One weekend in February a vast majority of Americans seek out three things: a guide to roman numerals, that spinach-artichoke dip recipe and great television commercials. It's the Super Bowl, XLI this time, and still marketers' best chance to find 90 million souls sitting on their couches slightly intoxicated and ready to fawn over the products and services they've paid $2.6 million to tout.

In years past this meant ads with star-studded cameos, blockbuster productions and the occasional enormous idea, whereas this year many seem content to ride prevailing trends, like consumer-generated content, both directly and by association. And, as we're never wont to buck trends, we'll let you decide if the CGC ads stack up-the comment section below each spot is your forum.

Advertisers are also said to have put a bit of the edge back in game creative, with broad, sometimes violence-tinged ads. After hitting quality messages hard in last year's game, Budweiser has opted to hit some other things this Sunday, faces mainly. Other clients have gone for a mean-funny strategy including Blockbuster, which puts a mouse in harm's way in its spot. GM goes one step further with a suicidal "Robot" (will flesh and bone autoworkers appreciate the joke? We'll see on Monday).

And while last year's Bowl gave us Brad Pitt, B list celebs dominate XLI, with appearances by Robert Goulet, KFed and Jessica Simpson (or rather her lips, which do the heavy lifting in the spot).

You can see all the spots here, relive 2006 Super Bowl memories and read through Ad Age's extensive news and commentary. Scroll down for a breakdown of the spots, as well as the Bowl's best Interactive work, from industry experts.

Scott Vitrone and Ian Reichenthal Group Creative Directors, TBWA/Chiat/Day New York

Alka Seltzer - Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz
We were given four Super Bowl commercials to review and this was by far the worst. Alka Seltzer sponsored a "Bring Back the Fizz" contest, which had consumers compete for best reinterpretation of the famous, old "Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz" jingle, with the winner of the contest performing the song in an ad on the Super Bowl. The consumer jingle contest is an idea that's been done before. A lot. Oscar Meyer, Oreo, Chili's baby back ribs, Roto Rooter, and Rice Krispies have all recently sponsored consumer jingle contests. Forgetting that and going ahead with the jingle contest anyway, the least the Alka Seltzer people could have done was pick an interesting winner. But they didn't do that. They picked Josh Anderson-a consumer who ironically writes and sounds like your average, bad, professional jingle writer. The "concert" itself was filled with cheesy touches such as the opening scene in which supposed fans literally chant the product name over and over again, the punny announcer line, "Relief has never sounded better," and, to top it all off, everyone in the audience holding up glowing Alka Seltzer glasses high in the air as though they were lighters. Not a good Super Bowl commercial. Not a good commercial in any venue. Alka Seltzer is a great, old brand with a lot of history, and a real benefit. There's so much material to sink your teeth into as a creative person. This was a big missed opportunity.

CareerBuilder.com - Promotion Pit
We wanted to like this one, but didn't. Guys wearing office supplies and brawling? Seems like it would make for a great Super Bowl commercial. But the fight was so frenetic, that there was never time to settle on one scene long enough for a good laugh. The people at the beginning of the spot flat-footedly setting up the premise ("Last one standing gets the promotion. Survival of the fittest!") is kind of a drawback. And the Chinese delivery guy knows karate. A little expected.




Chevrolet - 'Aint We Got Love
We're generally not fans of commercials where the song is the idea. Like when Burger King uses the Rob Base song "It Takes Two" to get you to buy two Croissanwiches for 99 cents. This ad is a little different, though, because all of the songs in this commercial were originally written about Chevy cars. Chevys have been around a long time and they really are a part of people's lives. People feel emotional about their cars. The connection between these songs and Chevy starts in a much more truthful place than when a company uses Tina Turner's "Simply The Best" to tell the world that they have the best managed janitorial cleaning company in the Toronto metro area. Chevy tapped into this truth, sprinkled it with celebs, and made a crowd-pleasing, and we're guessing expensive, Super Bowl commercial out of it.




General Motors - Robot
This was our favorite of the four commercials we reviewed. This commercial was entertaining, and held our interest, which is hard to do when the assignment starts with something as clearly un-entertaining and uninteresting as a warranty. It reminded us of the movie "Short Circuit." It's actually better than the movie: partly because "Short Circuit" was the same gag but went on for two hours instead of 60 seconds, and partly because this commercial didn't have Steve Guttenberg in it. Wish it didn't end with the old "it was only a dream" ending, but you can't have everything.




