The Brief

While some universities in California are negotiating with student protesters, hundreds of students and faculty throughout the state are facing legal and academic repercussions for protesting the Israel-Hamas war.

Protesters, who have largely been non-violent, have disrupted events, occupied buildings and public spaces, erected encampments, and skirmished with counterprotesters, resulting in university leaders citing campus policy violations and calling in law enforcement to forcefully remove protesters. According to a CalMatters analysis, at least 567 people, many of whom are students and faculty, have been disciplined by their universities or arrested since the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing over 1,100 and sparking a counter-offensive by Israel that has killed 35,000 Palestinians.

For months, pro-Palestinians have been intent on forcing their universities to divest from weapons manufacturers and companies with ties to Israel, and pro-Israelis have insisted the language and actions of the pro-Palestinian groups have been creating anti-semitic environments.

At some campuses, students and faculty are facing consequences for what they see as engaging in their First Amendment rights to speech and to peaceably assemble. An unknown number of students have been suspended or warned of possible suspension, while other students and faculty have been arrested on suspicion of trespassing, attempted burglary and unlawful assembly. And although some campuses are dropping charges, students and faculty throughout California face long-term repercussions.

Students and faculty face legal consequences

Law enforcement officers in riot gear have arrested hundreds of students and faculty for participating in pro-Palestinian encampments on several campuses, including Pomona College, University of Southern California, Cal Poly Humboldt, UCLA, UC San Diego and UC Irvine.

Twenty students arrested at Pomona College on April 5 were suspended and cut off from their access to housing and the campus. At USC on April 24, 48 were students, three faculty members and three staff were arrested on suspicion of trespassing.

First: A pro-Palestinian protester is arrested by Los Angeles Police Department officers during a protest in Alumni Park at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles on April 24, 2024. Last: Pro-Palestinian protesters listen to speakers during a protest at Alumni Park at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles on April 24, 2024.

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Jules Hotz

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CalMatters

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Protesters are slowly pushed towards the gates behind them as Los Angeles Police Department officers move to close the University of Southern California campus during a pro-Palestinian protest in Los Angeles on April 24, 2024.

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Jules Hotz

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CalMatters

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The next day, UCLA students began an encampment. The ensuing violence by counterprotesters and law enforcement against the camp protesters has drawn condemnation and resulted in the reassignment of UCLA Police Chief John Thomas on May 22, according to a statement from vice chancellor for strategic communications Mary Osako.

Third-year philosophy student Aidan Doyle said despite being aware of potential legal and academic consequences, including dispersal notices from the university and law enforcement, he and many other students felt it was absolutely necessary to continue their protest to call attention to the many deaths in Gaza.

“Despite all the roadblocks that the university and even the police presented to protesters, there’s still an electrified student base who wants to take the side of Palestine,” Doyle said.

After an aggressive group of counterprotesters stormed the UCLA campus in the early morning of May 1, the university moved all instruction online and called in outside law enforcement to clear the encampment that night. Officers arrested 254 protesters and dismantled the encampment. A CalMatters analysis of video from the sweep at UCLA found 25 instances of police brandishing “less-lethal weapons” in students’ faces.

After being injured by police during the sweep, Doyle was among the students and faculty members taken in packed prison buses to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles. He has been charged with trespassing, though he and his lawyer believe the charges will be dropped.

“(The encounter with counterprotestors) was such a heinous assault and nobody got arrested. Then, the very next day, 200 people who acted peacefully were arrested,” he said. “It’s a hard pill to swallow that the administration is predisposed to dislike us.”

Groups of pro-Palestinian protesters gather at an entrance to their encampment at UCLA on the late evening of May 1, 2024.

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Ted Soqui

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CalMatters

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Despite the violent apprehension of students at UCLA, two more UCs called in law enforcement to clear protest encampments over the following two weeks. Police arrested 64 individuals at UC San Diego’s Price Center on May 6, 40 of whom are students now facing charges including failure to disperse and resisting arrest, as well as suspension from the school. And at UC Irvine, law enforcement cleared the encampment on May 15, leading to 47 arrests including 26 students and two employees.

A fourth-year UC San Diego student who asked to be identified as Jewish but also requested anonymity for fear of academic consequences was arrested for failure to disperse while attempting to secure the encampment after police arrived.

“No one really wanted to be the person who broke rank [in holding the encampment perimeter] because we all believed in what we’re doing,” the student said. “We wouldn’t have done anything different.”

UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla said in a statement that the arrests were made after multiple orders from police officers to disperse were ignored: “UC San Diego encourages and allows peaceful protests, but this encampment violated campus policy and the law, and grew to pose an unacceptable risk to the safety of the campus community.”

Faculty members at UC San Diego condemned Khosla’s decision to involve law enforcement and are demanding the university reverse suspensions of arrested students.

“We are outraged at what our administration has done here,” said Gary Fields, a communications professor at UC San Diego for 22 years. “I’ve seen a lot of protests, but I’ve never seen anything like what Chancellor Khosla did.”

A University of California campus police officer pushes a pro-Palestinian protester away from a moving San Diego Sheriff’s bus with arrested protesters onboard at UC San Diego on May 6, 2024.

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Adriana Heldiz

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CalMatters

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Students suspended, banned from campus

The encampment sweeps were not the first crackdown of pro-Palestinian demonstrators on California campuses. As far back as Jan. 23, a group of protesters gathered outside Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s Recreation Center as the university hosted a career fair inside that included military-defense company Lockheed Martin. Eight people were arrested, including three students and one faculty member.

One of the students arrested, who asked to remain anonymous due to the ongoing case, said they were also suspended for two academic quarters due to their participation. The student was supposed to graduate this spring. However, the suspension includes a ban from campus events.

“I thought they were rooting for us but I was really proved wrong there and they’re not looking out for our well-being at all,” the student said.

Other universities have also opted to enforce strict academic consequences. They have handed out suspensions, academic probations and event bans, though most schools will not disclose how many students have been disciplined.

After Stanford students established a second encampment on April 25 following a previous 120-day sit-in that ended in a deal with campus administrators, the university is taking a punitive approach to overnight protests. Stanford President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez sent a letter to about 60 students at the encampment saying they would be referred for disciplinary action for violating university policy, and that they could be arrested. They also announced that any student groups helping to maintain the encampment would also face disciplinary actions.

The university has already put an unknown number of students on academic probation, mandated community service hours and taken away university-funded fellowships for violating policies. The protesters risk losing campus jobs and university-sponsored internships.

“I get a lot of fellowship money from Stanford. I get a lot of medical support from Stanford. Being on academic probation is something I’m really, really scared of, just because I know those things would probably be in jeopardy,” said a student at the encampment, who requested anonymity due to fear of academic and professional retaliation.

Students and demonstrators set up walls at an Pro-Palestinian occupation encampment protest on campus at UCLA on April 25, 2024.

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Brian Feinzimer

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LAist

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USC suspended at least 29 students who participated in the protest, according to the student group Divest from Death Coalition, which has been collecting suspension letters.

“They were suspended for bringing items onto campus with the intent to use those items for the construction of the encampment,” said Jess, a doctoral candidate and member of the coalition who asked to be identified by her first name only for fear of repercussions.

Additionally, USC canceled its mainstage commencement ceremony due to the lack of security provisions for the expected 65,000 attendees.

In response to a growing encampment at Cal Poly Humboldt, the university shut down completely at the end of April and shifted classes online for the remainder of the semester.

According to Humboldt’s Communication Specialist Iridian Casarez, the university suspended 77 students related to protest activities. The suspension notice cited the alleged destruction of property, trespassing, resisting arrest, and obstruction of pedestrian traffic. Environmental studies major Stella Baumstone was among those, and said her initial concern was whether she’d be receiving her diploma. She knows of one student who lost a campus job due to the suspension and has been struggling to pay rent.

“It’s hard to see. What they’re doing is having real material harm for people,” Baumstone said.

On April 30, 40 protesters were arrested when they refused law enforcement’s request to disperse and instead barricaded a building. Charges ranged from unlawful assembly and vandalism to conspiracy.

First: Pro-Palestinian protesters demand police officers leave campus during a protest outside of Siemens Hall at Cal Poly Humboldt in Arcata on April 22, 2024. Last: A pro-Palestinian supporter leads a chant during a protest at Cal Poly Humboldt on April 22, 2024. Photos by Mark McKenna for CalMatters

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Mark McKenna

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CalMatters

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People gather after demonstrators took over Siemens Hall at Cal Poly Humboldt during a pro-Palestinian protest in Arcata on April 22, 2024.

