Super Bowl 2015 commercials that stood out: Budweiser, Nationwide and more

The consensus from this year’s Super Bowl ad haul: meh. While many of the ads featured positive messages, social media buzzed with mostly comments expressing boredom and even backlash.

Here’s a roundup of five of the ad moments that stood out, for better or for worse.

#Budweiserpuppy

It’s fair to say that Budweiser won the love of Super Bowl viewers with its “Lost Dog” commercial.

The commercial features the yellow lap puppy after he gets separated from his human and horse best friend. His owner and horse “#bestbuds” search for him throughout the spot as a cover of “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” plays in the background.

According to ad tracking firm iSpot.tv, the ad has been played online 17.8 million times. It’s collectively been mentioned on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and iSpot.tv about 547.925 times.
“Did I really just cry watching that puppy in that #Budweiserpuppy commercial?” one Twitter user asked.

“Sheddin’ a man tear #Budweiserpuppy” wrote another Twitter user.

Last year, Budweiser’s “Puppy Love” commercial was equally as popular. Within 24 hours of posting the ad on YouTube, it was viewed 17 million times.

Nationwide’s “what just happened?” moment

Nationwide’s Super Bowl commercial took an emotional turn for the worse. The ad featured a young boy after he had been kissed by a girl for the first time and was flying through the air. But then the young boy reveals he actually drowned in a bathtub and never lived any of those moments.

The morbid commercial sparked social media jokes and general confusion.

“Nationwide: We’re not saying your kid is gonna die, but you better buy our insurance,” one Twitter user wrote.

An image of the young boy in the commercial even went viral, with the text reading “I won’t watch Katy Perry because I died in a depressing Nationwide commercial.”

Movie trailers aplenty

The Super Bowl again proved to be a perfect opportunity for Hollywood to tease the latest crop of movie commercials. This year’s batch included “Tomorrowland,” “Jurassic,” “Minions 3,” “Terminator: Genisys,” “Furious 7,” “Pitch Perfect 2” and “Ted 2.”

Avocado Love

Who knew avocados could be so funny? In a spot for Avocados From Mexico, former NFL players Jerry Rice and Doug Flutie provided sports commentary on the first-ever draft between the Earth’s animals and plants from various countries.

Viewers were not disappointed. Many on Twitter called it the wittiest and funniest commercial of the night.

Positive messages

Dove, Toyota and Nissan saluted dads in their emotional spots. Coke’s #makeithappy campaign focused on making the Internet a happier place. McDonald’s spots featured customers “paying with lovin’ ” instead of money. And Always promoted “likeagirl,” a commercial encouraging people to redefine the phrase as something positive.

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