The Super Bowl 2023 Food Commercials You Need To Watch

The Super Bowl may be one of the few sports games that gets non-sports fans watching because of the commercials, which are known for their humor and inventive plots. While many may roll their eyes at commercials in general, the Super Bowl commercials are a special case because they are made to stand out and entertain. Ads have ranged from the weird and elaborate (nice one, Oreo) to simple but effective (if only Tabasco actually worked this way), spawning legions of best-of lists.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign says the Super Bowl is an attractive event for advertisers despite the eye-wateringly expensive prices because it's one of the few televised events where people don't change the channel or walk away when the commercial breaks start. In an interview with Boston University, professors Edward Boches and Doug Gould — who both created Super Bowl ads — note that the ads are memorable as they target your emotions. Whether you're crying or laughing, the ads remain one of the best reasons to turn on the game and watch these Super Bowl 2023 food commercials.

The chip-shaped popcorn snacks bring new meaning to giving characters life as they raise the dead — specifically, dead characters from the show "Breaking Bad," who return to promote the snacks in the brand's first Super Bowl ad. A series of teasers shows Walter White, who died in the series, and Jesse Pinkman reunited as one or the other eats Popcorners. Starting with Jesse eating the snacks as he receives a phone call and then showing the two bickering lightly as Jesse tries to start their RV's engine, the teaser transitions to a full-on spoof showing the "creation" of Popcorners by the duo and the snack's enthusiastic acceptance by Raymond Cruz's Tuco Salamanca, who also died in the series.

Entertainment Tonight Canada mentions that this isn't the first time Bryan Cranston has reprised his role as Walter White. However, it is the first time that Jesse Pinkman has come back, as Aaron Paul had previously said he'd never portray the character again. Variety notes that the RV used in the commercials is the original interior set piece from the show.

Avocados From Mexico (AFM) returns with an alternate-universe take on avocados and their ability to change the world (and eliminate the desire for clothing, apparently). In a two-part teaser that was eventually merged into one ad, the organization shows Adam and Eve, who is played by Anna Faris, narrowly avoiding being tossed out of Eden thanks to the last-minute save from a tree-dwelling ... prairie dog? Pine marten? Whatever it is, it's named "Martin" in YouTube's closed captions. Martin throws Eve an avocado, and the scene transitions to modern-day New York, which has become the Big Avocado where everyone goes about their avocado-themed business while looking like Adam and Eve. Faris had to play Eve while nude except for strategically placed covers and a very large wig; she told People that she figured she could choose to feel insecure or run with it. (She chose the latter.)

The AFM organization has expanded its Super Bowl tie-ins to include not only shipping 130,000 tons of avocados to the U.S. for the game weekend (via MEXICONOW), but also creating its own Pantone color and household-goods collection called Avocado Glow (via PR Newswire). AFM held a contest to send a lucky winner the collection. AFM planned to include a feature linking Twitter and ChatGPT, too, but pulled the plans due to technical issues (via Superbowl-Ads.com).

Pringles once again has fun with a surprisingly common occurrence: getting your hand stuck in one of their cylindrical containers. Yes, this is actually a thing, with 43% of respondents to a 2021 company survey experiencing that particular frustration. Of course, it's only a thing when you have chips clasped in your hand, and your fist is too large to easily slide out; releasing the chips allows you to remove your hand. But that does mean that you have no chips to eat, and have to risk getting your hand stuck again.

In this year's series of teasers, Meghan Trainor starts off the fun by getting her hand stuck in a container as she films herself learning a TikTok dance; Trainor told People that she had gotten the call for the Pringles commercial shortly after announcing her pregnancy and credited her good commercial luck to babies. The teasers continue with a surgeon experiencing trouble during surgery (and becoming salty about it when asking for help). A third teaser shows an older relative giving a teenager a pep talk about how many people have gotten their hands stuck inside Pringles containers. Pringles has also included a short teaser in Spanish.

