The 2019 Super Bowl Commercials Were a Strange Pop-Culture Smörgåsbord

Stella Artois Super Bowl ad (Photo credit: Stella Artois)

This year’s Super Bowl was very boring—let’s not even speak of the boring halftime show. The game between the Los Angeles Rams and the New England Patriots was the lowest-scoring Super Bowl in history. The New York Times called it “a universally agreed-upon snoozefest” and Rolling Stone asked, “The worst Super Bowl in history?” The show aired to 98.2 million people on CBS, which is the smallest television audience for the game in more than 10 years.

To this dwindling audience, advertisers still hoped to score big. The Super Bowl has become a place to premiere teasers and trailers for upcoming box-office hits, and this year’s commercials offered strange mashups of pop-culture worlds—characters (and dragons) from Game of Thrones, Sex and the City, and Cardi B!

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The Twilight Zone

“When truth is not the truth, what dimension are you even in?” The answer: The Twilight Zone. Jordan Peele’s reboot of the classic sci-fi series premieres April 1 on CBS All Access.

Game of Thrones

HBO teased the final season of Game of Thrones with Gregor Clegane and one of Daenerys Targaryen’s dragons violently interrupting a Bud Knight joust. Season 8 of Game of Thrones premieres April 14.

Us

A new trailer for the horror film from filmmaker Jordan Peele dropped during the game. Us premieres March 22.

Pepsi

Cardi B, Steve Carell, and Lil Jon walk into a diner…

Bumble

“If I waited for change to happen, I never would have made a difference,” Serena Williams says, preparing to serve. “So make the first move.” By swiping right on Bumble.

Stella Artois

Stella Artois pulled off an astounding feat here, bringing back Sarah Jessica Parker as Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw and Jeff Bridges as the Dude Lebowski. But as a devotee of both fictional characters, I couldn’t help but wonder: How would the Dude and Carrie ever, ever, ever find themselves in the same bar?

The Handmaid’s Tale

This could almost be a political ad, which is what makes it so devastating and brilliant. The Handmaid’s Tale Season 3 is “coming soon.”

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