Bob Moore, Chief Creative Officer, Publicis USA

Doritos - Live the Flavor
I've been a fan of the Doritos work for some time, but this spot does nothing for the brand. The action is fractured by titles with product descriptors like "spicy", and "crunchy". And there's some sort of quirky short distance romance reminiscent of that Spike Jones short done years ago, but after that I'm not sure what I'm supposed to feel. In a word, it's weird.




Bud Select - Just a Game
Select is aiming to be the more sophisticated, upscale side of Bud, and the spot looks it. You've got beautiful, rich film. You've got Jay-Z. You've got Cee-Gee. You've got music. You've even got Don Shula. The only thing missing, really, is a storyline. Nothing happens in this spot. And no amount of Jay-Z and Cee-Gee can make up for nothing.




Bud Light - Fist Bump
Physical humor works, especially in the SB, and this spot will be, you know it's coming: a hit. Simple premise: Face-slapping has replaced fist-bumping. I was hoping it would go someplace surprising, or have a funnier end or denouement, but it's still solid. Someone slap the creative team for me.




David Baldwin, Executive Creative Director McKinney + Silver

I suppose I should be reviewing the commercials I've been asked to review, to talk about whether they were engaging or funny or gross or in any way dealing with erectile dysfunction. But instead, I'd rather talk about spending two million big ones for a small slice of airtime.

In fairness I'm only reviewing three spots. And it's not that they're bad. They're all pretty good. In a spot for Emerald Nuts we get a nice use of Robert Goulet. Don't ask me why, but I'm a fan of Goulet-based advertising and this is fun to watch. I guess I'm a sucker for a non sequitur that still manages to deliver its message.

In a Federal Express spot we see the first satellite (I know, I know, sorry!) office on the moon. The spot has the feel of Pepsi spots of old.

And finally, we see Carlos Mencia teaching an English class to foreigners. Pretty cheap gags and maybe not the best Bud spot ever, but better than a farting horse for my money.

So how is it that we have a television event where people are actually glued to the commercials and everyone is supposedly strutting their best stuff and, yet, each year the rash of spots feel a little emptier. It should be the crowning argument against TIVO but instead you just get the feeling you've seen it all before.

The Super Bowl isn't just an opportunity to do something big it's a demand to do something world changing. You know the spots I'm talking about. Otherwise, two million smackers down the drain.

Wayne Best, Executive Creative Director, Taxi NYC

Garmin - Maposaurus
Let me get this straight...
If I happen to be lost and looking at a map and it just happens to grow into some strange Japanese horror movie monster, I needn't worry as long as someone nearby has a Garmin personal navigation device.
Why?
Because they will pull over, grab their Garmin device, point their elbow at the monster and turn into a large, slightly effeminate Power Ranger's type superhero. That superhero will attack the evil map monster, throw it into a fake factory and shoot rays at it from the Garmin device located above it's crotch. The monster will explode and an 80's Meat Loaf meets Ozzy Osbourne band, who's been supplying the soundtrack, will celebrate the victory.
The question I have is what happened to the guy in the beginning of the spot? Now he's without his map, because our hero destroyed it with his Garmin crotch laser. And I guess he's stuck in the middle of nowhere with that band screaming at him.
The important question is whether the ad will work. I say yes. Sales will go through the roof with their 14 year-old stoner demographic. They buy personal navigation devices, don't they?

Sierra Mist - Combover
There is nothing wrong with this ad. It is well executed. The acting is really good. And the first time I saw it I have to admit the beard comb-over gag made me laugh. So why don't I love it?
I think it's because it just feels so much like, like, like... an ad. I know it's hard to call a spot with a guy wearing roller skates, cut off jeans and sporting a beard comb-over formulaic, but it is. From the 'Hey Ted, I'm going to have to let you go" dialog to the positioning of the product as a good decision, it just feels so familiar.
The other problem I have is that you could basically slap any product you want into the middle of the spot. I know its just sugar water and there's not a lot you can say about it, but I do wish the positioning was more unique.
All in all it's not a bad spot for Sierra Mist, but with the tagline It's That Refreshing, I was hoping for something a little more original.


