Second-half Super Bowl ads are filled with juke box heroes

Feb. 7, 2016 8:44 PM PT

The ads in the second half of Super Bowl 50 had more fancy actors — further proof that good feature film work is still tough to come by.

Liam Nelson for LG, Anthony Hopkins for Turbo Tax and Christopher Walken in a hilarious spot for Kia Motors. He should win a Clio for best performance with a sock.

And Helen Mirren can berate us about the dangers of drunk drivers (for Budweiser) anytime.

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But the real star in the second half was the music.

As T-Mobile showed, everybody wants to dance in Drake’s “Hotline Bling” cube even if they should avoid it.

CBS ran a new commercial for “CBS All Access,” its Internet streaming service, with Marvin Gaye’s erotic soul anthem “Let’s Get It On” as the soundtrack. The spot helmed by “Dumb and Dumber” director Peter Farrelly features a frisky CBS eye mascot.

We’re still not sure what “truck bed audio” is, but the singing sheep for the 2017 Honda Ridgeline were as good a reason as any to hear Queen’s “Somebody to Love” once again.

Queen showed up earlier in the night in the Hyundai Genesis spot called “First Date” with Kevin Hart. “Another One Bites The Dust” pounded in the background as he tracked his daughter on a date. (The spot was the winner of USA Today’s annual Ad Meter poll of Super Bowl spots.)

The vintage pop winner was the Heinz spot “Meet the Ketchups.” Sure it had wiener dogs wearing hot dog buns. But it was worth loving just for the use of Harry Nilsson’s “Without You” from his classic album “Nilsson Schmilsson.”

If you’re a student of condiment commercials, you’ll remember the Heinz campaign of the late 1970s with tag line “The taste that’s worth the wait.” For years, those spots used Carly Simon’s “Anticipation” under a shot of ketchup slowly exiting the mouth of a bottle.

Oddly enough, both “Anticipation” and “Without You” were riding the Billboard charts at the same time in 1972.

10:52 p.m.: This story was updated with additional information on the Super Bowl ads.

Follow @SteveBattaglio on Twitter.

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