Super Bowl 2011: Live-Blogging the Best and Worst Ads

The Super Bowl ad blogging has begun!

Olivia Munn is weighing in on a Volkswagen ad we got in advance.

Volkswagen The Force:

Hold on one second. This was just rude.

Tell me there's no Santa Claus- fine. Tell me the Tooth Fairy is really a prostitute who takes money from your bed- I can handle that. Tell me there's no such thing as true love and my destiny is to meet douchebags who will never be able to shake that Summer's Eve scent- well, I've already come to terms with that.

But to flippantly expose that Darth Vader has no real powers... that he's just a character who represents evil... that he's nothing more than a symbol of a father who has fallen to the dark side and doesn't actually possesses any true super abilities?? Well, now, you've gone too far.

You know, there isn't much I hold dear in my life... but that galaxy far, far away is about all I had left.

I hope you're happy Volkswagen. You may have made this kid's dreams come true, but you just crushed mine.

Lovaza commercial—first commercial I've watched ends with "think you have high triglycerides?" I don't even know if I have triglycerides. This is NOT the way to kick off Super Bowl Sunday.

Glad they ran the spot for Lovaza before people start scarfing down the guac and cocktail franks. Supposed to fight cholesterol...commercial said that the side effects include burping. Isn't that a side effect of Super Bowl parties? Why take a pill?

Direct TV: Not funny. Dumb.

Subway: Did they spend money on this? And why do none of the colonial presidents look colonial? And why are they all wearing yellow? And why, even in high def, do the sandwiches still look so friggin' nasty?

If I'm Chevy, and I'm using Super Bowl Sunday to advertise my new Electric car, I do a helluva lot better than showing an outlet.

Olivia Munn is weighing in on some more ads that we got in advance...

Chevy Tommy:

At some point, little Tommy is gonna have to learn to not be so stupid.

Chevy Old People:

Old people joke! Still funny. Oh, wait, sorry, wrong punctuation. I meant to say- Still funny???

Hyundai Deprogramming:

I'm dizzy and nauseous now. What were they selling me again? I hope it was Ginger Ale.

Volkswagen Beetle:

No jokes here. That was just a really smart, well done commercial.

Sprint athlete at doc's office. I hate this spot. Too many athletes getting beaten up and maimed on the field. Not funny, Sprint.

Taco Bell can do the funniest commercials in the world—not that this is one of them—and it won't change the fact that their products contact 3% meat and 97% other. I don't care if the next Taco Bell commercial shows Erik Estrada eating a Taco Bell burrito in a bathing suit while singing Hall & Oates' Private Eyes in Spanish—I'm not purchasing a burrito.

GroupON: Hi, I'm Cuba Gooding. You might remember me from Snow Dogs. I can't believe I'm doing this S%$#

OK, this isn't a commercial. But, really, it is. Am I actually watching Colin Powell and Roger Goodell talk along with patriotic music? And am I now listening to NFL players recite the Declaration alongside troops? This is the classic example of two phenomenons that bother me as a sports writer:

1. The NFL—and MLB, to a lesser degree—try and weld their leagues to patriotism, when one has nothing to do with the other.

2. Having spent two weeks blathering on and on and on and on about this game, there's just nothing left to talk about. Which explains why some Fox producer almost certainly said in a production meeting, "Crap, we've gotta fill this time. Any ideas?"

Bob? You got something?

"Yeah, how about Jerry Rice on a boat?"

"I love it!"

Derek Jeter Ford ad—to quote my wife, the wonderful Catherine Pearlman, "You use Derek Jeter ... and that's the best you can do?" I agree. Jeter is funny, charismatic. Commercial started great, ended flat.

I think that Fox and the NFL should have said upfront, this spot is dedicated to the men and women of the armed forces. Because watching it, I started wondering, Is this a Tea Party spot? Why does the NFL guy keep tenting his hands? Colin Powell should get a part in a serial drama a la 24. He is really good. Why does everyone else, except Jerry Rice, look so irritated?

If they wanted to get credit for doing a nice thing (even though it did run pretty darn long for the environment,) they should have roped us all in at the start....

