3. Commercials with political connotations

Messages about America, inclusiveness — and, yes, even "four years of awful hair" — kept bubbling up in Super Bowl ads from Airbnb, the NFL and a line of personal care products.

Airbnb's ad was one of the more overtly political, showing a variety of different faces with the tagline "We accept."

Earlier, Budweiser's ad featuring the story of its immigrant co-founder has also grabbed some pre-game attention. The ad chronicles the story of Adolphus Busch's journey in the 1850s from Germany to the US, where locals tell him he should "go back home" and that he doesn't "look like you're from around here."