2020 Super Bowl Car Commercials Ranked

Did you catch the big game last night? It was a good one with the Chiefs coming back to score three touchdowns in the 4th quarter to win 31-20 over the 49ers. There was even a booty shaking halftime show with Shakira and J-Lo that was pretty decent in my opinion. I had a bunch of angry moms in my Facebook feed complaining about the wardrobe and the stripper pole, but they were the same ones publicly drooling over a shirtless Adam Levine last year, but I digress. Besides, we’re here to talk about cars, and this year there were some decent automotive-focused commercials. Here is my take on each one, along with a ranking. If you disagree, post your thoughts below.

8. Audi E-Tron: Let It Go

This one ends up at the bottom of my list. Like most people, I’ve also belted out Let it Go from Disney’s Frozen alone in the car. But there wasn’t much going on in this one beyond the song, which is sung by Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones. The E-Tron is cool though and there was some rad stuff in the background.

7. Genesis GV80: Going Away Party

Like the E-Tron, I actually really like the vehicle featured in this one, but the commercial itself was kinda lame. it features Chrissy Teigen and John Legend ushering out “old luxury” and introducing the GV80 as the embodiment of “new luxury”. Conceptually, it’s solid, but in practice it wasn’t all that funny. The GV80 looks pretty great though, I look forward to testing it!

6. Kia Seltos: Tough Never Quits

This one features Josh Jacobs from the (now Las Vegas) Raiders and documents the trials and tribulations that he experienced growing up homeless. Did you ever notice that you only experience tribulations with trials? Why is that? Anyway, this one is heart warming, and I feel like a dick ranking it in the bottom half (I’m channeling my inner Kaluski), but I like to be entertained in my commercials. Sorry Kia.

5. Toyota Highlander: Heroes

This one fits nicely in top of the bottom half, it’s neither good, nor bad. Cobie Smulders is great, and I like her in just about anything, so that probably helped. The basic premise is that she drives around saving people from certain doom in her Highlander. What I want to know is, where is this region of the world, and how do I avoid it? It’s fine, neat premise, doesn’t make me want to buy a Highlander.

4. GMC Hummer EV: Quiet Revolution

Did you hear, Hummer is coming back! And it’ll be all-electric! Wait, what? Register your opinion on that here, but in the meantime, let’s chat about GMC’s Super Bow ad. Regardless of your take regarding an electric Hummer, the ad worked. How can I definitively say that? Because my wife read each blurb about how quiet it would be and was like “yes, I like that” to each thing. She drives a Mercedes GL and liked quiet vehicles, which is just about the opposite of how I operate. I thought the ad was cool and I’m excited to see what the Hummer EV looks like.

3. Hyundai Sonata: Smaht Pahk

I really liked this one, you have Chris Evans, John Krasinski, Rachel Dratch and David Ortiz all doing their best stereotypical Boston accent. Krasinski is attempting to park his Sonata in a tight space. Onlookers Dratch and Evans tell him it “you’re naht puttin your cah in thare” and he shows them what’s what with the Sonata’s new Smart Park feature. Sort of like Tesla’s summon feature, but for getting in and out of tight spaces. It’s a niche need to be sure, but I enjoyed the commercial.

2. Porsche: The Heist

This one was fun, and almost hit the top spot on my list. It’s hard to argue against a bunch of amazing Porsche’s chasing the new Taycan, which has allegedly been stolen from the Porsche museum. Each guard takes a different Porsche to make chase and it turns out that they just take turns running this drill as an excuse to hoon about. That I can get behind. Plus the new GT3 RS makes a sneaky debut in the background. This didn’t hit #1 because all I could keep thinking was “that Taycan is going to need re-charging…it doesn’t have a lot of EV range”. Naturally, that bit of the commercial where they’re all sitting around waiting at a charging location would be pretty dull.

1. Jeep Gladiator: Groundhog Day

I loved this one. Not because I’m in love with the movie Groundhog Day, don’t get me wrong, it’s good. But the premise was just fun, Bill Murray revives his character, Phil Connors, who relives the same day over and over. This time there’s a twist, as he and Punxsutawney Phil take a Gladiator out for various fun outings. There are some good glamour shots of the orange Gladiator hooning through the snow, and it’s just entertaining. It earns the top spot on our 2020 Super Bowl Car Commercials list!