And then Jeep Cherokee runs their spot cheating off the same patriotic theme but it's for showing how the Jeep goes over a snow bank. Playing the patriotic card both ways within one pod, kind of defeats them both.

I just sat down in front of the TV with a bunch of ad people, ready to spout opinions. Let the Ad Bowl begin. What's the weird game they're playing in the breaks, by the way?

Ford Focus: What was that commercial for? And why were those two guys dancing The Robot? I tried dancing The Robot once. I was 17 years old and trying to impress Theresa McClure at the Mahopac High School fall dance. To this day, I don't think she knows my name.

Quick note on Toyota, Chrysler and Ford back-to-back ads that just ran. They were local, not national. Often groups of dealers put these ads together to take advantage of the audience without paying 3 million bucks per 30 seconds. These aren't the special ads.

Ford:

Lead footed 'youngun spot'...look, it's got social media nand a reality show Amazing Race spin...zzzzz

Love this guy Mayhem. Especially with all of our roofs about to collapse with this winter's invention of Ice Damming. Allstate has a good thing going with him as spokesperson...fun to have someone so nasty you can hate. Like the Gregory House of insurance.

Wait a minute, where are my Philadelphia Iggs? Huh?

Why is Cher's boyfriend from "Mask" standing in black and white, uttering nonsense about grit and determination? Was this the best gig out there?

Ford is promoting its new Focus compact car with Focus Rally mini spots. These are the "brought to you by" announcements, aimed at getting people to check out the promotion online.

"Just Go With It" ad. OMG is right. Perfect placement of a juvenile movie promo-- unfortunately another Jennifer Aniston flop in waiting. Spot pitches a key SB target with no shame. Perfect.

Great. Pizza Hut have made it easy to dunk you pizza in marinara. That was missing from my life.

I have no idea what the Ford F-150 ad was about, But I'm exhausted from watching it.

LA destroyed? Oh, it's only a movie. I'll totally see that.

"Battle Los Angeles" might turn out to be the "Sleepless in Seattle" of alien-attack flicks. But the commercial had me. Looks amazing.

Play 60 NFL commercial: I've covered sports for a looooong time. Too long, probably. If 20 pro athletes are excitedly getting on a school bus, they're not taking it to play touch football with a bunch of disadvantaged kids. They're going to the nearest strip club.

Let's hope Xtina isn't going to do a medley of songs from "Burlesque"

Is this a mistake? All American style Lea in a sing off with hot, dressed in black Christina? I'm a major Gleek but have to say that Christina rocked the house as a better fit for the game. She got the big guys to cry. And scream. Feels like Football to me!

"We will wok you" Really?

Like the Kung Fu panda followed by McD bears. Is a theme emerging already?

I'll be the jerk who'll say it—Christina Aguilera not looking so, uh ... good. Is that overly mean? Probably, especially since i look like a sports writer (with the requisite hairy back and sweaty palms). But I know half of you are thinking it.

livingsocial: GREAT, great, great commercial. Thus far, clearly the winner. Hilarious.

AT&T Broadband: I hate to admit this, but I still have a flip phone with no internet. So who am I to comment on this one?

Did Volkswagen know about that McDonalds ad with the bears shaking the vintage VW Corrado? The car is a legend with the Fast and Furious set.

Why would AT&T run the same commercial they have been running for weeks?

McD--They got their money's worth from this spot by running it in the pre-game. Bears in the campground aren't new but the insight of getting that last fry out of the box is terrific.

Living social.com Turns you gay? What's that about....?

ATT: Not a new spot but really funny because it's so true. The delayed email crimping your style with friends.

OK, I am a totally easy cry, but I am loving Michael Douglas's narration of this NFL piece. I know it's not an official ad but I am getting chills like crazy. Yo, sponsors...you should have thought of this. So, so cool.

I'm sorry, but I can't stand this crap, and never have been able to. FDR, JFK, MLK, Challenger, 9.11 ... have NOTHING to do with professional football. This is a game. Only a game. A big one, yes. But a game. The way the NFL manipulates things; the way it ties itself to patriotism and American history is laughable and dishonest. American history is not PR, and to take something like 9/11 and even attempt to equate it to Steelers-Packers is laughable. And ludicrous.