Teressa Iezzi, Editor, AdCritic.com

Go Daddy - The Office - Marketing
Wow. A new low. For Go Daddy. For the ad industry. For us all.
I guess this why Go Daddy's agency ran screaming from the account a while back-so as not to be smeared with this odorific waste product.
Here's what happens: A buttoned up spokesman walks through a nondescript office giving talking about how Go Daddy is committed to offering a low cost service, so 'we keep our operations focused and efficient." Right down to marketing, he says, reaching for a door marked "marketing." Hmmm. I wonder what ironic surprise is waiting behind that door. You likely guessed that it was a group of conservatively dressed men and women working at desks. But wha!! It's the GoDaddy girl gyrating around surrounded by an assortment of what I suppose are meant to be coworkers who are singing a sexy Go Daddy song and generally acting all sexy-like while some sort of liquid is sprayed around. That's not focused and efficient at all!
Over the years, the Go Daddy spots have been sapped of what little wit they had and this year any sort of executional competence has also disappeared. On top of being just bad (even Ms. Go Daddy looks a little sheepish), this spot is just confusing (Is that the chopper guys in there? And had I not read beforehand that driver Danica Patrick had something to do with this, I wouldn't have noticed her (oh Danica. Why?).
Go Daddy. No, really. Go. And don't come back.
(That said, a pretty accurate portrayal of marketing departments in general).


General Motors - Robot
Here's the good news: by any normal ad quality measure (measures that clearly don't apply during the Super Bowl), this is one of the best ads in the game. The spot is executed really well. So well, that you really feel sad for the cute little robot who gets booted to the street for what seems like a pretty innocuous slip-up at work. And for me, that's also the bad news: you really feel sad. I'm not sure that delivering something so truly melancholy is a great idea for a company with the recent history of GM-unless there's a sharp hook or nasty/funny twist of some kind (the "it was all a dream" saw at the end just doesn't qualify.) The crumbling of one of America's corporate giants contains enough inherent tragedy to make me feel a little weird about this spot. And GM's shiny cars rolling past the shattered life of one of its ex-workers (even one made of metal) seems, to me, a touch cold. The robot tale is meant to underscore that the company is obsessed with quality. The robot isn't obsessed with quality. He (he?) lives in abject fear of losing his job. Not a happy thing to remind people of during the game.
But maybe I'm just too prone to looking for the dark side. Considering that Super Bowl fans have embraced meaner, dumber ads than this, they could well just enjoy "Robot"'s dark comedy (assuming they're not unemployed autoworkers).


Other Highlights:
Why bother making Super Bowl ads at all?:
The best spots in the game were unoriginalói.e. they were spots that had lives before the game: Coca Cola "Videogame"; "Happiness Factory" and Fed Ex "Not What It Seems." And yes, you read that right, Coke had the best ads in the Super Bowl. Up has truly become down.
The next best spots weren't spots, they were promos: the Letterman/Oprah clip and the Martha Stewart Super Bowl party were two of the funniest things in the game; the schmaltzy pre game promo featuring the players' families brought a tear to my eye, I'm deeply ashamed to say.
Most effective (not that that's the point of Super Bowl spots):
Toyota Tundra "See Saw" / "Ramp." If I were the truck buying type, I'd be in love.
Inexplicably lovable ad:
Taco Bell. Why is this so funny? I don't know. It's the cool detachment maybe. Or the funny talking lions.
Best Random Celebrity:
Emerald Nuts featuring Robert Goulet. Especially the shot at the end with Goulet skulking away, Nosferatu-like, on the ceiling.
Best Bud spot: The little Doggie who could. Great casting.
Best Line: Only fools work hard (from the unintentionally hilarious Salesgenie spot).
Thing I learned from the Super Bowl about getting ahead: yell more. Payton Manning seemed to yell at people a lot. It seems to work.

Nick Parish, AdCritic.com

Budweiser - King Crab
When you cut hard through the fourth quarter clutter, the drunkenness, the guests collecting their greasy Tupperware after the game is more or less decided you know something special's going on. I can't quite place why this one did that, but the American football-watching public dug it enough to tell USA Today it was their favorite. Fiddler crabs snatch a cooler to transform it into an asymmetrical idol. The sun sets on the beach and their god comes to life. Do they know the delicious taste of cold beer? Maybe. I can only guess legions of Bud drinkers like me thought along similar lines: Scooping up them crabs, returning the cooler to the ladies and having steamed-crab beach feast would sure kick this party into overdrive.

