To anyone working in marketing or advertising, Super Bowl Sunday is Ads Day. The best of the best (or the brands with the most money to spend) create highly anticipated commercials that air during the big game. Some are entertaining, some are inspirational, some are a little strange, and yes, some fall flat.
When it comes to accessibility, a lot of the commercials that played during the Super Bowl fell flat. While I didn’t turn my television on, I did watch as many big game commercials as possible on the official YouTube channels for each participating advertiser. I wanted to see how much each brand, if any, prioritized captioning their multimillion-dollar ads.
The answer: not many.
In total, I reviewed 56 different Super Bowl spots promoting big names from Amazon and Xfinity. They ranged in time and messaging, but they all made it onto their respective brand’s official YouTube channel. Below is a breakdown of how each brand handled captions on the platform. Of the 56 Super Bowl spots, only 18 were actually captioned after their brand uploaded them to YouTube
For clarity, when I mention custom closed captions in the below analysis, I mean captions that were clearly written or edited for accuracy. I may also call them edited or accurate closed captions. Auto-generated captions, on the other hand, are the captions that YouTube automatically creates and are normally riddled with syntax and grammatical errors.
Amazon: Saving Sawyer—Amazon’s Super Bowl spot did provide custom closed captions and the brand remembered to delete YouTube’s auto-generated captions. However, the captions that Amazon created did not caption music or additional audio like sound effects, nor did they indicate when different people in the video were speaking.
Avocados From Mexico: Make It Better—Avocados From Mexico provided custom closed captions and clearly indicated when different people were speaking. The brand also remembered to caption additional audio and music but forgot to delete YouTube auto-generated captions.
BIC EZ Reach: The Most Borrowed Lighter—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Booking.com: Somewhere, Anywhere—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Bud Light: Hold—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Budweiser: Six Degrees of Buds—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Busch Beer: The Busch Guide—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Bush’s Beans: Go Bigger—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Crown Royal: Thank You Canada—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
DC: The Flash Trailer—Major movie studios should always remember to provide closed captions for trailers and full-length films, and thankfully, DC was not the exception in this case. Their trailer for the upcoming Flash movie had custom closed captions, however, the comic book icon did not remove YouTube’s auto-generated captions, caption additional audio or music, or indicate when different people in the trailer were speaking.
Dexcom G7: Feels Like Magic—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery: The Not-So Big Game—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
DoorDash: We Get Groceries—No closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions. Worth mentioning that open captions were provided for the odd little stop-motion character that appeared a few times in the spot.
Doritos: Jack’s New Angle—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Downy: Call Me Downy McBride—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
DraftKings: Everyone Gets a Free Bet—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Dunkin’ Donuts: Drive-Thru Starring Ben—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
e.l.f. Cosmetics: Eys, Lips, Face, Sticky—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
E*Trade: Baby Wedding—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Experian: Happy Guy—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
FanDuel: The Kick of Destiny—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
General Motors: Why not an EV?—Closed captions were provided. YouTube’s auto-generated captions were not deleted. Different speakers were also not indicated in the closed captions. Captioning of additional audio and music was almost non-existent except for Will Ferrell’s laughter at the very end of the video.
Google: #FixedOnPixel—This Super Bowl spot is actually my top pick for best captions. The Google Pixel team provided what I felt were excellent captions. They described the kind of music playing in the video, accurately captioned music lyrics and additional audio, and indicated when different people were speaking if it wasn’t clear from the on-screen visual. The brand also remembered to delete YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Heineken: Ant-Man and The Wasp—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Hellmann’s: Who’s in the fridge?—My mother’s favorite mayo brand actually had pretty good closed captions on its Super Bowl ad. Different speakers were indicated by name, and there was minimal additional audio that would have needed captions with the exception being the sandwich hitting the hot panini press. I would have liked a [butter and cheese sizzles] indicator there, but the visual was also very obvious, so not 100% necessary. Hellmann’s also didn’t remove YouTube’s auto-generated captions, so that’s another ding against them.
Jeep: Electric Boogie—Jeep has proven with previous Super Bowl ads that it knows how to use closed captions, and I think they did solid work again this year. They managed to caption a very fast song effectively and only missed a few key sound effects like the goat bleating near the end of the video. I also wish they had used music notes around the lyrics, at least at the beginning of the spot, to indicate it was a song. Still, a well-captioned ad overall. Like Hellmann’s, Jeep didn’t remove YouTube’s auto-generated captions before publishing the video.
Kia: Binky Dad—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
M&Ms: Candy-Coated Clam Bites—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Marvel: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Trailer—I had to watch this trailer three times because I kept getting distracted by my inner Marvel nerd and would stop paying attention to the closed captions. Never fear, the closed captions that Marvel provided were very good! The studio made sure to indicate when different people in the video were speaking and accurately captioned music lyrics that included music notes around them. Some additional audio like laughter was also captioned, which isn’t always easy to do in an action-packed movie trailer. Marvel only lost points for failing to delete YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Michelob ULTRA: New Members Day—If Google Pixel was my favorite captioned ad, Michelob ULTRA was the complete opposite. Not only did the beer brand not provide custom closed captions in its Super Bowl spot on YouTube, but it also removed YouTube’s auto-generated captions, as indicated by the CC button on the video being ghosted out. Major, major accessibility fail.