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Mark McKenna

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CalMatters

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Rouhollah Aghasaleh, an assistant education professor, was the only faculty member arrested that day. The professor received a two-month suspension from the university and is barred from going to campus, attending university events including online, and contacting students.

“They are using a similar template for faculty suspension as if for a faculty member under investigation for a Title IX case,” Aghasaleh said. “I don’t think I’m dangerous for my students. My students also don’t think I’m dangerous for them.”

Faculty consequences are muddled on some campuses. John Branstetter, a political science lecturer at UCLA, was arrested after standing between students and police during the raid, trying to quell violence. He said the university has not promised to review “everybody who was caught up in it and apply the rules of the (employment manual) to us, although it’s not clear to me what those are.” He added he is particularly vulnerable as a non-tenured faculty member.

Students and faculty at UCLA have yet to face academic consequences for their participation in the encampment. Both Doyle and Branstetter believe the university will likely not follow through with suspensions or punishment. However, UCLA did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

On May 20, a rolling strike began at UC Santa Cruz when graduate students and other academic workers represented by United Auto Workers 4811 were the first to walk off the job. Strikes at UCLA and UC Davis are planned to begin May 28, adding to the work stoppage. That would mean roughly a third of the UC system’s graduate workers – who teach and grade a large portion of the undergraduates – will be withholding their labor.

The union demands that the UC drop disciplinary charges against some graduate workers who were arrested at pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the past month. The UC calls the strike illegal, which the union disputes, and argues that it cannot change disciplinary rules just for graduate workers. The union argues these disciplinary rules are new and unilaterally change their working conditions, which they say is a violation of labor law.

Faculty and students at several universities have also held additional protests calling for district attorney offices to drop charges and for campus officials to offer academic amnesty for those they say expressed their right to speech and assembly.

And protesters continue to block public spaces and buildings, leading to further law enforcement action. On May 23 at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, a group blocked a main entrance to campus while chanting for a “free Palestine.” Eight people were arrested, including four students and one faculty member, for “unlawful assembly, willfully obstructing a street or sidewalk and resisting arrest,” according to university spokesperson Matt Lazier. The Cal Poly Police Department has temporarily banned those arrested from campus.

Meanwhile, also in the morning of May 23, at UCLA, a group of a few dozen pro-Palestinian protesters erected a short-lived encampment that cleared out once officers arrived. In the afternoon, a larger group of about 200 occupied Dodd Hall, a classroom space, using their bodies to block doorways and stopped students of at least one class from entering.

Fourth-year student Ricky Ramirez, who was trying to attend his 5 p.m. sociology class, said he was sympathetic to the protesters and had joined previous pro-Palestinian rallies at campus. “I understand why it’s happening,” he said. “I wish the school would inform us more and keep us up-to-date.”

After witnessing several campus security guards grab and then push a student who was standing outside a back door of Dodd Hall, Ramirez said, “It’s really scary, honestly. I feel like it could just happen to me and I’m just trying to get into class.”

University police officers cleared out the students by about 5:30 p.m. It did not appear that any arrests were made.

Kenza K., a third-year UCLA undergraduate student who identified herself as a spokesperson for the student protesters, said the day’s actions were a test to see if students were just as mobilized as they were three weeks ago. And, according to her, they were. Their goal was not to get arrested, she added, “though students are willing to take a lot of risk because they believe that they’re not doing anything wrong.”

Some campuses turn to peacemaking

Some universities have been able to avoid police intervention and come to agreements with pro-Palestinian protesters. Most of these deals include provisions that would make investments by universities more transparent and bring recognition to Palestinian losses. Encampments have cleared following negotiations at San Francisco State, Sacramento State, Sonoma State, UC Riverside, UC Berkeley and Chapman University.

Various movements in solidarity with Gaza joined the “Free Palestine Camp” demonstration outside of Sproul Hall at UC Berkeley on April 23, 2024.

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Manuel Orbegozo

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CalMatters

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Sacramento State President Luke Wood said there would be full transparency for the university’s investments following the protests. Sonoma State’s president until a week ago, Mike Lee, promised even more, a move that cost him his job. Without prior approval by Cal State Chancellor Mildred Garcia, Lee agreed to cut ties with student and faculty exchange programs in Israel. After Garcia placed him on administrative leave for insubordination, Lee announced he would retire, leaving the deal in limbo and student activists in the Cal State system calling for Garcia’s resignation.

UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ said she’d be reevaluating whether the university’s investments align with the UN Principles for Responsible Investment — which prohibits investment in companies that are threatening any public safety — and that she’d call for a ceasefire. UC Riverside has agreed to consider investment strategies that direct money away from weapons manufacturers.

“This is a step forward for our community,” said a statement by the group Students for Justice in Palestine at UC Riverside. “However, our work is not done. Innocent people are STILL dying, enduring displacement, and suffering. This is not a victory and, more importantly, this is not defeat.”

Sergio Olmos contributed to this story. Buchanan, Chkarboul, Iyer, Mendez-Padilla, Munis, Portillo, Rios, Wilson and Wu are fellows with the College Journalism Network, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. CalMatters higher education coverage is supported by a grant from the College Futures Foundation.

The 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics kicked off in Milan on Friday evening, local time. Athletes representing over 90 countries march into the San Siro stadium filled with thousands of spectators during the opening ceremony in Milan.

The performance paid homage to Italian music, art and culture with tributes to composers, visual artists and films in a colorful spectacle. Performers included Italian actress Matilda De Angelis, American singer Mariah Carey, Italian singer Andrea Bocelli, Italian rapper Ghali and Italian ballet dancers Antonella Albano and Claudio Coviello, among dozens of other dancers.

Here is a selection of images from the opening ceremony:

Italian ballet dancers Antonella Albano and Claudio Coviello perform during the opening ceremony.

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Wang Zhao

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Getty Images

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Colorful dancers perform under large tubes of paint suspended above them during the opening ceremony.

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Gabriel Bouys

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Getty Images

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Italian actress Matilda De Angelis (center) performs with dancers dressed as the three great masters of Italian opera: Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini and Gioachino Rossini.

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Piero Cruciatti

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Getty Images

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Mariah Carey sings during the opening ceremony.

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Wang Zhao

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Getty Images

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Performers dressed in the colors of the Italian flag line up during the opening ceremony.

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Piero Cruciatti

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Getty Images

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Members of The Corazzieri, the Italian Corps of Cuirassiers, raise the Italian flag during the opening ceremony.

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Wang Zhao

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Getty Images

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Two performers are suspended between two large rings.

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Piero Cruciatti

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Getty Images

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The Olympic Rings are revealed above dancers during the opening ceremony.

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Piero Cruciatti

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Getty Images

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An aerial view of the athletes parading into the San Siro stadium.

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Antonin Thuillier

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Stoats Milo and Tina, the Paralympics and Olympics mascots, dance before the Olympic opening ceremony.

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Ben Curtis

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AP

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MILAN — During the first days of the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games, the long shadows of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell spread to touch the Olympic movement.

While in Milan, one of the top organizers of the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games faced calls to step aside after his emails turned up in the latest tranche of Epstein documents released by the U.S. Justice Department.

"I will be in nyc for four days starting April 22...can we book that massage now," wrote Casey Wasserman in an email to Maxwell in the spring of 2003. A few days later, Wasserman said, "The only thing I want from Paris is you."

There's no indication of criminal wrongdoing in the emails, which were sent more than twenty years ago. But for a prominent figure like Wasserman, who heads an influential sports and entertainment agency, any association with the pair is fraught.

Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years behind bars in 2022 for conspiring to sexually abuse minors. Epstein died by suicide while awaiting trial in jail in 2019.

Wasserman has kept a low profile since news of his emails broke. He appeared publicly this week at a gathering of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Milan, where he touted progress developing the L.A. Games but didn't take questions from reporters.

In a statement, Wasserman said he never had "a personal or business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein" and he apologized for his flirtatious exchanges with Maxwell. "I am terribly sorry for having any association with either of them."

That hasn't quelled the controversy. A growing number of political leaders in L.A. have called for Wasserman to step down from his role as one of the leading public faces of the next Summer Games.

"Casey Wasserman should step aside immediately," L.A. City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez said in a statement sent to LAist. "Anything less is a distraction and undermines efforts to make sure the Games truly reflect the values of a city that is for everyone."

L.A. city controller Kennith Mejia, who monitors the city's finances, said on social media that "Los Angeles cannot trust our financial future to someone connected with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell." Mejia added that "Wasserman must take accountability and resign."

Questions of Wasserman's future keep surfacing in Milan as the first sports competitions get underway. IOC chair Kirsty Coventry acknowledged at a press conference Thursday that she's been asked repeatedly about the scandal.