Disagree with our rankings? Tell us why in the comments!

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11 responses to “2020 Super Bowl Car Commercials Ranked”

  1. KentMB1 Avatar
    KentMB1

    Audi already did the “old luxury is dead” commercial about a dozen years ago. And did it better, IMO. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=hPajWtwK6zY&feature=emb_logo

    1. Wayne Moyer Avatar
      Wayne Moyer

      Yeah the old luxury one just landed with a thud. There were so many celebrities in the commercials this year. These two trying to show off how fabulous and wealthy they were by driving a Hyundai just was a yawn fest.
      On the flip side then you get Bill Murray and the groundhog. That and he wasn’t the only one back from the movie.
      The smaht Pahk was good and I didn’t see it before the game but it just felt like Tesla was here first. That and I was waiting for the accident to happen.

    2. Sjalabais Avatar
      Sjalabais

      Well, old luxury can also have good taste, and even be progressive in division of labour:

  2. smalleyxb122 Avatar
    smalleyxb122

    I will vehemently disagree with your ranking of the “Smaht Pahk” ad. As the only ad in the list that I found annoying rather than entertaining, the thought of its imminent heavy rotation depresses me. It deserves to be at the bottom, even if the “Did you know he lived there?” bit at the end was cute.

    I agree with your #1 and #2. The rest could have been in any order, so I can accept your rationalization for each of their positions. I might have swapped the Seltos and the Highlander, though.

    1. Jeep
    2. Porsche
    3. Do I really think the Hummer ad deserves to rank this high? I guess so
    4. Seltos
    5. Highlander
    6. GV80
    7. E-Tron
    8. Smaht Pahk.

    1. William Byrd Avatar

      I was close to swapping Seltos and Highlander.

      As for Smaht Pahk, I just like those three in general and found their back and forth amusing. The Boston accent can be grating, so I understand why it wouldn’t resonate with everyone.

      1. Vairship Avatar
        Vairship

        “What I want to know is, where is this region of the world, and how do I avoid it?”

        Avoid Terminal Island and Long Beach.

        https://youtu.be/C7loDDRfeJw?t=50

        https://www.google.com/maps/@33.748629,-118.218608,13z

      2. Vairship Avatar
        Vairship

        “What I want to know is, where is this region of the world, and how do I avoid it?”

        Avoid Terminal Island and Long Beach.

        https://youtu.be/C7loDDRfeJw?t=50

        https://www.google.com/maps/@33.748629,-118.218608,13z

  3. 0A5599 Avatar
    0A5599

    Smaht Pahk is probably the most effective at selling product; it highlights a product feature in a memorable way. I would have put it in the top slot, but I saw it a LOT last week so it wasn’t fresh at game time. It cedes first place to Jeep, but is solidly in second.

    Porsche third, and GMC/Hummer fourth. Next year, GMC needs to put Bill Murray into an EM50 themed ad and they’ll come up on top.

    The next three are interchangeable. Luxury douchebags in tenth place, out of the 8 commercials competing.

    1. William Byrd Avatar

      I almost dropped Porsche to 3rd, but figured I might get crucified. haha

  4. Sjalabais Avatar
    Sjalabais

    I agree very much with the top 2. “Groundhog Day” is an eternal classic, and one of a handful of movies I have on my phone for emergency situations. The Porsche ad is fantastic, too, very much showing what the point of owning a Porsche is. As a little inkly touch, I imagine one or two of those security guards to be the disgraced Corvette testers that were caught red handed the other day…I also cheer that most of these ads have finally embraced diversity.

  5. Maymar Avatar
    Maymar

    I couldn’t enjoy the Porsche ad for the Neil Degrasse Tyson-esque refusal to suspend disbelief (How’d they drive a Taycan from the dead of night through mid-morning? Doesn’t health and safety require cars stored inside for display have fairly empty tanks? What sort of professionals are Porsche hiring that not one of those cars got written off?), but also the dialogue came across a little too “non-car people write enthusiast dialogue.” I haven’t seen it yet, although the Groundhog Day one is the only other one that interests me.