Miller Lite, Coors Light, and Blue Moon: The High Stakes Beer—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Mr. Peanut: The Roast of Mr. Peanut—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
NFL: Run With It—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Oikos Yogurt: Sanders Family Reunion—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Paramount Plus: A Mountain of Entertainment—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Peacock: Poker Face—This spot was pretty straightforward. Peacock provided custom closed captions, and while they didn’t really indicate when one or the other person was talking, they mostly didn’t need to since you could see on-screen when someone was speaking. I still prefer when the indicator is there though. Points off for Peacock forgetting to remove YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Pepsi: Great Acting or Great Taste? (Ben Stiller)—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Pepsi: Great Acting or Great Taste? (Steve Martin)—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
PopCorners: Breaking Bad—From what I can tell, PopCorners was the only Super Bowl spot on YouTube that used open captions for its entire video, which I do not recommend. Unlike closed captions, open captions are burned onto a video during post-production, and they cannot be turned off, moved, or resized like closed captions can. The open captions on the PopCorners commercial were kind of small and didn’t always have adequate contrast with the background, making them hard to read at times. Open captions should really only be used when custom closed captioning isn’t an option. PopCorners also didn’t remove YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Popeyes: From Memes to Dreams—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Pringles: Best of Us—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Rakuten: Not-So Clueless—This spot was kind of like the General Motors one when it came to captions. Accurate closed captions were provided. YouTube’s auto-generated captions were not deleted. Captioning of additional audio and music was non-existent. Nothing egregious, but also nothing over-the-top.
Ram Trucks: Premature Electrification—I’m not really a fan of using medical conditions for humorous advertising fodder because it definitely feels ableist, but at least this spot had accurate closed captions, I guess. Ram could have done better when it came to indicating when different people were speaking, because there were a few instances where voice over was used. Still pretty good overall, and Ram did remember to remove YouTube’s auto-generated captions. They also provided some brief captioning to describe the music at the beginning of the video.
Rémy Martin Cognac: Inch by Inch—This spot was redemption for Serena Williams after appearing in the totally uncaptioned Michelob ULTRA ad that I mentioned earlier. Rémy Martin captioned the YouTube version of its Super Bowl commercial, thankfully. I would have, however, perhaps reiterated a few times in the captions that it was Serena doing the full voice over since the visuals bounce between her and other people several times throughout the spot. No captions were provided for additional audio, and the brand didn’t remove YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Sam Adams: Your Cousin’s Brighter Boston—I feel like the captions for this spot should have been prefaced with [in thick Boston accent] for true accuracy. Sam Adams did provide captions for the entire video, but it wasn’t always clear who was speaking because there were no indicators in the captions. No captions were provided for additional audio either, but the brand did remove YouTube’s auto-generated captions, at least.
SKECHERS: Slip-Ins—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Squarespace: The Singularity—Ignoring the fact that this spot kind of freaks me out for reasons unknown, it had accurate closed captions. I even liked the bit at 0:22 when the Adam Driver clones are being sucked into the singularity and the caption is “Websitessss!” with three additional Ss, indicating that it was a drawn-out word. Nice touch, Squarespace. Just remember to remove YouTube’s auto-generated captions next time.
T-Mobile: Bradley Cooper and His Mom—This was definitely a video where the closed captions could have been helped by clear indicators of who was talking. Bradley Cooper and his mother tend to talk over each other a bit, but I’m glad that T-Mobile at least made sure to provide custom closed captions. Too bad they forgot to remove YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
T-Mobile: Home Internet—Okay, this time T-Mobile remembered to delete YouTube’s auto-generated captions! The custom closed captions were good, but I wish music notes had been used to indicate the singing (even if the on-screen visuals were pretty clear), and it would have helped to have indicators for when different people were singing or when they were singing at the same time versus one at a time.
The Farmer’s Dog: Forever—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Tubi: Interface Interruption—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Tubi: Rabbit Hole—I’m assuming that because this ad has no dialogue of any sort in it, that’s why Tubi felt that it didn’t need to provide captions or YouTube’s auto-generated captions. That’s not necessarily true. The brand still needs to indicate that there’s no dialogue or voice over. Plus, captions could have added to the over effect of the ad if they were used for the additional audio in the video.
TurboTax: Dancer—I wish the music lyrics in this spot had been captioned in addition to the voice over because “The Safety Dance” is absolutely a timeless bop! TurboTax did use a little music note at the beginning of the ad to indicate that something was playing, but without captioned lyrics or even a song title, viewers are left wondering what song is actually playing. Kudos to the brand for remembering to remove YouTube’s auto-generated captions, though.
Uber: One Hit for Uber One—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Workday: Rock Star—This was another spot that I think would have benefited from indicators of who was speaking in the captions, not because it wasn’t visually obvious, but because I feel like some folks may not necessarily recognize every rock star who’s speaking (I did, don’t worry). Overall, though, the captions were clear and accurate. A few additional sound effects could have been captioned, but still a good spot and Workday remembered to delete YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
Xfinity: The Next Giant Leap—No edited closed captions were provided. The brand relied on YouTube’s auto-generated captions.
To learn more about captions and how they benefit a variety of people, be sure to visit the page on captions on the Accessible Social website.
