Watch: Advertising Expert Discusses this Year's Super Bowl Ads

"One of the things we saw were so many celebrities in a given ad. You know, this year it's not enough just to have one celebrity. You've got to have a whole bunch of them," said Calkins, who works at the Kellogg School of Management in Evanston, Illinois.

"Also, relentlessly positive ads this year. Usually there's really a mix between more serious spots and more lighthearted spots. This year, almost all of them were very cheery, and the only ones that did anything somewhat serious were about dogs for the most part. And so that was, you know, really notable as well."

Calkins also noted the number of unexpected collaborations between companies and specific IPs.

"Whether that was the, you know, the GM Netflix partnership, that was a big deal. But also we saw media properties show up like 'Breaking Bad' showed up and in that pop whatever chippers. I forget the name, but that one showed up there and there were a lot of these partnerships that showed up all throughout."

But unexpected swerves came from the religious community, as Super Bowl advertising space has generally been taken up by big name corporations.

"There were two spots for Jesus, which was very different, and that had the potential to be very polarizing. And yet I think the ads didn't come off that way. I think they were not ads that offended people at all. And I think they were perhaps effective at what they were hoping to do with those commercials. But overall, I thought it was a good year for Super Bowl ads with a lot of really quite good and effective commercials."