‘Rick And Morty’ Super Bowl Ad For Pringles Ends With A Terrifying Twist
Commercials are often used for comedic effect on the Adult Swim animated series Rick and Morty, so the show’s titular characters were perfectly cast in a new Super Bowl ad.
As reported by Adweek, Pringles has already released its full 30-second Super Bowl spot, and it might delight the Rick and Morty fans who were disappointed that the show’s fourth season ended after just five episodes.
The video starts with an ad within the ad. An animated woman is shown biting into a stack of crunchy Pringles chips beside a graphic featuring the snack brand’s name. The camera then pans backwards to reveal that Rick Sanchez and his granddaughter, Summer, are watching the woman demonstrate the art of “flavor stacking” from the comfort of their living room couch.
“How much do you think Pringles paid these people?” Summer asks her grandfather.
In true Rick fashion, the cynical super-scientist takes a dig at the very product he’s helping to sell.
“Hardly anything,” he deadpans.
To be fair, Rick doesn’t realize he’s in a commercial until Morty enters the room. Just like the woman on television, Morty is enthusiastic about Pringles’ push for consumers to purchase multiple flavors of the chips so they can stack them together. He’s eagerly munching on a combination of pizza, barbecue, and jalapeno flavors, which he calls the “spicy barbecue pizza stack.”
Something about Morty’s behavior makes Rick realize that he’s not the real Morty. When Rick tackles the impostor, his false face flies off to reveal that he’s a Pringles android whose eyes are emblazoned with the brand’s mustachioed mascot, Julius Pringle.
To his horror, Rick realizes that he and Summer are stuck inside a Pringles commercial. He rips a piece of wallpaper from the wall to reveal more Pringles branding.
“They warned me this would happen, and I didn’t listen,” Rick says.
After Rick becomes aware of what’s going on, a small army of mechanical Morty clones that are also missing their faces flood the room. They’re all carrying armfuls of Pringles canisters in different flavors. The Mortys surround a frantic Rick and Summer as they keep repeating the same line about stacking Pringles to create new flavors.
https://youtu.be/96ELLT17GYQ
A few of the Mortys are holding green canisters, but they don’t appear to be those for the new “Pickle Rick” flavor that Pringles recently unveiled. As reported by CNN, the limited-edition flavor based on Rick’s temporary green, briny body will hit store shelves this February. However, Rick and Morty fans might have preferred a Szechuan sauce-flavored variety.
Summer and Rick’s fate is never revealed in the Super Bowl spot, nor is that of the real Morty. Unfortunately, Rick doesn’t appear to have the portal gun that so often helps him escape dangerous or simply uncomfortable situations.
The Super Bowl ad was uploaded on the Adult Swim YouTube page, which gave fans the opportunity to share their thoughts about the video. One fan speculated that Rick knew something wasn’t right about Morty because of the way he pronounced the word “jalapeno” with a hard “J.”
“A man with the last name Sanchez knew something was wrong the moment ‘jalapeno’ was pronounced incorrectly…But it didn’t matter…It was already too late,” the commenter wrote.
“I like how pringles are the bad guy in their own commercial,” another viewer remarked.
“So that’s why season 4 has been delayed, they’re stuck in a pringles ad,” quipped a third fan.