Ben Affleck’s Super Bowl Ad Is a '90s Sitcom Episode With One Very Strange Detail

Following the trend from the past few years, Ben Affleck once again partnered with Dunkin' Donuts for another Super Bowl commercial. The 60-second ad, which turned Affleck's award-winning movie Good Will Hunting into a classic '90s sitcom, was packed with sitcom legends. Among them were Seinfeld’s Jason Alexander, Friends co-stars Jennifer Aniston and Matt LeBlanc, Cheers’ Ted Danson, A Different World’s Jasmine Guy, Family Matters star Jaleel White and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air actor Alfonso Ribeiro.

With a classic '90s texture on top and a laugh-track to match, the commercial had everything to become a new fan-favorite, but a surprising detail left viewers scratching their heads. Instead of feeling like a harmless throwback, the commercial's overly polished, airbrushed vibe, especially on the actors' faces, left them almost expressionless and often uncanny-looking. The aesthetic shined a light on a much bigger trend during this year's Super Bowl: commercials that look comfortingly human while quietly leaning on increasingly automated tools.

Dunkin' Donuts Couldn't Hide Behind the Nostalgia

From the get-go, it's clear that Dunkin' Donuts aimed to deliver on nostalgia. After all, not only did the ad invite '90's television icons, but also referred back to some of their iconic lines, like Affleck saying the classic Friends line "We were on a break" when referring to his girlfriend (Aniston). But while the references certainly hit a soft spot for viewers, and allowed them to lower their guards for the sake of familiarity, the ad still left viewers feeling unsettled. While it's uncertain what software was used, be it full AI imaging, de-aging effects, or something else, fans took note of the blurry, odd appearances. "Whoever did that Dunkin' Donuts commercial, needs to go back to the drawing board because the AI was so noticeable," wrote one of the many angry viewers on X. Therefore, while Dunkin' certainly hit the nostalgia angle, and won some points with fans because of it, the ad was far from a slam dunk.

But Dunkin' Donuts wasn't the only company to follow the same path. Xfinity, for example, had a similar idea. By bringing back some of the stars of Jurassic Park, including Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern, the company also aimed for throwback. In the ad, the characters face the same technological issues as in the 1993 classic, but this time they're rescued by a Xfinity IT guy who quickly reconnects with Wi-Fi, resets security features and keeps dinosaurs from harm's way. But, despite the effective storytelling, the ad also used some airbrushing and de-aging techniques which left the actors looking fake, AI-generated and just a tad disconcerting.

Nostalgia aside, the slick, uncanny polish was also observed in non-throwback commercials, like Chris Hemsworth’s Amazon spot and Matthew Broderick’s commercial Genspark. While they were also selling AI tools, Amazon's Alexa+ and Genspark's AI office companion, both of these ads used charm and calm authority to deliver the message, while also employing a hard-to-pin-down slickness and superficiality. By doing so, these ads also felt airbrushed and filtered, but it just didn't stand out as much as Affleck's because the Dunkin' ad was specficially designed to feel old-school and missed the mark entirely.

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Other Super Bowl Ads Flipped the Script and Made Humanity a Selling Point

In contrast to the uncanny nostalgia yesterday, several Super Bowl spots made strides to emphasize humanity instead. OpenAI’s commercial, for instance, saw actual people living their lives, be it reading, sketching, designing, reading or even operating a pair of robotic arms. "The core message is that people are actually the hero," Kate Rouch, chief marketing officer of Open AI, told Variety. "This is a technology that extends what’s possible for people." The same goes for Google's commercial which showed a mom and her son using their new tool, the Nano Banana Pro, to imagine their life together in a new home. It's technology-centered, but still human at heart. That emphasis, that people are actually the backbone of AI creation, is certainly a breath of fresh air for audiences who have grown sensitive to how automated modern media feels.

At the same time, the Super Bowl trained viewers not to ask how any of this was done. The commercials didn’t invite scrutiny of process or technology; instead they redirected attention toward A-list talent, jokes, nostalgia, and spectacle. AI-driven tools weren’t framed as disruptive or even noteworthy and instead became useful tools or background texture. For all of those reasons, Affleck's new commercial hit a nerve. By deliberately evoking a ’90s sitcom, it invited comparison with the past, and in doing so made the present feel just slightly unfamiliar.