23 Easter Eggs, Obscure References and Homages in the 2022 Super Bowl Ads

Every year, Super Bowl ads contain hidden Easter eggs, obscure references, inside jokes, cameos and homages. Adweek watched every ad over (and over again) looking for the best gems. Here's what caught our attention and let me know what ones you spotted by tweeting at me. Taco Bell This ad is clearly a troll of McDonald's, but the first five seconds are easy to miss. It begins with loudspeaker announcement: "Attention students, the ice cream machine is still broken." The line is a direct reference to McDonald's ice cream machines infamously being out-of-order. This one is quick: Doja Cat has a long-running feud with Taco Bell to bring back its Mexican pizza. You can see the menu item referenced in a bumper sticker on the car she drives in the spot. TurboTax The ad takes a look at Gravity, Iowa. The city has a grand total of 154 people and sports the slogan, "We're down to earth. If Gravity goes, we all go." A Wieden+Kennedy spokesperson told me the team asked the city for permission to use its slogan. After a town hall meeting that brought the request up, officials gave their okay—with at least one condition: they requested a batch of t-shirts that the TurboTax expert wears in the ad. The font on the t-shirts is the same as the town sign. Coinbase Did that Coinbase ad instantly remind you of something? https://twitter.com/griner/status/1493015415932563457 Cutwater Spirits If this black and white ad feels familiar, that's because it's an homage to Apple's iconic "The Crazy Ones" ad from 1997. Except this spot substitutes Martin Luther King Jr. and Jim Henson for a guy who put a beer cooler on wheels and a woman who uses a nearby icicle to cool her drink. BMW This one might be pure coincidence, but the resemblance and location of the BMW spot is very fishy. Zeus lays on a pool float in Palm Springs, California in the same manner as a recognizable scene from a movie of the same name—Palm Springs. https://twitter.com/JamesonFleming/status/1493010687148404743 ETrade Perhaps I'm reaching, but Dexter went off the air in 2013. The ETrade baby last appeared in the Super Bowl in 2014. Dexter returns in 2021, ETrade baby returns in 2022. Plus, the baby is chopping wood and lives in a log cabin. Sound like a serial killer we all know? The E*Trade baby is returning to help navigate a new world of investing. Expedia This ad has almost too many to count, but here's a few: A Clydesdale and puppy references iconic Budweiser ads.A woman drinking a bottle of water looking very much like Cindy Crawford drinking Pepsi.A boy handing a soda to a football player like Mean Joe Greene and Coca-Cola. FTX There's a few items to unpack in FTX's spot. Larry David wears the same pair of glasses throughout the ad despite traveling through many different time periods. One of the security guards who escorts David out of the Portable Stereo scene is Yaz Takahashi. This is the second time Larry David has yelled at him in Japanese. The first time was in “Curb Your Enthusiasm” Episode 5 of Season 11. Finally, in the moon landing scene, Larry David speaks to Katherine Johnson, who was spotlighted in the film Hidden Figures. GM There are two good ones here, including the not so subtle "F-Bomb." https://twitter.com/JamesonFleming/status/1493043818630942723 Lays The stalker from an earlier scene in the ad appears at the wedding. I guess Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd worked it out with their captor. Planet Fitness Don't blink or else you'll miss TikTok famous @AngryReactionsGuy next to Lindsay Lohan. Squarespace The attention to detail in this slickly spoke spot is fantastic. Check out the names of the boats as Shelly's seashell slinging accelerates. https://twitter.com/JamesonFleming/status/1493007250209845248 Irish Spring Irish Spring made this one to channel its very weird spots of the 1970s, and golly did it deliver. Most notably, it brought back soap carving, a staple of those early ads. Michelob Ultra The song in the ad is Showdown by Electric Light Orchestra, which was also featured in bowling movie Kingpin. Rocket Mortgage Dan Gilbert owns Rocket Mortgage and StockX (and the Cleveland Cavaliers for good measure). During the night of QR codes, if you opened this one, it took you to a sneaker giveaway. https://twitter.com/toda/status/1493021773503217665 eToro Oh, look it's the Shiba Inu meme coin. Plus, the Bored Ape showed up. https://twitter.com/mattmedved/status/1493056970487644166 McDonald's Technically a pre-game ad, but if Grimace's voice sounded familiar, that's because it was Ryan Reynolds.