Over all kind of an off year, IMHO.
That was my first reaction too. Definitely not as many funny commercials which is what most people look forward to. Then there were those too serious commercials which I think is what contributed to your widely held opinion.
Before the game started, there was an ad about ideas starting out messy and not well formed, that emerge into something wonderful. It use a cute but ugly creature to represent a new idea. I thought it was very effective and inspiring. I think it was GE, but the logo disappeared so quickly, it’s hard to be sure.