Ford's social rally could be fun to follow. Like any reality show, it's all about the cast.

Ford is counting on young buyers to make the new Focus a hit, so there's a heavy edge to it.

Jeff, yeah, I know and it's an absurd and perhaps gross leap to compare real champions of history to some guys who have good hair and in some cases, have been under criminal investigation . But since they're going to do it all night, I'm glad that they picked Michael Douglas so we could know that he can still talk.

NFL knows how to do tear-jerkers but I feel like I've seen that one before.

My friend Rich Becker giggled—giggled!—audibly during the Bud Lite home makeover commercial. When Rich Becker giggles, people listen. Well, I do. But I have no choice—he's in the room next to me.

Audi: Like most Americans, I have the attention span of a 4-year old. Waaay too long—and out of 100 people watching this game, how many recognize Kenny G? My guess: 3

Hack Job sucks. Bud Light is usually funnier.

Doritos user-generated ads are still funny, but totally lowest common denominator. It's all about getting kicked in the balls.

Nice spot by Audi. Kenny G. Awesome. Nice to see narrative car ads, and not just blatant car porn.

Hack Job with Bud Light: Cute. Seemed like a lesser entry in what must be a huge ad competition for them though.

Pug: I'm a dog lover so even waiting for a smashed face pug to get his face smashed had my attention. Terrific ending and great use of Doritos.

Audi: loved the send up of "luxury" and the great escape, especially the Kenny G touch. The Do Do, the hounds...all the styling of the rich guy's jail--terrific for the Super Bowl and an interesting position for Audi.

Audi is too complicated. Beautiful film but people want to party and they just don't have the attention span. Doritos gets it. A dog in slow motion that gets the guy. Perfect and works without sound.

Audi has a string of clever Super Bowl ads the last few years, and here's another. This one may do wonders for for Kenny G, who comes off as funny and not taking himself too seriously.

Jeff, would guess that about 40 of the 44 million women watching know kenny g. And hey, they buy 65% of the new cars every year, so....good pick!

Doritos finger-sucking cracked up the room here.

Chevy ad is trying way too hard. And failing.

If that's the best Pepsi can do, it should probably stay out of the Super Bowl again next year.

Doritos: one word—ew.

Pepsi Max: Early contender for extremely funny spot. Great final moment. Though Pepsi Max, the weak counter to Coke Zero, is pretty nasty.

Chevy Cruze ad called "misunderstanding" is the first of five Chevy ads planned during the game.

Chevy Cruze: Think that GM has enough issues in the aging of its car buying population. Making fun of them to sell their cars or just making the car old by association (nobody watches as closely as we are) just so they can repeat and yell the features is lame.

Pepsi Max One: Call me silly but I like the woman beaning the cute jogger gal after she's manhandled her mate for his piggishness. Yeah, slapstick when the hurler is a woman hitting a woman makes me smile when it's justified. Oh yeah, it wasn't.

Chevy spent some money but the film was well done and worthy of Super Bowl. Bud Lite is typical Bud Lite.

Bud Light. Nope, still not very funny. They're really reaching this year, but not getting there. So far at least.

Chevy Silverado spot was very cute & fun. The room here dug it a lot. Exaggeration just works. Nice whale!

"Fast Five" movie makes me want to see a nice French movie. Maybe a meditation on being?

There is apparently a new "Fast and Furious" movie. Let me say up front that I've never seen any of the films in this series. And the commercial was tolerable. But whenever a film can pair the Rock and Vin Diesel—the Dolph Lundgren-Jean Claude Van Damme Duo of 2011—I'm running the other direction.

Bud Light: I'm tired of the ad industry's reliance on self-referential ads...hey art directors, let's do an ad about art direction.

Chevy Silverado: Fun way to show power and versatility. Truck may not have any new bells and whistles as far as what it can do. This just underlines it in a fun way.

In Chevy Silverado "Tommy" ad truck takes on role of Lassie -- or was that Rin Tin Tin?

Doritos with grandpa's ashes pushes the envelope and they can do that because they are Doritos, a goofy party brand. Pepsi did pretty well with teenage boy humor.

"Fast Five," a much-anticipated sequel in the "Fast and Furious" franchise looks promising. Could have been a Chrysler ad with all those black Chargers.

