The Car Ads of the 2022 Super Bowl: Greek Gods, Robot Dogs, and the Return of Evil

The Super Bowl is the highlight of the American football calendar, and this weekend the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams battled for NFL’s most coveted prize. With millions of viewers watching, the advertisement breaks are incredibly lucrative, and brands have to pay a huge amount of money to get their products featured. Carmakers never want to miss out, so create campaigns that they hope will prise buyers away from rivals. Here are the best and worst car ads from Super Bowl LVI.

This ad sees Arnold Schwarzenegger and Salma Hayek answering the age-old question of how exactly a pair of Greek gods would spend their retirement. Apparently fed up with Mount Olympus, they move to Palm Springs and quickly become bored of living the life of a mere human. Fortunately, a ‘pick-me-up’ arrives in the form of the BMW iX, which makes sense considering Zeus’ powers of conducting electricity. All that’s needed now is Aphrodite - the Greek goddess of beauty - to take a look at BMW’s front-end styling and we’ll be set.

15 years after the infamous finale episode of the Sopranos originally aired, the son and daughter of the Don of New Jersey have finally been reunited. In this ad we were treated to a faithful recreation of the iconic opening credits from the series, only this time with Meadow Soprano taking the wheel of the all-electric Chevrolet Silverado. While the success of the electric Silverado is yet to be seen, one thing is for sure, Sopranos fans across the world will now be saying “just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!”.

The latest (and presumably hostile) takeover of General Motors has seen none other than Dr Evil in charge of the company’s electrification efforts. After being convinced that pollution is a bigger evil to the world than he is, he must first save the world before taking it over. Fortunately, GM’s plans to have 30 EVs launched by 2025 should help, but it’s not mentioned if “frickin laser beams” will be offered as an option.

Have you ever ordered a new car and then felt like you’ve waited millions of years for it to arrive? Hyundai seems to think the wait was worth it with the Ioniq 5, as this ad sees us take a quick trip through the entire evolution of mankind - courtesy of Jason Bateman. Don’t worry though as the next Ioniq model, the Ioniq 6, is due to launch this year rather than in another millenium.

One to tug at the heartstrings, Kia’s ad sees a cute robotic dog on a quest to find a forever home. In pursuit of a prospective owner who’s driving an EV6, the dog eventually catches up, only to suffer a flat battery. Fortunately, the new owner is at hand with the EV6’s vehicle to load function to give our canine friend a charge.

Seeing as Super Bowl ads cost blockbuster money, Nissan went all out with its star-studded, movie-esque ‘Thrill Driver’. This ad sees Eugene Levy driving through various scenes in the upcoming Nissan Z, on his way to a movie premiere. On the way, several other stars including Brie Larson, Dave Bautista, and Catherine O’Hara also make an appearance. Once Levy reaches the premiere, the stars climb into the new electric Ariya SUV and drive away. Frustratingly, though, the celebrities seem to be the focus in ‘Thrill Driver’ rather than the cars.

Polestar has taken a completely different approach to this year’s Super Bowl. No big explosions, no movie stars, in fact there aren’t any special effects at all. Instead, there are panning shots of the Polestar 2’s silhouette combined with a number of statements - some of which take some incredibly hard shots at the brand’s competitors. Statements such as “no Dieselgate” and “no conquering Mars” make it pretty obvious that Polestar is intending to stir up some drama with rivals such as Volkswagen and Tesla. Whether this results in sales or lawsuits, you can’t deny that it’s a gutsy move.

Toyota went all out with two very different ads at this year’s Super Bowl: the first is ‘Brothers’, a hard-hitting recap of the story of Canadian paralympians Brian McKeever and Robin McKeever. Brian lost his eyesight to Stargardt macular degeneration at the age of just 19, and his older brother supported him to go on to become one of the country’s highest-decorated athletes. Toyota has chosen this real-life story to inspire viewers to “start the impossible”.

The second Toyota ad to feature this year took an entirely different direction. Focussing on the Tundra, we see four famous ‘Joneses’ - Tommy Lee, Rashida, Leslie, and Nick (Jonas) - taking part in a good old-fashioned cross country race. Facing deserts and snowy mountainous terrain, this is quite simply a bit of off-road fun in four pick-up trucks, what’s not to love?

Did you enjoy the adverts more than the football? Let us know in the comments.