"Casey has put out a statement. I have nothing further to add on that," she said. Asked about the fact that Wasserman hasn't spoken directly with journalists, Coventry said, "I'll have them come find you guys and have a little chit-chat."

The head of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, Gene Sykes, also faced repeated questions about the matter in Milan on Thursday.

"Casey's made a statement that reflects the perspective he has on what came to light, when the emails were released, with the rest of the Epstein file," Sykes told reporters. "We have nothing to add to that, his statement stands on its own."

Sykes went on to voice confidence in Wasserman's leadership. "I have more confidence today in L.A. 28's operational capabilities, its leadership, the quality of what its doing and how well they're executing than I've had at any point of time," he said, pointing to the L.A. bid's strong fundraising.

A long list of corporate executives, academic leaders, physicians, scientists, politicians, members of European royalty, and others, have been caught up in the Epstein scandal. A growing number of them have resigned, been fired, or been forced to step back from public life.

If you're wondering whether it is truly worth the $8 million to $10 million cost per 30 seconds to air a commercial during the Super Bowl, just ask the creative minds behind the pro-Jesus advertising campaign "He Gets Us."

According to Come Near, the group managing the "He Gets Us" campaign, after airing commercials in three previous Super Bowls, they have seen nearly 10 billion video views, more than 70 million visitors to their website HeGetsUs.com and an awareness of the campaign so high that 40% of adults in the U.S. now know about He Gets Us.

And they expect that awareness to only expand with their fourth Super Bowl ad this Sunday titled "More," focused on the pressures many feel in modern society to pursue more of everything.

"There's not a lot of moments like this. … We're looking for moments where people really congregate," says Simon Armour, chief creative officer for Come Near, which has crafted the "More" ad as part of a campaign called "Loaded Words." "We're constantly asking, 'Are we really meeting people where they're at?'"

Offering a distinctly non-commercial message in the middle of the world's biggest advertising showcase is certainly one way to stand out. But that's only one of the many messages featured in an event that set a record last year — and the year before — as the most watched single telecast in U.S. history.

A dive into the raft of ads airing in the Big Game that were released early, aimed at rocketing around social media to build buzz before their debut Sunday, revealed the typical mix of celebrities, nostalgia, special effects and bold humor we see every year.

New in the mix: A few efforts encouraging fans to build their own Super Bowl commercials, including an option from Uber Eats allowing users to make 1,000 versions of celebrity-filled ads and a contest sponsored by Artlist.io, an AI platform for video creation, offering $60,000 for the best subscriber-created spot.

And, as we have seen in recent years, there's a decided lack of commercials offering any kind of sharp social message. At a time when America seems more divided than ever, most advertisers don't seem keen on spending millions to address the social or political issues of the day.

Of course, the most impressive messages may not surface until the Big Game itself. But here's a look at some of the most interesting commercials unveiled in advance, offering a look at the bold swings marketers are about to take on the biggest stage in media.

Best use of a self-deprecating celebrity, Part 1: Raisin Bran's 'Will Shat'

YouTube

One of the coolest things in modern pop culture has been to watch Star Trek icon William Shatner morph from an overacting, self-serious stick in the mud into a goofy celebrity who begrudgingly accepts that it's better to play along with his peculiar kind of fame rather than resist it. The 94-year-old comes full circle with this ad for Raisin Bran that deftly spoofs both the result of eating all that fiber, Shatner's roots in science fiction and the scatological word game people likely have played with his last name for eons, introducing him in the commercial as a character named Will Shat. My favorite moment: when he looks over at a pet and asks, "Is that dog a Shih Tzu?" As a bonus, the Shat-man even made news in real life, when paparazzi thought he was eating a bowl of cereal while driving (he was actually posing for a photo shoot.)

Most touching reference to Big Brother: Ring's 'Search Party: Be a Hero'

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Tell people that video doorbell company Ring can remotely link a bunch of cameras to look for something, and many may wonder if they've stumbled into a George Orwell novel. But show people how Ring cameras can be tasked to help find some of the 10 million dogs who go missing every year — using its new, free Search Party feature — and you have a teary, sentimental spot for the Big Game that pulls on the heartstrings while downplaying any concerns about Big Brother invading their privacy (fear not, Search Party is a program you have to opt into).