The best spot so far for car people.

Pepsi Max: groin shot. haha. come on, guys. you can do better.

Hyundai Elantra: Why do they work so hard to make the visuals so interesting and then write copy that is so obvious?

Pepsi Max: Yep, right in the balls. Told you it would happen. Mike Judge's "Idiocy" is coming closer and closer. I say stick with www.refresheverything.com, Pepsi. Better use of your money than these spots.

Doritos are the funniest spots so far. Which is a surprise.

No one in the room understood the Hyundai ad.

"Cowboys vs Aliens." With that title, what could it possibly be about?

Pretty epic Kia ad. Serious money was spent there. But what are they saying? Aliens and ancient Mayans covet this car?

How much money do you think Optima spent on One Epic ride? A lot. The trouble is do you remember Optima or why Optima???

Kia: Shoot multi-million dollar amazingly fantastic commercial. Insert any car inside. How about a Kia?

Everybody in my group agrees he Hyundai Elantra ad was lame. Made the car look too small and made viewers want to keep their old cars.

Brisk: Eminem, please don't do commercials. That was just odd. I hope they paid you a boatload of money for this. It reminds me of last year's SoBe oddness, where a giant "huh" is the only sane reaction. Erm, what is Brisk anyway?

This isn't a commercial comment, but I need to vent: Nick Collins is a sixth-year safety out of Bethune-Cookman. He scores a touchdown in the Super Bowl and is euphoric. He celebrates excessively, because this is a gigantic moment in his life. Maybe the biggest moment he's ever experienced. So you penalize him for living it up? Terrible. Just terrible. Let these guys embrace the day.

Eminem Commercial: Not sure what it was for, but loved it. Eminem seems to have reached a great point in his career where he's able to laugh at himself. That's a great place to be ...

Clever one for Kia, always the underdog. Much more effective than its parent company, Hyundai.

Eminem is playing it to the hilt, hawking drinks now and Chrysler later.

Lil Wayne--yes that Lil Wayne--is at the game and writing stuff for the WSJ sport blog. He just posted this "Bout to put some Cheeze on that RotleisBURGER!!!"

Bridgestone. Funny. Everyone's done the "send all" mistake.

Chevy celebrates electricity. I like electricity too. It's great to have around. I guess I can get it in my car now too.

Just go away, Go Daddy. Please. Can we all send them a dollar to stop it already?

Bridgestone: Funny that commercials haven't tapped into the horror of the mis-clicked "Reply All" before (or at least I haven't noticed). As a SuperBowl spot, this one delivers for Bridgestone.

Volt: Way too earnest. Why can't Volt either amaze us or charm us or just get under our 'good to do' skin? Instead, too much chest-beating.

Go Daddy: Loved that Joan Rivers is the one we've been waiting for. Great surprise. Go Daddy keeps its reputation for raciness intact and yet manages to draw in women with the closer. Bet Joan was lovin' that shoot.

Danica Patrick continues to align with ESPN's Erin Andrews as prominent women in the sports world who continue to demean themselves and threaten the professional status of others. You're Patrick—a legitimate driver who can truly go down as a Jackie Robinson-like figure for women in auto racing. Why in the world would you continue to do this? The same goes for Andrews, a legitimate sideline reporter who is now forever known more for her looks and sex appeal than genuine professionalism. Sad.

I'm not sure Jimi Hendrix fans will approve of the imagery in the Volt spot. Also, it's a shame that even when advertising a modern car like the Volt, Chevy has to go retro with the ads. It's like all the good times ended 30 years ago.

The Faith Hill ad was pretty funny. She just played a live show on CMT yesterday.

"Tiny Dancer" scene for Bud Lite reminded me of "Almost Famous" but not as good. Nice try.

I will sell my children. I will change my name to Cute Little Flower. I will skip naked through Times Square, a Thug Life tattoo newly inked across my chest, a dozen pink-and-yellow Happy Easter! balloons dangling from a string tied to my left ear. I will drink motor oil, eat cow dung, learn all the lyrics to John Oates' solo album. Just please, dear God, not another "Transformers" movie. Please ...

