This year's Super Bowl on CBS (NYSE: CBS) charged advertisers $5 million for a 30-second spot on the most-watched television event of the year. While there are always highs and lows in each year's new crop of Super Bowl commercials, five companies stood out last Sunday.
1. PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP)
This year PepsiCo not only sponsored the entire game and halftime show, but it placed ads in the game for a variety of its products, from its flagship soda to its Doritos chip brand. But one of the company's more noteworthy ads was its "PuppyMonkeyBaby" spot for a new flavor of Mountain Dew featuring a perplexing creature that was part puppy, part monkey, and part baby. Many viewers were confused by the ad, but it generated over 68,000 tweets and sparked the trending hashtag #PuppyMonkeyBaby. The spot lived up to what a Super Bowl ad should be: edgy and innovative.
2. Heinz (NASDAQ: KHC)
During the big game, Heinz decided to push its lineup of flavored ketchups and mustards in an attempt to shift its brand image from solely traditional ketchup. Its commercial featured hordes of Weiner dogs dressed up in hot dog costumes running down a hill, truly appealing to the masses of inebriated viewers with a spot going after the "Aww" factor.
3. T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS)
Many companies went with the trend of including celebrities in their ads to usher in additional marketing hype, and phone company T-Mobile did just that by bringing in Drake and riffing on his hit "Hotline Bling" in a spot titled "Restricted Bling" about the woes of capped data plans. T-Mobile also ran an ad later in the game with Steve Harvey, so the company successfully capitalized on two prominent pop culture icons in its marketing plan this Super Bowl.
4. Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO)
Not wanting to allow Pepsi to monopolize the big game, Coca-Cola teamed up with Disney's (NYSE: DIS) Marvel to create an ad where the Hulk and Ant-Man battle it out over a can of Coke Mini. The company, like T-Mobile, used its $5 million spot to integrate prominent pop culture figures into a fun superhero themed narrative to introduce one of the company's newest product lines.
5. Procter and Gamble (NYSE: PG)
Procter and Gamble created one of the more heartwarming commercials this year with Pantene's "Strong is Beautiful" campaign featuring football player dads braiding their daughters' hair. Following last year's #LikeAGirl marketing blitz, Procter and Gamble continued its sentimental, family-focused message to provide a commercial that stood out for its character among competitors focused on wowing audiences with edgy spots.