Top 10 Superbowl Ads Blog

Even with my beloved Denver Broncos out of contention, watching the game at home on the couch, there was still one obvious reason for me to watch Super Bowl XLIII Sunday night. No, not so I could see Ben Roethlisberger lead his Pittsburgh Steelers to a nail biting 27-23 victory over Kurt Warner and the Arizona Cardinals. Rather, it’s the reason I’m sure at least 50 percent of America anxiously await the big game each year—the commercials.

As the economy continues to spiral downward across the country, NBC and the National Football League were still able to yield fruitful results, selling a total of 69 advertising spots for a record profit of $206 million. This year, each 30-second ad sold for between $2.4 million and $3 million, which ultimately added up to about $100,000 a second.Sure, I thought there were the standard busts, such as the lousy halftime attempt at a trio of 3-D commercials, or GoDaddy.com’s overdone efforts to exploit the hotness of Indy Car driver Danica Patrick.

Although there might have been a few bumps in the road, there were still plenty of commercials worthy enough for viewers to write home about. With the game over and commercials complete—until next year at least—let’s sit back, relax and take a look at the top 10 commercials from this year’s Super Bowl extravaganza.

10. Coke Zero: Mean Troy—Following a great deal of speculation, current Steeler safety Troy Polamalu took a stab at recreating a classic 1979 Super Bowl commercial that had famously featured former Steeler “Mean” Joe Greene. Despite a new twist featuring Coke brand managers who tried to ruin the fun, Polamalu’s humorous take at one of the best commercials in Super Bowl history was enough to easily land a spot in the top 10.

9. General Electric: Scarecrow—GE took a page straight out of the “Wizard of Oz” in an attempt to publicize their Smart Grid energy technology. Throwing subtlety aside, the commercial consisted of the Scarecrow from the classic movie singing “If I Only Had a Brain” while clumsily maneuvering around a power plant. Even though Smart Grid technology commercials sound boring from the start, the masterful graphic design and reference to the “Wizard of Oz” made it one of this year’s most pleasant spots.

8. NBC: Heroes Football—In a gridiron battle for the ages, the Heroes team from the NBC hit show worked together to take on a number of NFL legends, such as Jerry Rice and Warren Sapp. While any commercial with Hayden Panettiere is enough to make its way into my top 10, there was nothing better than John Elway’s flying entrance onto the field, leaving one Heroes’ characters to say, “I knew he was one of us.”

7. Bridgestone: Hot Item—In a fantasy setting on the moon, Bridgestone showed the wild ‘n’ crazy consequences of two party animal astronauts. Even though I couldn’t get the House of Pain’s “Jump Around” out of my head afterward, the payoff for the commercial came when the two dancing fools realized the Bridgestone tires from their space craft had been lifted, leaving us with the hilarious image of a Moon vehicle on blocks.

6. Taco Bell: Smooth Moves—After what started out like any other awkward dating situation, the somewhat creepy main character in this commercial proceeded to ask a woman for his number, instantly call her, ask her to dinner and then introduce her to his parents—all within five minutes. While I’d like to think I have a smoother game with the ladies, I just couldn’t help but laugh picturing something like this happening in real life.

5. NBC: LMAO—While the common acronym LMAO, or Laugh My Ass Off, usually shouldn’t be taken at face value, NBC brilliantly managed to promote their Thursday night lineup by depicting a realistic epidemic where TV viewers enjoyed the programming so much that they literally laughed their asses off. By mixing inappropriate internet acronyms along with scenes from “The Office,” NBC made it easy to place them in the top five commercials from this year’s big game.

4. Pepsi: MacGruber—Based off the popular skits on Saturday Night Live, MacGruber and pals once again found themselves in an “explosive” situation. Instead of disarming the bomb in the 15 seconds allotted, MacGruber amusingly chose to plug Pepsi products and told his friends that he had legally changed his name to PepSuber. Even though it’s always obvious MacGruber isn’t going to get out of the sticky situations, the trio of SNL stars in this commercial never fails to make me laugh.