Bud. Peter Stormare singing Elton John. First good Bud ad. Funny how "Tiny Dancer" makes almost anything better.

Teleflora: Erm... Another email mistake ad. Not as good as Bridgestone's though.

"Transformers": The dumbest movies of this millennium. If this one's anywhere near as idiotic as the first two, it will be a perfect crap trio.

I'm looking forward to seeing just how Motorola's new tablet will actually create a better world.

BMW, meh.

Bud: Tiny Dancer...FINALLY! A Super Bowl Commercial. Fantastic! When those hoofs came clomping through the desert, all I could feel was " at last."Please be great" and it was.

Teleflora: So they hire beautiful, terrific Faith Hill and waste her...and then write loser copy like "nice rack" as the punch line?? Who do you think buys and sends flowers? NOT GUYS! Women! Women are the big purchasers and yes, at Vday, pushers of flowers. You just insulted them.

And then ironically, the Motorola spot guy sends flowers in a perfectly nice way. Teleflora, get a grip on who you are.

BMW is a surprise participant in the Bowl, showing how "American" they are with X3 production in South Carolina.

Fast And Furious commercial:

Another Fast and the Furious? Man, these movies are like The Babysitters Club. We keep buying it, they'll keep making it.

Whoa...Coke. That was one expensive way to say Open Happiness.

Loved the BMW diesel spot, which could convince people to try diesels again after the bad old days of the 1970s! When diesels smoked and sputtered.

Did Coke buy 'World of Warcraft'?

Thor. Scandinavian super hero. Hell, yeah.

VW's Darth Vader spot the best of the day so far. Incredibly cute. Nothing much to do with the car, but nice to see some quirky, charming ads from VW.

Volkswagen was good, funny, human well-executed.

VW Passat: I LOVE this spot! Majorly cute and gives a nice beauty shot/remote feature moment to the car as the punchline. Mom bait.

Any children watching will love the Volkswagen Darth Vader spot. My six- and three-year-old boys won't stop talking about it.

careerbuilder.com: I'm a sucker for primates. But, even with that, hilarious commercial. Loved it.

You're not u when you're hungry was almost funny but trying so hard. Still a good campaign for Snickers.

Careerbuilder.com: Here's another ad showing a Volkswagen getting abused. Seems like a funny coincidence.

Snickers: Roseanne Barr got hurt this year, after Betty White got pummeled last year. So is Snickers new strategy to main a celebrity every year? Amusing writing, though.

Monkeys are always a winner. Careerbuilder would always have a hard time topping last year's amazing spot, so monkeys are a good, safe choice.

I want to see "Super 8" right now. Cannot wait till summer.

Fox Producer One: "Crap—21-3. Viewers are getting itchy"

Fox Producer Two: "But we have the Black Eyed Peas!"

Fox Producer One: "Can they start now?"

I'll see Captain America I guess, but can they just skip ahead to the Avengers movie already?

Captain America!!! Chris Evans is perfect. Great guy, great friend, perfect super hero.

Chevy: Uh ... real-time Facebook status updates on OnStar. We live in a world besieged by global warming, with Egypt crumbling, with gun violence and on and on. Is this really something we need?

Chevy Cruze. Yikes.

"Captain America" looks like a meditation on the nature of of nationhood and what it means to be American. Nice to see that there'll be a summer movie with some substance this year.

CarMax. Massive huh? But we all laughed. So there's that...

So here's some formulas for Super Bowl success to watch for. Kids and dog humor. Violent humor where someone gets hurt. Celebrities getting hurt even funnier.

At our Super Bowl party, the response to the Chevy Cruze ad was "really?" I wasn't sure if they meant, "Really, the navigator lady is going to read my facebook to me?" or "Really, you don't have to check your cell phone to find out if you flopped or scored?" I thought, "Really, that was her best date EVER?" Think that will get people wondering about the car. Will it report out your nasty posting about your mother in law when she's in the back seat?

Black Eyed Peas coming up soon for half time. Will.i.am has been commenting about his experiences waiting backstage on Twitter.

Fourth of five for Chevy, the first-date spot was too sappy to be memorable. But it looks like the car maker clustered its spots in the first half. It's looking like a wise move as the game gets a bit boring.

