👰 A special congratulations to my friend and colleague Alexa Gagosz, who married Patrick Leonard yesterday at Boston City Hall. Alexa writes our Food Club newsletter, so she's refusing to take my advice on a reception dinner menu. 

The Super Bowl is this weekend, which means a little bit of football, a lot of wings, and the only time of the year anyone pays attention to commercials.

I asked some of our state’s most creative minds to come up with a Rhode Island-themed Super Bowl ad. We’re starting with the team at nail because they actually produced a 30-second spot.

Alec Beckett 
nail

Michael Masseur
RDW Group
The ad follows Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift taking “The 30-minute Challenge” to explore Rhode Island, jumping humorously between iconic spots – beaches, Newport mansions, clam shacks, and the zoo – while joking about how much the tiny state packs into such a short drive. Their playful banter highlights Rhode Island’s quirky personality, luxury, food, and outdoor attractions, ending with rapid-fire scenic shots and Travis struggling to pronounce “Burrillville.” The spot closes with the tagline, “Rhode Island. Blink and you’ll miss it. Stay and you won’t forget it.”

Mike Silvia
Duffy & Shanley
It’s like that Apple “1984” commercial with all the zombies sitting there staring forward except they're all in their cars, and then that woman comes running in holding that big sledge hammer thing but maybe it’s some sort of bridge-fixing tool and she throws it but it just lands in a pile of concrete and these guys in hard hats are all standing around drinking their Dunkin’ just staring at it and instead of everything changing for the better, nothing happens and the zombies are still sitting in their cars and we cut to type that says: “In November of 2028 we're supposed to have a new bridge, but we won’t and 195 won't ever be like 195 again, so don’t come to Rhode Island, we can't handle the extra traffic.”

Mary Sadlier
(add)ventures
New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye sits down at a Rhode Island restaurant and tastes a bowl of food, smiles, and says, “Super.” The scene flashes back in fast motion: chefs cooking, servers setting tables, valets parking cars, and farm-fresh deliveries arriving, showcasing the more than 3,000 restaurants and 25-plus types of cuisine across the state — all an easy drive with plenty of parking. Back at the table, Maye finishes his last bites, the remaining traces in the bowl forming the word “Super,” as a voiceover sums it up: “Every day in Rhode Island is a Super Bowl — at another superb restaurant.”

Dante Bellini
Hooligan Film Productions
In Rhode Island, history, pop culture and pure weirdness all live on the same block – the state that helped spark the American Revolution with the burning of the HMS Gaspee is also where Yankee Doodle Dandy George M. Cohan and horror legend H. P. Lovecraft were practically neighbors, where EGOT winner Viola Davis got her start, and where a two-ton “Big Blue Bug” watches over Route 95. It’s a place proud of its quirks – from debating how to pronounce the quahog to the “Secret Mall Apartment” in Providence, to storybook seaside weddings at places like Ocean House –  and food legends like the hot dog stand so beloved a billionaire bought it, an oyster bar with valet chaos, or the oceanfront dive Ocean Mist that seems to defy the sea. Just 30 minutes from end to end but endlessly unexpected, Rhode Island is packed with outsized characters worthy of a Don Winslow novel – and the ad cuts to Winslow himself, who sums it up: “Rhode Island isn’t just a place you visit. It’s a place you can’t wait to revisit. Oh, and one more thing: we have pizza chips, and you don’t.”