The hits, misses, and surprises of this year's Super Bowl Commercials

This yearin the ad game, there werehits, missesand surprises.The surprises likelyprovided more drama than the game itself.

"I was absolutelyfloored by the Bud LightGame of Thronescomboad," saidAndrew Simon, the chief creative officer of Edelman Canada."That isgoing to rememberedfor a long time to come."

The spot startedout as though it wouldbe another funinstalment of the Bud Light"Dilly Dilly" series, ads set in bucolic, medieval times ruled by abenevolentbrewer king. Then spoileralert the heroic Bud Knight was killed in a jousting match by a sinister looking rival.Next,a fire-breathing dragon torchedthe Bud Light village. Wait.What?! Cue thetitlepromotingthe last season of HBO's hitGame of Thrones.

"It was a great one-two punch for Bud Light,"saidSimon."If you can get two big entitieslike HBO and Anheuser-Busch together, it is always fantastic when something like that can be pulled off."

A couple commercial breaks later,another surprise:just when viewers thought they were coming back to the game with a live stadium shot,an 'off air' message led into a promotional spot forthe CBS series TwilightZone, hosted by Jordan Peele.

That twist was made possible because CBS was broadcasting the game, saving them from paying thegoingrate for Super Bowlad time.Accordingto KantarMedia, a 30-secondcommercial in this year'sgame fetched $ 5.2 million US.

The hits

While the Bud Light/Game of Thrones adwas a winner for some, there were other standout spots.

The"NFL 100" promo for the league's upcoming 100th anniversary was packed with excitement the game was missing.

"It just kept building and building and building," saidChristina Yu, the creative director of Rethink in Toronto.She also feltthe spots for Pepsi(withCardiB, Lil Jon and SteveCarrell)and Doritos(with Chance the Rapper and the BackstreetBoys) hit the big game, big spend mark."Your usual Super Bowl ads involvecreating awarenesswith big celebrities doing outlandishthings to be memorable,"says Yu.

That'swhy the ad forGoogleTranslate called "100 Billion Words"struck her as especially powerful.For her, theGoogle spot "was anatypicalSuper Bowlad" in being relatable to real people.

Another 'atypical' ad scoring high marks was Microsoft's "We all Win" commercial.Jane Goldman, anindependent creative director andveteran of ad the industry based in Boston says it was powerful.

"This was a real case of showing, not telling," said Goldman. "It really showcaseshow Microsoft is using technology to try to make people's lives better."

Femalesin Focus

Continuing a recent trend, there was more advertisingaimed at women.

The new Captain Marvelfeaturing Brie Larson as the hero had a spot, as did the Amazon action series Hanna. Toyota focused on female football playerAntoinette Harris.

Bumble, adating app built on the conceptthat women message potential matches first, ran its first Super Bowl ad.The app (which also has friendand business networkingfunctions) featured tennis starSerenaWilliams in a spot encouraging women to "make the first move" in all areas of their lives.

Yu says the ad was outstanding. "Don't wait to be given power is a really poignant message for women to hear, and Serena Williams, who has overcome adversity in her life, was a great choice."

Proctor and Gamble's Olaycommercial starring SarahMichelle Gellar impressed Goldman."It was a really different direction for Olay to take skin care, and it showcased product benefits in a fun way."

It was Olay's first ever Super Bowl ad and according to parent company Proctor and Gamble, the first time a major beauty brand advertised during the Big Game in a decade.

While research shows about half of NFL fans and viewers of the Super Bowl are women, recentanalysissuggests only about a quarter of ads feature women in a prominent way. Olay's brand directorStephanie Robertsonsays: "we know our consumer is watching and we want to make sure she knows we see her."

The Misses

Every year, a panelof business students at theKellogg School of Management at Northwestern University do aSuper Bowl ad review.Huddled around tables in an atrium of the Evanston, Ill.school, about 60 studentsscore the game ads based on six criteria.

The grading system goes back to a concept started in 1999 and now each spot gets a letter grade ranging from A toF.

Professor Tim Calkinssays the biggest disappointment of the yearfor the panel was the Avocados from Mexicospot. "It was confusing and usually their ads are so good.They tried to be creative and quirkybut theygot a D."

Also getting a Dfrom the school was Mint Mobile."All you can remember from that ad is chunky milk and that chunky milk is wrong."

But the biggest flop by far for Calkins and his students was the Burger King ad, which took the onlyF in the review. Called "Eat Like Andy"it featured archival footage of Andy Warhol eating one of the chain's Whopper burgers. "There's no benefitgiven and a large number of people won'tget who 'Andy' is or understand," he explained.

Yu saw it differently."This ad will have a lot of talk value. It's amazing the clientswere brave enough to go for the concept."

For Andrew Simon,Stella Artoiswas a miss."There were some clever moments, but it's not believable that thefictionalcharactersof Carrie Bradshawand The Dude would ever give up their signature drinks for a beer. C'mon."