To quote my sister-in-law, Leah, RE the Ford F-Series Ad: "OK, what do people in Peoria think about this? And I also hate when they tell you something's all new and reinvented, but they don't tell you what's new."

Why does Larry the Cable Guy still have a voice? Isn't he the Where's the Beef woman of five years ago?

Android: A truly disturbing and gross ad. Ew.

Coke Seige:

You had me at Dragon... Happiness has been opened. What can I say? I'm a geek, you put a Dragon in your commercial, I'm gonna love it.

Ist half is over. My favorite so far: VW's Darth Vader ad

Sony Ericsson ad was kinda gross, but people in the room liked it and there we're screams of "want," when the phone was finally revealed.

My Fave Spots of the First Half: Bud "Tiny Dancer", VW Passat "Darth Vader", Audi "Luxury Prison" and second tier Chevy Silverado "Tommy" and Doritos "pug dog" and Pepsi Max "Jogger". Best "theatre" of the first half? Last few minutes...finally the Steelers are in it.

Will.i.am is a multitasker -- minutes before the Peas go on, their ad for chatter.com airs.

Black Eyed Peas begin with "I've Gotta Feeling." Some slight issues with Fergie's mic. The quartet are dressed in black with lights plastered over.

Black Eyed Peas begin with "I've Gotta Feeling." Some slight issues with Fergie's mic. The quartet are dressed in black with lights plastered over.

Of course the Black Eyed Peas start with "I Gotta Feeling."

The people of "Tron" seem to have taken over the Super Bowl for "Boom Boom Pow." Too bad they didn't bring their technology with them.

“Boom Boom Pow.” It’s nothing but the hits for the Peas tonight. They’re a group that is made for a moment like this. That may not be a compliment.

Slash joins the stage for a cover of "Sweet Child of Mine."

What is on Will.i.am's head? It's like a plastic hair helmet.

They’re wheeling out Slash and Fergie is taking a stab at "Sweet Child o' Mine,” the 1987 Guns N' Roses song. And by stab I mean she stabbed it in the heart. Axl Rose is rolling in his grave. And he’s not dead.

“Let’s Get It Started.” Who knew they would play that song?

Usher drops from the sky, dressed all in white, singing "OMG." Technical problems are totally distracting me from the show.

Al least he's super agile.

Usher has taken the stage. He’s dancing in unison with a quartet of dancers, with more behind him. I sometimes find that kind of choreography a bit problematic. If a bunch of other folks can do the same move you’re doing, how hard can it be? I’m not a good dancer by the way.

Oh my goodness, the Tron people have turned red for "Where is the Love."

People with boxes on their heads just showed up.

"Where Is the Love?" Another practice I find problematic—naming a new song with a title that has already by taken by a classic. Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway sang another song with the same title in the 1970s. It was far better when they did it.

Some good tweets about the half-time show:

Steve Martin: I learned so much about love during the halftime show. And then at the end when it said, “The Beginning,” I thought “Wow.” Just. Wow.

Dan Harmon: That Peas performance would have been the perfect last ten minutes of a movie in which they had gotten bullied a lot.

Seth Meyers: "And after that halftime show the Black Eyed Peas lived out the rest of their days fighting crime in outer space."

The Peas delivered exactly what their fans expected them to deliver. And they did it in 30 minutes or less just like a pizza. That’s the kind of music they make—with extra cheese.

It's like one big rave at halftime. Glowsticks, crazy trippy dancing, everyone talking about love and being in love and love is our universal goal.... It's like Burning Man but with electricity.

Sorry, we're missing out on Black Eyed Peas here, as people have changed the channel to Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet. God, that little fella is cute...

Sealy mattresses. Divided the room. Some liked the subtlety, others yawned.

Seems like Jeep should do some co-branding with the 'Captain America' movie. It looks like they are on the exact same page..

Chase mobile banking. Nice demo, guys.

The Daily. That's one big iPad. I've been reading it recently. Not bad, but the hermetically sealed app w no links to the rest of the web won't hold.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: The Daily is owned by News Corp., which publishes the Wall Street Journal]

E trade baby and the tailor great. Classic campaign

Baby talking like an adult! Always hilarious.