The yogurt brand Oikos has chosen to make 2023's commercial a sequel to 2022's fun ad featuring Deion Sanders and his family. In 2022, Sanders, his son Shedeur, and his mother Connie competed for strongest Sanders with his mother winning with a simple one-liner after a series of physical competitions between Sanders and his son. In 2023, more family members get in on the action as a family reunion turns into a showcase for feats of strength involving Sanders, sons Shedeur and Shilo, daughter Shelomi, Aunt Tracie, "Old-Time Primetime," and once again, Mama Connie — who again just has to give a look to win the competition.

Oikos chose not to go the route of having "chapters" for its teasers, instead just focusing on specific family members' appearances in the commercial. The goal of the commercial, as it was last year, is to focus on the protein content of the yogurt and its contribution to strength and health.

Doritos is a long-time Super Bowl commercial participant, and the company's 2023 commercial promises to deliver mystery, drama, and an apparent major change to music. The series of teasers focus on Jack Harlow, starting with paparazzi asking about a love triangle, a phone call with Missy Elliott in which she shows interest in a collaboration but isn't sure about a love triangle, Harlow walking away from the studio as Elliott asks him to return, and Harlow's fixation on changing his music to include a certain instrument that only the triangle-shaped chip brand would promote.

Early publicity for the commercial promised a mystery celebrity cameo, which People has already revealed to be Elton John, but the commercial will also star a lucky fan. Tasting Table received a press release from Doritos that announced a contest that would place one fan in the Super Bowl commercial. (The contest closed January 9, 2023.)

Planters Peanuts goes for puns in its contribution to the 2023 commercial lineup. The commercial teaser shows the animated Mr. Peanut checking in with comedian Jeff Ross, who is preparing to roast Mr. Peanut — but not how you'd think. The roast in this case is a comedy roast that already looks like it has some winning jokes. The commercial teaser features Ross in his trailer, preparing his jokes, with Mr. Peanut trying to contribute a couple, much to Ross' annoyance. Ross throws Mr. Peanut out, reminding him that he's just a talking peanut.

Variety reports that Planters let Ross essentially do what he wanted when creating the jokes for the commercial. Ross said that he wanted to do a lot of research on the character and claimed that roasting him might not be that easy. The company has already put Mr. Peanut through a controversial death and rebirth, so a few sharp jokes aren't likely to break Mr. Peanut. Or could they?

M&M's is another company that's released a series of short commercials in the runup to the game, starting with an Instagram post in which the company announces Maya Rudolph will take over as spokesperson due to the controversy surrounding the gender and shoes of animated candies (via CNN). In this campaign, Rudolph makes progressively weirder changes to the candy in each commercial. In the first installment, she announces that because research proves people love her, each M&M candy would have her picture printed on it; in the second, she announced that she'd be changing the name of the candy to "Ma&Ya's" (as in "Maya's"). That commercial encouraged viewers to head to a website, ma-and-yas.com (which redirects to the M&M's website).

In the third, however, Maya starts to go too far. Now, her M&M's will have a chewy clam center — which explains the abundance of shell-shaped decor in her office throughout the series — instead of the usual chocolate, nuts, and other sweets. Maya, we adore you, but not clams. Rudolph calls the candies "clamderful," but we beg to differ on the combination of chocolate and shellfish.

With all that food, you'll need something to drink. If you don't want beer, a nice soda might hit the spot. Pepsi provides the commercial laughs here for its Pepsi Zero Sugar, with Ben Stiller and Steve Martin initially tearing each other down before asking you to determine whether they're acting or not. The series of teasers and commercials starts with two short conversations between the comedians that devolve into insult-fests as each tries to make the other out to be the worse actor. (Don't be fooled by the compliments that start up in Part Two.)

The two extended commercials each feature one of the actors explaining that their job is to make the emotion in a scene seem real, with each showing off his acting chops in different scenarios, some of which mimic the actors' previous films, such as "Zoolander." Watch for a cameo from Rachel Dratch in Stiller's commercial. Pepsi takes a risk here by having the two ask you whether their claims that Pepsi is delicious are real or just acting (the temptation for trolls will no doubt be huge). But as the comedians say, you'll have to try it for yourself to find out.

Static Media owns and operates Mashed and Tasting Table.