Insurance ads were all over the Super Bowl this year, many causing quite the buzz with their celebrity cameos, others for their controversial nature.

“A number of brands took a more serious tone this year, which might be a sound move given the current climate of the NFL, ” said Derek D. Rucker, Sandy & Morton Goldman Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies in Marketing at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Nationwide Insurance can take the honor for what many are now calling “the most hated” Super Bowl ad of all time. The ad, entitled “The Boy Who Couldn’t Grow Up” depicted a little boy talking about how he will never kiss a girl, ride a bike, fly, travel the globe, or marry. Why? Because he died from a preventable household accident. The company was promoting its “Make Safe Happen” program about ways to increase safety at home. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, preventable injuries are the number one cause of death of children.

They ran into some serious social backlash to its Super Bowl commercial that the company says was intended to spark a “fierce conversation” about preventing childhood deaths.

Judging from social media complaints, childhood death is apparently not a conversation people want during Super Bowl parties. Bloomberg reported that about 64 percent of the social media buzz was negative, the worst of any advertising in the Super Bowl, according to Amobee, a digital marketing platform.

However, the ad apparently worked to the extent that the company said thousands went online to its Make Safe Happen website.

Nationwide also ran a humorous ad about not treating customers as invisible; it starred actress Mindy Kaling and actor Matt Damon.

Allstate’s online insurance division, Esurance, was a first-time Super Bowl advertiser with two spots on game day, one aired before the kick off and another aired during the second quarter.  In the first, Bryan Cranston, known for Breaking Bad’s drug dealer Walter White, appears as a pharmacist dressed in a hazmat suit discussing “pharmaceuticals” with a female customer and pretending to “sorta” be a guy named Greg. This marked the debut of the insurer’s new brand,  “Sorta You Isn’t You,” illustrating how Esurance offers insurance quotes that are tailored to each consumer’s needs. It builds on the “Insurance for the Modern World” effort that launched in 2011. The company is looking to compete in a category dominated by giants, including Allstate, Geico, Progressive and State Farm.  The other ad starred Lindsay Lohan as a “Sorta Mom” picking up children from school.

The insurer relied on celebrity influencers and the element of surprise to drive engagement this year. They even worked hard to build a lot of pre-game buzz. Lohan shared behind-the-scenes photos and videos of the ad she appeared in during the week leading up to the game, while Cranston was the company’s “quarterback sneak,” sharing tweets hinting that he, or rather his “Breaking Bad” character, was headed to the game.  Esurance simultaneously tweeted that a secret celebrity would star in its spot. The tweets built some buzz by teasing, without giving away the main event.

GEICO’s Super Bowl Commercial ‘One on One with Ickey’ featured popular NFL star Icky Woods and was a much lighter take on insurance, which is usually the norm for them.

They also aired their Salt N’ Pepa “Push It” ad they have been airing since January.

The American Family Insurance Super Bowl spot featured award-winning artist Jennifer Hudson. The spot expands on the insurer’s existing advertising by encouraging people to follow their dreams.  The ad kicks off the new brand campaign called “Dream Fearlessly,” which will include TV buys in the Grammy and Academy Awards in next month. It will also feature print, radio and. digital efforts built around the hashtag #DreamFearlessly.

The ad is set in a classic ’40s diner and features Jennifer Hudson singing a heartfelt rendition of “O-O-H Child.”

The ad closes on the tagline: “Insure carefully, dream fearlessly.” It was filmed by Jake Scott, who also directed Budweiser’s Super Bowl spot called “Lost Dog.”

“Our mission is to inspire, protect and restore dreams,” said Telisa Yancy, VP-marketing at American Family, in a statement. “We take this very seriously and hope that people will walk away from this commercial recognizing that we are committed to be the champion of dreams.”

The Kellogg School did its 11th annual rankings of Super Bowl ads based on their effectiveness. It gave both Nationwide and Esurance a “C” grade. McDonald’s, Fiat, Budweiser and Coca-Cola were among those earning an “A’ grade, while Geico got a “D”.

Nationwide issued this statement about the childhood death ad after the Super Bowl:

“Preventable injuries around the home are the leading cause of childhood deaths in America. Most people don’t know that. Nationwide ran an ad during the Super Bowl that started a fierce conversation. The sole purpose of this message was to start a conversation, not sell insurance. We want to build awareness of an issue that is near and dear to all of us – the safety and well-being of our children. We knew the ad would spur a variety of reactions. In fact, thousands of people visited MakeSafeHappen.com, a new website to help educate parents and caregivers with information and resources in an effort to make their homes safer and avoid a potential injury or death. Nationwide has been working with experts for more than 60 years to make homes safer. While some did not care for the ad, we hope it served to begin a dialogue to make safe happen for children everywhere.”

What do you think of this year’s crop of insurance Super Bowl spots? Let us know what you think in the comments below.