Cars.com Did they just do a commercial celebrating the definition of an opinion website? Would like to think there was something unique about cars.com site that they could have highlighted.

Etrade "Enzo" I just can't get tired of this eTrade baby. Great job of using the baby's natural gesture to cover the copy soothing the happy, retiring tailor. Terrific character that can carry every message they have.

Cars.com: funny, no idea how it really relates to the site, but any ad that includes teleportation had me at hello.

Etrade: Can't go wrong with a talking baby, can you? I usually say that if you haven't got a great idea, then you can always use cute kids, animals and sex to in your ad -- just not all three together. Ever.

Best Buy: Justin Bieber and Ozzy Osborne together at last. Funny writing. Ozzy's always good for a laugh. Not sure what else to take away from this, though.

What is homeaway.com? Waste of money.

Mini: Could have been more over-the-top in terms of luggage. Got the basic concept that a Mini holds more than you'd expect across in a fun way, though.

Home Away.com: An odd mishmash of stuff that never really added up to anything. Test baby sequence was fun, but the rest was a bit of a mess.

You know what's scary? We are paying attention to these spots so that we can write something helpful or interesting. And yet, if I pause to write even for a second after a spot ends -- and start to watch the next -- I can't remember the one before. It could be that I've had too many artichoke dip chips but I think it's an indication that a lot of these spots aren't that compelling or memorable. All I remember from the last pod was the baby smashing up against the window. Appreciated "test baby" disclaimer but it's grim and sick when the violent humor includes smashing baby faces.

Mini countryman ad was clever, with a "cram it in the boot" theme that plays on British expressions that translate oddly into U.S English. Could make some football fans squirm.

Hyundai spot made me dizzy

Bieber/Ozzy ad: Old people don't get technology. That's the joke. I can see it as a one-liner, but an entire commercial hanging on that one joke?... Unless that was the joke?

Liked Coke Border Crossing. Nice message. Good music. Makes you feel good.

Coke. Loved that spot about the warring border guards. The idea that Coke would unite them was predictable, but the resolution was pure delight.

I  think the Hyundai hypnosis ads will lull the audience to the point where they won't remember the brand.

Stella: A long spot that will quickly become a 30 outside of Super Bowl media, but well done. Especially liked that the last woman was wise to him. Made the beer look pretty darn tantalizing.

Stella: Adrien Brody sings really nice. Fun touches in this.

Hyundai: Meh.

Groupon: Given that they only bought time on the Superbowl a few days ago, I guess they can't be blamed for not having anything as big in scope as anyone else. And Timothy Hutton needs to eat too. Not crazy about the bait & swith structure of the ad, though. It was a little tasteless.

Stella Artois, an award winning advertiser from across the pond did an interesting spot with Adrien Brody. But they've done better in the past.

Chrysler: I guess we have to love Detroit now. Lots of pathos and emotions rose in the room. I had NO IDEA that Eminem was making cars now.

Chrysler commercial is long well produced but doesn't make me want to buy a Chrysler.

Chrysler was the rare carmaker that didn't preview its big ad. Though dramatic and visually captivating, its portrait of Detroit as a can-do place seems out of touch. Have the Chrysler executives in Auburn Hills driven downtown lately? So many of the high-rise buildings they show are vacant except for squatters.

NFL: Wow. I've watched all those shows. Powerful waves of nostalgia passed through the room. Can we get 'Alf' back, please?

Toyota: Dull, dull, dull.

Acura: Who cares about the individual components of a car door?

These were by far the two worst car ads of the game.

It's fair to say that there's less wow in this game. I suspect three reasons why:

1. Too many advertisers are spending the big bucks and then running their same old spot. Feels like a letdown.

2. The advertisers decided to amortize their investments and release the spots ahead of time, giving them YouTube wearout, especially if they were good. More eyeballs which is good, but loses some of the 'wow' factor during the game.

3. The "Mad Men" factor. Everybody's an ad critic now. (Supposedly the Twitter feed on the game's ads is throttled with tweets. When everyone's a critic, there's no room for someone to say, "Hey, I loved that!" or risk seeming too easily bought.)

