The Best Super Bowl Ads of 2020

Every year, they train their vision, awareness, knowledge and minds to perform their best when it counts. And when it's all said and done, they can hold their heads high knowing they gave it their all.

Forget the big game. We're talking about the Super Bowl ad review here at Dixon Schwabl. The annual tradition that gets the touchdowns going and the fumbles flowing as we rate the year's biggest ads on TV's biggest stage.

The Super Bowl brings out our inner marketing critic every year—and 2020 was no different. With plenty of discussion about this year's humor, emotion, brands and products, we managed to narrow the playing field to our top five picks.

With enough thoughts to fill a stadium, we made our way through the Rochester media scene to expand the discussion. Robin and Mike woke up early to forecast expectations and then recap the hits on WHAM-TV, Pete talked storytelling with Spectrum and Erin broke down what makes a successful ad for WROC-TV.

If that wasn't enough, we were riding a high during halftime when, amidst the heavy hitters of big industry, we saw our own collaboration with United Way hit the screen.

Much like Jeep’s popular ad, this time of year starts to feel a bit like Groundhog Day: We know the Super Bowl commercials will be the talk of the town heading into and out of the big game. Some brands win. Some brands lose. Some try too hard. Some don’t try hard enough. Six months from now, who will be remembered and who will be forgotten? Only time will tell.

But when all was said and done Sunday night, the sentiment at Dixon Schwabl was that (much like Kansas City), we were pleasantly surprised by the performance on the playing field. Months of training, preparation and hard work distilled into one defining moment—that’s what it’s all about. While they might not have played in the game, the world's best advertisers still felt the pressure. And once again, the Super Bowl proved to be the ultimate arena for the industry’s best competitors. Touchdown.