Prince's halftime show
The football didn't need Prince's call to go crazy, and after a rainy, fumbly first half many surely expected sodden median action to compliment the weather. But Prince showed yet another reason to investigate whether he is, in fact, human, with the best halftime show I've ever seen. He dispelled rumors about a dodgy hip earlier in the week when he ripped through a press conference/sound check Thursday and quashed all notions of fogeytude as the first bars of "Let's Go Crazy" rang out at the half, with thousands of fans running across the turf to surround his symbol-shaped stage. I watched the game with a guitar expert who at first said it was impossible the guitar track was live, then recanted and just said it was so perfect he couldn't imagine it being real. Resplendent in a turquoise suit and sherbet shirt with set list packed enough with covers (3) to touch everyone (how many can pull off a segue way from "All Along the Watchtower" to a Foo Fighters song?) and Florida A&M's marching band it was everything a halftime show should be--a quarter of an hour of unbridled entertainment. Above that, his only protection from the sheeting rain was a scarf on his head, no doubt keeping his hair from being ruined by the rain--there are, of course, afterparties to consider. But seriously--playing an electric guitar standing in a puddle is always harrowing for a performer, safety mechanisms or not. "I Would Die 4 U"? Yep, I believe that.

Flomax - Biking
I'd guess it's all about context with the pharmaceuticals, the wheres and whens. If so, the master strategist who placed this one in the fourth quarter deserves a promotion. This spot about problems with frequent urination aired when any male either is urinating or has to urinate. If you have to urinate and you're watching a commercial alerting you to the potential risks of frequent urination, well there's hypochondriacs taken care of. Even if you feel the tinge and hear the voiceover it's a suggestion. An arguably worse scenario is if you're off in the bathroom for the fourth time in an hour and you ask your significant other what happened while you were gone. 'Oh, just a commercial about how men who urinate frequently may have prostate problems.' Great.
Special bonus: Hearing the line "decrease in semen" spoken while you were about to bite into your third plate of cheesy lasagna.
Special secret bonus: The spot following this, E*Trade's "One Finger," detailed all the things you could do with one finger. Ask your doctor about Flomax to learn more.

Jeff Beer, AdCritic.com

Taco Bell - Big Game
Some people just can't pronounce the rolling Rs so common in the world's latin-based romance languages. My mom is one of them. Luckily for any French, Spanish or Italian people, she tries to make up for it by bellowing the phonetically mangled phrase about five times louder than all the other words in the sentence. In any case, there's a lot to like about this spot, even though talking animals with CG pieholes aren't the most original gag in the book. Still, if history teaches us anything it's that people are total suckers for talking animals. Especially when it's like The Ghost and The Darkness are negotiating the pronunciation of carne asada. High fives are also earned for the double-barreled shot of playing on the man-eating lion vibe and seamlessly tying in a random Ricardo Montalban reference. And then Mr. Fantasy Island himself does the voiceover. Simple pleasures.

Pizza Hut - Herd
This spot is the same as every other in the last decade with sheep-like crowds scrambling to get their greasy mitts on whatever product is being sold during those particular 30 seconds. The script is tried, tested and true - something product related grabs the attention of a wide selection of people, then said people stampede towards the product. The thing here is, we're talking about melted cheese balls of fried dough attached to a pizza. Attached! Why go through all the trouble of ripping off a tired spot clichÈ when really, all you need is someone like Sam Elliott sitting in a chair saying, "If you like melted cheese, fried bread and freedom, this is for you." Cut to a gratuitous product shot and you'll have every half-buzzed, red-blooded American running to their local Pizza Hut before you can say, "the Xanadu of munchies."

GoDaddy.com - The Office - Marketing
Here we have a guy walking through a corporate office saying how they keep the company focused and efficient and all that swell stuff. Then he opens the marketing department door to your typical biker, stripper, midget champagne party. The tour guide finishes the ad saying, "Everyone wants to work in marketing." Which is actually true a lot of the time since strip clubs around the world would be left in a somber state of affairs if it weren't for marketing and sales expense accounts. And I've heard some departments just hire midgets on retainer just to have them around. Sadly, the folks who thumbs-upped this spot must've been out a bit too late buying lap dances for Vern Troyer, because this is a mangled mess that screams, "Meh."

