Every year on the first Sunday in February, millions of people, both football fans and not, tune into what has become known as “the game of games,” “football’s biggest night,” and “the most expensive ticket in town:” The Super Bowl. With this year’s Super Bowl reigning in 111.3 million viewers- the second highest viewing rate since the New England vs.Seattle game that brought in a record 111.4 million- one can’t help but wonder why this event has become one of of most popular TV events in the country. For some, it’s the love of the game and the loyalty to one’s team, but for many, it the commercials.

This year’s Super Bowl, played by the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams had some of the lowest ratings of all time amongst sports fans, making the commercials an even bigger motivator to tune into the game. This year’s commercials surely did not disappoint and left viewers happy, sad, pensive, and everywhere in between.

Pop culture played a big role in this year’s commercials. Cardi B made the statement that Pepsi is more than just “okurrr.”  Sarah Jessica Parker took a trip back in time to her Carrie Bradshaw days to promote a change to Stella Artois along with Jeff Bridges, reprising his role as The Big Lebowski. Michael Bublé starred in a humorous commercial for the drink Buble, making a play on the famous mispronunciation of his name. Harrison Ford, Forest Whitaker, Ilana Glazer, and Abbi Jackson made up the star studded cast of Amazon’s Alexa commercial that made a joke of all the horrible places Amazon has attempted to put an Alexa. NFL stars from all decades joked on the “football jock” stereotype in which they all battle for the golden football in this year’s NFL commercial. The use of pop culture and famous celebs in this year’s Super Bowl commercials had viewers everywhere waiting to see who would make an appearance next.

There were even commercials this year to satisfy pet lovers everywhere. Avocados from Mexico surprised viewers with a clever role reversal in which dogs brought their owners to perform in what appears to be the Westminster dog show. Unfortunately, the owners fail to perform and are too tempted by the guacamole, showing that no one can resist avocados from Mexico. Budweiser did not disappoint with its ever-so anticipated commercial this year in which a Dalmatian sits atop the Budweiser wagon, with wind in his ears, being pulled by the famous Budweiser horses, ending with the slogan “wind never felt better” to promote the company’s new windmill technology.

And of course, to balance out the commercials that make us laugh, there were plenty of heartwarming and touching commercials too. The dating app Bumble shifted the humorous tone of the commercials to a more serious one, featuring Serena Williams and focussing on female empowerment through the slogan “the ball is in her court.” Google warmed hearts and provoked some tears through its Google Translate commercial in which it promotes unity and features people travelling all around the world and using the app to communicate with others. The commercial highlights how 100 billion words are translated every day and though some are words of fear, anger, and hatred, the most translated words are “how are you,” “thank you,” and “I love you.” Microsoft also promoted a sense of acceptance and hope through its commercial highlighting its new Xbox Adaptive Controller giving children with disabilities the same opportunities to play.

The 2019 Super Bowl commercials were star-studded, humor-filled, and heartwarming and left viewers everywhere waiting for the next break. Despite this year’s game having low ratings coming into it, it still brought in an abundance of viewers that was just shy of record breaking. Though every year’s teams and game itself may not be a crowd pleaser, the long awaited Super Bowl commercials always will be and it is safe to say that as long as there are commercials to watch, there will always be a reason to tune into “football’s biggest night.”