Best argument to Hollywood for using AI: Xfinity's 'Jurassic Park … Works'

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Cool as it is to suggest that one tech geek from Xfinity could have kept all the dinosaurs from escaping Jurassic Park, the telecommunication company went one better in this ad – basically showing the potential for de-aging and computerized imagery in film by creating new scenes for the 1993 movie featuring stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum. In Xfinity's new spot, they're jogging with herds of dinosaurs and posing for pictures with a T. rex instead of running for their lives. Of course, a happy ending invalidates the film's whole "egotistical man shouldn't meddle with natural ecosystems he doesn't understand" message. But it will probably sell an awful lot of Wi-Fi service.

Best use of a self-deprecating celebrity, Part 2: TurboTax's 'The Expert'

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Adrien's Brody's over the top antics while portraying a TurboTax expert – despite the company's insistence that the program helps keep taxes "drama free" — is a delicious send-up of his own self-serious reputation. (My fave moment is when he screeches "If there's no drama, then there's no Adrien Brody!") It's almost enough to make you forget the record-setting arrogance of his way-too-long best actor acceptance speech at last year's Oscars ceremony. Almost.

Best headfake around men's silly sensibilities: Novartis' 'Relax Your Tight End'

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What's the best way to let men know there's now a less, um, invasive way of checking for prostate cancer than the old school finger method? This commercial, featuring football heroes like former New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski and former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians urges men to relax their tight end — complete with shots that seem to depict that relaxation — thanks to the invention of a blood test to check for early signs. It's all a bit of cheeky good fun — OK, I couldn't resist that one — aimed at getting men to get over their hangups and get tested regularly for a disease that has an impressive survival rate if caught early.

Best use of class warfare: Hims & Hers' 'Rich People Live Longer'

YouTube

Fresh off a controversy from last year, which found the telehealth company criticized for not being fully transparent about the side effects of its weight loss drugs, Hims & Hers is back with a spot that declares "the wealth gap is a health gap." Rapper and actor Common provides the voice-over for this spot, which shows wealthy people accessing all kinds of treatments and preventive care as the narration notes, "all that money doesn't just buy more stuff — it buys more time." Watching a big corporation spend millions pitching its products as an affordable way to bridge that gap, at a time when medical expenses are one of the leading causes of bankruptcy in the U.S., feels a little odd. But it's also a stroke of genius.

Best parody of a competitor: Pepsi's 'The Choice'

YouTube

This spot, starting with a computer-generated polar bear getting confused after picking Pepsi over Coca-Cola in a blindfolded taste test, works in all kinds of ways. It pokes at Coke's longtime use of computerized bears in its own Big Game ads back in the day while indulging a bit of nostalgia. Extra points for a moment later in the ad that references the infamous Coldplay kiss cam incident and a cool cameo from impish director Taika Waititi.

Most questionable joke: DoorDash's 'Beef 101'

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In the ad, 50 Cent presents the latest iteration of his beef with Sean "P Diddy/Puff Daddy" Combs as an epic exercise in tongue-in-cheek trolling. He reaches into a DoorDash pouch to pull out a bag of Cheesy Puffs, a pack of combs and a bottle of cognac he says is "aged four years … or 50 months. Who's keeping count?" But I bet Combs, now sitting in federal prison after his conviction on prostitution-related charges, surely is. And those who recall the allegations of sex crimes and abuse which surrounded the Combs trial, might not find a commercial seeking laughs by referencing that traumatic situation to be much fun at all.

Most shameless pandering to bro culture: Bud Light's 'Keg'

YouTube

Football legend Peyton Manning, comic Shane Gillis and musician Post Malone seem mostly wasted in a nonsensical ad featuring an entire wedding party tumbling down a steep hill in pursuit of a single keg that fell off a dolly. Gillis gets the punchline, turning to the camera to say, "I give it a week," presumably in reference to the wedding. I'm betting most viewers forget about this uninspired ad even quicker.

Best use of a conspiracy theory I might actually believe: Uber Eats: 'Hungry for the Truth'

YouTube

This spot continues the concept Uber Eats floated in last year's Super Bowl ad, featuring Matthew McConaughey insisting the NFL organized this whole professional football thing as a ruse to sell more food. This time, he's torturing poor fellow movie star hunk Bradley Cooper — who mostly looks like he just wants to be seen wearing gear featuring his beloved Philadelphia Eagles — pointing out all the NFL players named after food. But when he shows Cooper that the NFL Hall of Fame building looks just like a juicer — gotta say, I was nearly convinced.