AdCritic's Richard Ho and The Barbarian Group's Benjamin Palmer break down the off-the-TV Super Bowl work:

Snickers "After The Kiss"


The claim of "satisfaction" apparently applies to those with a hankering for homoerotic consumption of candy bars. And while previewing the spot on the Snickers website and having viewers come back to vote on alternate endings after the spot aired was a nice idea, we kinda wish there was more to the pre-air experience than just a sneak peek of the first few seconds. For example, if the experience had started off at the intriguingly named AfterTheKiss.com (instead of ending up there after the fact). Then, maybe visitors could have voted on one of three possible endings without ever having seen the beginning and middle of the spot. Still, we like us some alternate endings. Makes us feel in control.

Benjamin Palmer: If I was planning on skipping the Super Bowl, this teaser sure isn't going to change my mind. There's not really anything here, is there?

Anheuser-Busch "Bud.TV"


Word of Bud.TV first started circulating months ago, so the launch of this online entertainment network didn't cause quite as big a splash as it could have. Still, given the sheer number of Bud-related spots that bombard Super Bowl viewers every year, putting all of those spots on one Bud-branded channel makes a ton of sense. And we dig the texting component of this campaign, wherein viewers were asked to vote on their favorite Bud spot via their cell phones. Though in retrospect, asking inebriated football fans to interrupt their high fives and chest bumps to push a few tiny buttons might have been a smidge optimistic.

Benjamin Palmer: Man, first off the signup page is murder. Why do they need ALL my information? I looked at the "trailers" for the two Super Bowl commercials-there is something deeply flawed with the idea of a trailer for something sixty seconds long. You have no time limit online, why not something LONGER than sixty seconds that gets you excited about the commercial? Some deeper backstory or setup? An interaction with the environment or characters in the "big spot?" It just doesn't make any sense to me and is completely ignoring all of the opportunities the internet provides.

Geico "Caveman's Crib"


While not necessarily restricted to being a Super Bowl effort specifically, one could easily imagine the party the cave-dude is preparing for to be a bash in honor of the Big Game. The depth of detail in the virtual apartment is stunning, as visitors can click on anything from the magazines on the coffee table to the answering machine in the kitchen-complete with a conciliatory message from a Geico rep apologizing for the airport caveman ad. And the caveman's running commentary is, to steal a page from Mastercard, priceless.

Benjamin Palmer: This is good strategy, in sharp contrast to the Bud.tv Super Bowl teaser, if you're a fan of the Geico caveman and you're going to watch the game, this site gives you a more intimate interaction with the characters, and makes you feel like you are part of the Super Bowl ad frenzy. also it's hilarious that Royksopp is playing and there's a magazine article about the band, why not product placement in an ad?

Garmin "Garmin Man vs. Maposaurus"


The spot itself earns kudos for paying reverential homage to the campy Japanese monster flicks and superhero action shows of yore. But it's the Garmin blog, which first began ramping up buzz for this spot with tons of behind-the-scenes content almost two weeks ago, which gives this campaign a grass-roots edge that helps it stand out amidst the usual Super Bowl clutter.

Benjamin Palmer: This is sort of interesting, but I don't know who it's for-it feels like overall the blog is more useful for current Garmin customers rather than a way to market to new ones, and the tone of the "little old Garmin is doing a superbowl spot" is again more about current Garmin fans rooting for them. Why not? The product is very feature-oriented so an online blog is a great way to talk about extra tips and tricks and GPS culture, and i can see the blog and Super Bowl spot making a customer feel some pride that they are representin' in the Super Bowl, and hopefully becoming more evangelistic about the brand.

User-Generated Spots


Honestly, when you bill your Super Bowl spots as "created by fans," you've successfully reduced expectactions to the size of a beernut. Consequently, we knew it would be hard to feel disappointed by the winners of the various user-generated Super Bowl ad contests. In some cases, we got exactly what we thought we would (the Alka-Seltzer jingle had us reaching for-well, Alka-Seltzer), while in others, we were pleasantly surprised (the NFL spot was pretty decentóthough having Joe Pytka direct your idea sure doesn't hurt).