We chatted with a veteran ad director with more than 80 Super Bowl commercials under his belt. Here's why he thinks Super Bowl ads today 'stink.'

Rick Kalleher

Film, TV and ad director Joe Pytka

• Joe Pytka is a veteran ad film director and has directed more than 80 Super Bowl commercials, including Pepsi's Cindy Crawford commercial and Nike's "Hare Jordan."
• There hasn't been a lot of good ads lately because people are trying too hard to be famous, he said.
• He also said that ad agencies are big corporations that no longer stand up for their work.

With more than 80 Super Bowl ads under his belt - including Pepsi's unforgettable Cindy Crawford commercial from 1992 and Nike's "Hare Jordan," which was developed into the hit film Space Jam - Joe Pytka knows a thing or two about Super Bowl ads.

Read More: These are the most unforgettable Super Bowl commercials of all time

This year, Pytka directed Toyota's 60 second-long Super Bowl spot featuring athlete Antoinette "Toni" Harris and narrated by sportcaster Jim Nantz.

Business Insider caught up with Pytka on how the Super Bowl has changed, some of his most favorite work, and what he thinks about advertising today. Here's an edited version of the conversation.

Tanya Dua: How have Super Bowl ads changed over the years?

Joe Pytka: Most of them stink. They're trying too hard. I'm selfish here because I've lived through a period of time when we had a lot of big thinkers with big ideas. When you talk about good Super Bowl commercials, almost all of them were from that period of time. People are trying too hard to be famous.

Dua: Have any spots in recent years grabbed your attention?

Pytka: I used to do the Clydesdale commercials before Budweiser was bought out by the Belgian-Brazilian conglomerate. And I resent the fact that they play the patriotism card now all the time. When it was a family-owned business, they had this instinct about what they wanted to say about themselves. Now it's a big corporation run by Brazilian-Belgian consortium. I don't feel the same way about them now as I did before, especially when they push this American patriotism.

Dua: What about Nike's Colin Kaepernick ad?

Pytka: It was stupid. Nike's always trying to do stuff like that, and it worked for them when they were a small company. Now they're a huge conglomerate making billions of dollars. They don't have the right to do a commercial like that. They're only doing it for the money.

Dua: Which brand do you think is doing good work today?

Pytka: I'm a bit cynical about what's happening in advertising now. I just did a documentary on two ad greats: Ed McCabe and George Lois. They came from the time when advertising was transitioning into being an art form. These guys were bringing work to their clients, saying, you have to do this and respect that I know what I'm doing. This sounds simplistic, but if you have a leak in a faucet, you hire a plumber who knows more about it than you do and you trust his judgment. There was a genius in the old guys like George Lois, Hal Riney and Phil Dusenberry.

Dua: Do you think it's still worth advertising in the Super Bowl, given how cord-cutting is on the rise?

Pytka: Yes. You still have 130 million people watching. BMW did a campaign about 10 to 12 years ago. They did all these films for the internet and they used real good directors like Tony Scott. They made these films that they thought were really avant-garde. But the money they spent could have been used much more effectively on the Super Bowl. I think the BMW films cost 40 or 50 million to produce. That's like 10 Super Bowl commercials.

Dua: What are your thoughts on advertising agencies today?

Pytka: Agencies are big corporations now and they can't be noisy and disruptive. There's a lot of compromise now. It's all very corporate. There's very few people that stand up for their work these days. They don't have the personalities they used to have.

Dua: What's the favorite commercial that you've directed for the Super Bowl?

Pytka: It's tough because lot of them were very memorable for different reasons, but I think probably the one for Budweiser with the soldiers that are getting off the airplane with the people applauding.