NFL commercial with snippets of old shows very fun

Bud Light dogs:  Like lots of viewers, I'm a sucker for dogs, even dogs put to work. Think this was a fun, light spot for Bud Light. Always like when women get to be part of the joke on their terms...worked.

Hyundai: OK, here's the deal. Hyundai has to find some edge if they are going to spend money on all these spots in this game. Relying on 'this is better than the old fashioned thing' is hardly a claim to be proud of. The cars must have something that they can say...with drama or humor or cheek or something, please!

Rango; This looks like a very odd movie. Probably best watched on medical grade LSD.

Cars.com: I wanted to take a shower after watching this. Great example of how awkward it can get when humor doesn't work or just isn't funny.

Bud Light: Yep, anthropomorphic animals are so fun. But hasn't this been done to death?

Pepsi Max: Bud did this same idea about 7 years ago. But it was a lot more fun.

Hyundai, which has recently developed a reputation for eye-catching spots during the Big Game, is again positioning itself as the smart choice for people who do their homework. The carmaker has been getting after consumers for getting tricked into paying more for cars that don't offer as much as their models.

Bridgestone: More funny animals. This time a friendly beaver. Always good to have one on your side.

Go Daddy: Nope. I'm not gonna go online and find out if they're topless. I just don't care about you, Go Daddy.

VW: Sweet ode to the beetle. VW have had two of the best ads in the Superbowl this year.

Mercedes: Liked the mechanic used to show the cars from the last 125 years. But it fell apart for me at the end. And why in God's name waste money on Diddy and not use him for something clever?

Volkswagen's ad for the coming redesigned Beetle for 2012 gets by without showing the car, which arrives in showrooms late this year. The car means more to the company's image in the U.S. than it does to all-important sales volume. It has never been a big seller but so much of VW's identity is wrapped up in it that the company can't afford to phase it out.

GAME and COMMERCIAL TURNAROUND.

Four marketers were just in the best pod with some of the best spots at the best time of the game thanks to the Steelers turnaround.

Bridgestone: Another winner with the groundhog saving the driver. The little heart pump was priceless.

The Beetle: Simple, powerful, must-watch visuals that lead you to discover what that bug is about. Of course, the beloved Beetle is new again.

Mercedes: Introducing a line of vehicles in one commercial usually is just that...a line of cars running around the curves of a beautiful highway. Instead, the spot created an elevated, emotional history for the new 'members of the family' and then they popped on PDiddy at the end for a smile and a wink to luxury. Was good even without him.

And finally the promo for House which knocked off the famous Mean Joe Green spot (how many in the audience remember that now?). For a second, I was sucked into thinking that the kid would make House melt. So he clubbed the kid with his cane. Perfect for the show and the moment.

The Janis Joplin song brought Mercedes a lot of grief from the late singer's fans when it used it in commercials during the late 1990s. But it is hard to resist those vintage Benzes.

Chevy runs deep. Yes, they have deep pockets. Lots of spots spent lots of money. Can't remember enough to be worth it.

Camero: Oh, dear. Where to start? If you want to do a VO where two creatives are discussing a spot, it'd be nice if they didn't make it seem like our entire industry is populated by complete idiots.

Verizon: It'll be so fun when everyone shifts to Verizon and their network gets killed by iPhone users pulling down data like crazy. Nice potshot, though.

Sketchers: Ok, Kim Kardashian. You are so easy on the eye. But holy crap that was a terrible ad.

Chevy will continue on Glee. Interesting but all over the place.

Chevrolet's "Miss Evelyn" spot is fun because it plays on just about every car-chase cliche from flying haybales to cars driving off buildings.

Game over: My two favorites were the VW spots. Nice to see spots that truly stuck out as charming and fun in a category that dominated the Superbowl. The Eminem Chrysler spot was lovely, too. The worst were Pepsi Max's crotch damage spot and the disaster that was the Sketchers spot.

Thanks for reading. Now, let me see if there are any chicken wings left?

I vote for Bridgestone (both spots) and Volkswagen's Darth Vadar as the winners with Bud's Tiny Dancer as a really memorable moment. Fun to blog with you all. Company left...think the Packers won. Whew! Nite, everyone, Mary Lou