The Super Bowl is one of the most-watched sporting events in the world, and while the culmination of the NFL season and the star-studded halftime show bring in millions of viewers, the Super Bowl is unique in the amount of attention paid to its commercials.
Data analytics firm PredictHQ estimates that Sunday’s championship game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams will attract the Super Bowl’s biggest audience yet, with 117 million viewers for NBC.
And, according to Statista, advertisers are shelling out an average of $6.5 million to air 30-second long commercials during the game, which begins at 6:30 p.m. EST.
It should come as no surprise that some of the buzziest ads released so far for the SoFi Stadium contest have been celebrity-heavy — from Arnold Schwarzenegger playing Zeus to the return of Lindsay Lohan — as well as aiming for heartstrings with the return of Budweiser’s Clydesdales.
Here are some of the most talked-about ads ahead of the Super Bowl:
Lindsay Lohan makes her comeback with Planet Fitness
NBC told Yahoo Finance that Super Bowl LVI will feature 30 new advertisers, representing 40 percent of all the game’s ads. Among the first-timers: Planet Fitness, which released a spot featuring “Mean Girls” actor Lindsay Lohan. She stars alongside William Shatner, Dennis Rodman, Buzzy Cohen and Danny Trejo, sharing how much her life has improved since she started working out. She even manages to throw in a joke or two about her past arrests. As Shatner says, she’s “never been sharper” as she beats Rodman on a “Jeopardy!” question about himself.
Married life with Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost — and Alexa
What could possibly go wrong if Alexa could read our minds? Well, “Black Widow” star Scarlett Johansson and “Saturday Night Live” regular Colin Jost find out exactly what could happen in a spoof of their real-life marriage. In the amusing 90-second spot, the couple utilize Alexa as a way to tell each other what they’re really thinking, ranging from comments on morning breath to small white lies at dinner parties.
Kia aims for the electric heart with a robodog
Kia, with help from Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” follows a robodog and his soulful puppy eyes on a journey from being ignored in an electronics store to chasing his perfect car and new home. But just as he’s about to get what he wants, he runs out of charge. Cue Kia’s new electric vehicle, which gives him not only an energy boost but a new home.
Budweiser’s Clydesdale never gives up in the ‘home of the brave’
Last year marked the first Super Bowl in 37 years without an ad from Budweiser. Its new minute-long commercial has no dialogue, but tells the poignant story about a seriously injured Clydesdale who might never walk again. “In the home of the brave, down never means out,” the ad says.
Zeus and Hera retire in SoCal
BMW has brought out the Hollywood big guns for the launch of its new iX electric car, which arrives in U.S. dealerships next month. Arnold Schwarzenegger, starring as the Greek god Zeus alongside Salma Hayek as Hera, gives us a glimpse of what it would be like if they decided to leave their heavenly abode Olympus and retire to Palm Springs, Calif. Facing a mundane existence boosting his neighbors’ low-power appliances and vehicles, the god of lightning is himself recharged after Hera gives him the new BMW iX.
