The 5 Best Ads of Super Bowl LI

Comic spots did well, but there was no getting away from politics

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One big question going into Super Bowl LI was whether advertisers would offer viewers a release from the suffocating political tension of the times, or try to address the issue of the country’s divisiveness head on.

In the end, they did both.

There were a number of strong comic spots in Sunday’s telecast on Fox, and three of them make our list below of the game’s five best ads. And there was more where that came from—brands with very funny ads that didn’t make the the top five included strong contenders Bai (with its great use of Christopher Walken and Justin Timberlake) and Kia (whose slapstick comedy with Melissa McCarthy also had something of a political undercurrent, if a cartoony one).

Meanwhile, there were several concerted efforts to address the elephant in the room, with several brands either encouraging unity in the country or straight-up advocating for acceptance and diversity in the face of incoming...

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