinkable to go through the Super Bowl with only one commercial trying to capitalize on the Youtube sensation. But somehow, Wonderful Pistachios managed to show up fashionably late to the Korean rap craze and stood out with an original ad featuring one of the most played-out songs of the year.

It was unexpected, but seeing PSY jump around in a pistachio-colored blazer next a bunch of nuts—and I do mean actual nuts—doing his signature dance was actually enjoyable.

Best Buy

Best Buy kept it simple, and followed Amy Poehler to a successful Super Bowl ad campaign.

The formula was simple: put one of the funniest and most likable people on television in front of the camera and let her be hilarious. This is exactly what the commercial was, and it was brilliant.

Poehler brought the charm and deliberate cluelessness that has made the country fall in love with her character Leslie Knope on Parks and Recreation, and in this spot, Best Buy cashed in on her talent.