3. Bridgestone: Potato Heads—In a commercial relatable to anyone who has played with the unforgettable toys, Mrs. Potato Head unsuccessfully tried to convince Mr. Potato Head that he was driving too fast. After avoiding a group of sheep in the road, her mouth flew off, leaving her to take off her normal eyes and replace them with a menacing replacement. Seeing the Potato Heads in a real life situation after playing with them all those years was enough to make the commercial a top three contender.

2. Gatorade: What ‘G’ Means—On a more serious note, the star studded commercial for Gatorade included the likes of Tiger Woods, Jimmy Johnson and Jason McElwain showed the various athletes and coaches trying to explain what ‘G’ means to them. Funny commercials tend to dominate the lineup on Super Bowl Sunday, but this one was too intense and inspirational to ignore. Plus, you just can’t beat an ending with Peyton Manning saying, “That’s ‘G.’”

1. Doritos: Crystal Ball—Even though it was placed early on in the game, there was never a question that I considered this uproariously commercial my #1 pick. When one employee showed off his crystal ball/snow globe in the break room, he tried it out by asking, “Free Doritos at the office today?” Then, he turned around and unexpectedly launched the snow globe at a vending machine before happily shouting, “I think that’s a yes!” The overall cheesiness (pun intended) of the actors and brilliant writing were what made this Doritos commercial clearly stand out above the rest.

Discuss Here:

ya that crystal ball one was my favorite to. it was so funny

I thought the shankapotamus one was hilarious..

The Coke commercial was the funniest IMO.

My favorite of all time is still the one where MC Hammer gets thrown over the fence. LOL.

the polamalu one was nice.
i also liked the bud light one

the commercials were kinda weak to me this year! nothing earth-shattering imo. however...this is a GREAT write up about the commercials Ketcham!

Yeah the commercials were weaker this year. The two I like were the "Cash for Gold" with MC Hammer trying to sell his gold chain and medallion. Another favorite was the career builder commercial where one action kept leading to another. (Sitting next to this guy while thinking about punching a koala bear one.)

I was actually talking about this one from a few years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miYm0FM7UF8

LOL i like how it mod posted this, but it says My beloved Denver Broncos ..

Braylon wrote:

LOL i like how it mod posted this, but it says My beloved Denver Broncos ..

lol that's because I wrote it, and I LOVE my beloved Denver Broncos lol....use logic man!!! lol

did you actually write this or did you find it on the internet because if you did write this you did a great job.

BoSpOrTsFaN wrote:

did you actually write this or did you find it on the internet because if you did write this you did a great job.

lol I actually wrote this man...I had to write it for my school paper and I thought it would work pretty well as our first blog as well...thanks for the kind words Bryan

i liked the fast and furious one too

BoSpOrTsFaN wrote:

did you actually write this or did you find it on the internet because if you did write this you did a great job.

what are you trying to say Bo? that Ketcham isn't bright enough to write this well?

Good s*** Ketchem! Man now get the rest of those fools on your staff to put out quality articles like this and MS will be straight fire!

jwhite wrote:

Good s*** Ketchem! Man now get the rest of those fools on your staff to put out quality articles like this and MS will be straight fire!

haha thanks for the encouraging words jwhite! I'll mention it to the guys, but it's hard to get people to do anything considering i can't pay them lol...if you ever want to write anything, let me know man...i would be more than happy to get it posted...

Militant X 1 wrote:

BoSpOrTsFaN wrote:

did you actually write this or did you find it on the internet because if you did write this you did a great job.

what are you trying to say Bo? that Ketcham isn't bright enough to write this well?

mabe...

jkjk. this is a great article. Do you always write for your school paper???

Commercials were garbage to me this year i was sad lol

BoSpOrTsFaN wrote:

Militant X 1 wrote:

BoSpOrTsFaN wrote:

did you actually write this or did you find it on the internet because if you did write this you did a great job.

what are you trying to say Bo? that Ketcham isn't bright enough to write this well?

mabe...

jkjk. this is a great article. Do you always write for your school paper???

Ya, Bryan...I was the sports editor for both years at the community college I graduated from...and now I'm writing for the features and entertainment section at the University of Wyoming newspaper...I wanted to write for the sports section here, but the F & E editor was impressed with me and nabbed me before I could get into sports....

you could e nter this s*** into newspper and get money. haha. truthfully i thought this was coped from something else but now i have no doubt that you did it.

for the 3rd time its a great article. haha