5 worst Super Bowl ads of all time

5. Nationwide’s “Dead Child” ad (2015)

As annoying as the current Nationwide ad campaign is — and believe me, I hate it with a burning passion — at least hearing Peyton Manning narrate his daily adventures in a sing-song voice is far better than what the company trotted out for the 2015 Super Bowl.

I’m clearly no expert in advertising, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that this ad concept was a smidgen, shall we say, ill-conceived. And by “smidgen” I mean “entirely and wholly in a manner astounding in its inconceivability.”

The ad’s entire tone is uncomfortable: Are you a parent? Are you a parent who DOESN’T want one of your children to die in an accident? Better hit up Nationwide before Little Timmy starts drinking the chemicals from the no-no cabinet.

Having a cute child talk about all the little things he won’t get to experience due to an untimely death is pretty tacky on its own. It’s manipulative and unnecessarily dark. Couple that with an accusatory tone and you have a commercial that should’ve been left on the cutting room floor.

The fact that in response to the backlash — and there was backlash, complete with memes and everything — Nationwide came out and said that the “sole purpose of [the ad] was to start a conversation, not sell insurance,” made the whole situation even more embarrassing. Yes, Nationwide, your ad about buying insurance totally wasn’t about insurance. That’s believable, definitely. Way to double down on the idiocy.

Next: 4. Dodge (2010)