Super(bowl)latives

Another Super Bowl come and gone. Forgettable half-time entertainment, decent suspense and inspiring victory aside, everyone knows the Super Bowl for the most expensive and occasionally the most inspired television commercials of the year. 


With a down economy and natural migration of spend away from mass media, Super Bowl advertising isn't what it used to be. But here are my picks for the most notable ads of the night.


Best use of media spend - Dove Men+Care. New product, perfectly targeted to the audience, an ad that caught your attention but had you wondering what it was actually for, and Dove tied it into a sponsorship that had the brand name repeated a few more times. There will probably be a lot more of this ad during the NCAA tournament next month. 


Most offensive - Tebow may have been divisive, but the Metro PCS advertising for getting out of cell phone contracts featuring South Asian-accented customer service operators, Bollywood dancers and a random German in leiderhoesen definitely went for the Racially Insensitive Award. Really, Metro PCS? 


Most welcome use of Celebrity - Megan Fox in the bathtub. I didn't care what it was for. Either a cell phone carrier or a cell phone brand. Motorola maybe. Really terrible choice on Motorola's part, but the Men of America certainly appreciate their $3 Million donation.


Runner Up - Betty White for Snickers. I guess it pays to be the last Golden Girl standing.


The WTF? in a good way - Awesomer. Popsecret and Emerald Nuts. I loved the Emerald Nuts Goulet ads from a few years ago so its great to see them get entertaining once again. Weird, wonderful, very amusing.


The WTF? in a bad way - Toyota's mea culpa. I suppose they had to, but still, who watches these and says "okay, this makes it better, Toyota." Especially when they are followed directly by Ford ads that basically say "our cars brake!" Not worth the link.'


Other trends: The back to back ads with un-fit people in their underwear, then pantsless, were unnecessary. I think SunLife is going to need to do more work than an ad at the tail end of the game to raise awareness of their brand, like possibly waiting until next season to buy the naming rights to Dolphin, I mean Landshark, Stadium. VW can bring back punchbuggy ads anytime, especially with Tracey Morgan.


And in case you were looking to get a free Grand Slam on Tuesday, the nearest Denny's to metropolitan NYC is in central Jersey.