Toyota hits, Febreze misses as Super Bowl ads play it safe

Given a choice of “safe” or “sorry,” most Super Bowl advertisers know their preference and most knew it Sunday night, too. Safety won by a rout.

From digital assistants to laundry detergent, some 50 national advertisers ran commercials Sunday that were designed to sell instead of antagonize — or, riskier still, politicize. As usual, there were the memorable, and, as usual, the forgettable. Mostly missing, however, was the ad that left viewers wondering where they stood politically on the message, like last year’s Airbnb’s ad, which insisted that “the world is more beautiful the more you accept.”

By contrast, this year got Dave from Febreze, whose “bleep doesn’t stink.”

First, the best:

1. Toyota: “Good Odds” powerfully recalibrated the life and achievement of Canadian Paralympic alpine skier — and eight-time gold medalist — Lauren Woolstencroft by using an on-screen “odds” calculator. With Kaleena Zanders’ “Stronger Than I’ve Ever Been” tracking, and the calculator reading 1:977,000,000 chance at birth of one day getting a medal, this ends with “1:1,” then the words “when we’re free to move, anything is possible.” Not a car in sight, but the tag — and message — are flawless.

2. NFL: Great Super Bowl ads make you laugh, wince, feel, cry — then do it all over again. Which one made New Yorkers (or at least Giants fans) do that so effortlessly as that one with Odell Beckham Jr. and Eli Manning, dancing — or whatever you call whatever Eli was doing — to the Bill Medley/Jennifer Warnes classic “Time of My Life” from “Dirty Dancing?” As Eli lifted O’Dell, and as those 37-year-old legs trembled, this perfect commercial ended with these words: “To all the touchdowns to come.” Bravo.

3. Doritos Blaze/Mountain Dew Ice: Starring Peter Dinklage and Morgan Freeman, in a lip-sync battle using the voices of Uniondale’s Busta Rhymes and Missy Elliott, respectively, the logic here is otherworldly, but the entertainment value is high. Dinklage syncs Rhymes’ “Look at Me Now,” while Freeman does Elliott’s “Get Ur Freak On” and, needless to say, this is like you have never seen them before.

4. Tide: “Ehh, just your typical hilarious beer ad.” Or not. Veteran actor and “Stranger Things” breakout David Harbour nearly stole the ad bowl with this smart sendup of half a dozen Super Bowl commercial prototypes, from cars to beers or “whatever ad this is . . . ” He ended with this puzzler: “Does this make every Super Bowl ad a Tide ad?”

5. Amazon Alexa: “Alexa Loses Her Voice” had more than 9 million views on YouTube by Friday last week, which means that it had gone viral long before the game. For good reason, with Gordon Ramsay, Cardi B, Rebel Wilson, and Anthony Hopkins pitching in with their voices.

6. Dodge Ram trucks: This first quarter winner was funny and unexpected, with Vikings crossing the wild and stormy seas en route to the Super Bowl because — of course — the Vikings will play in the game. (The Vikings nearly did play in the Super Bowl this year.) Then, with “We Will Rock You” tracking, they had to turn around. Sigh . . .

7. Pepsi: Before the halftime show, “This is the Pepsi” covered its generational and cultural bases so fast — from Cindy Crawford to Michael Jackson to “Back to the Future” — and with so many people (including Crawford’s son Presley Gerber, Jeff Gordon and Britney Spears) — that you had to stop and wonder what this was even about. Once you did, you realized you’d see a wide expanse of cultural history flash by with Pepsi along for the ride. Smart message, memorably executed.

The worst:

1. Chrysler: Fiat Chrysler had two good ads — the Vikings and Jeff Goldblum’s “Jurassic Park” Wrangler — and two really terrible ones, in fact the worst of the bowl. The first bad one was merely a noxious commercial encouraging Cherokee owners to take their four-wheeler off-road after they’ve run out of road, all the better to spoil a pristine creek. But the other, the worst of the two, took the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. from a 1968 sermon saying “You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.” What? To drive a truck? An expensive disaster.

2. Febreze: This testimonial sendup about a man — well, Dave — who proudly declaims his (well, you know what), ends with the observation that he is “not at your Super Bowl party, but everyone else is.” This then leads everyone at your Super Bowl party to leave in disgust. Talk about a stink bomb.

3. Groupon: The last time Groupon was in the Super Bowl, six years ago, Timothy Hutton lamented the destruction of Tibetan culture — but celebrated the great deal he got on Tibetan food in Chicago. Then the new ad, with spokeswoman Tiffany Haddish: A rich guy who hates local business gets a crotch shot from a football, then crumples over. Well done, Groupon. That’s not called progress. It’s regress.

By Verne J Gay

Verne.Gay@newsday.com@vernejgay

Verne J Gay is the television critic