Well that's going to go down as one of the greatest Super Bowls ever. So did the ads rise to the same level? That's debatable.
While this year's batch oozed cameos (Jerry Seinfeld, Elton John, LMFAO, Vanessa Williams voicing an animated M&M) all that star power still can't guarantee a great ad. Some of the big names landed a laugh (Matthew Broderick, and does the E*Trade baby count?), but many of the better commercials were those that followed the other standard path to ad success: funny animals. Doritos' "Man's Best Friend", Bud Light's "Wego" and Volkswagen's "Dog Strikes Back" all stood out. On four legs, naturally.
The other big winner? 80s rock. Motley Crue (actually from the 80s) and The Darkness (early 2000s but sound like Poison) surprisingly delivered the night's most memorable anthems. Somewhere David Lee Roth is waiting for the phone to ring.
Here's how our live blog of the ads all went down -- look it over, relive some of your favorites (and failures) then tell us who you think owned the night, other than Eli Manning.
[9:33 p.m. ET / 6:33 p.m. PT]
Speaking of rocking out... well, hello Justin Hawkins and the Darkness! That Samsung ad aired 11 minutes ago so I'm guessing their iTunes album sales have already eclipsed, oh, a couple hundred thousand. And there's about a 10% chance anyone who was just moshing with their devil fingers raised will ever remember what that ad promoted other than the rebirth of The Darkness.
[9:27 p.m. ET / 6:27 p.m. PT]
Note to anyone born after, let's say, 1992: Motley Crue was nutso fantastic. Thank you Kia for delivering this urgently important music lesson. The rest of the ad was well and good, but yeah, serious reminder right there that the Crue rocks. In fact, no, wait. They rawwwk.
Let's all watch/rawwk out to the video for "Same Ol Situation" and then have an adult conversation on the merits of "Girl, Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)"
[9:17 p.m. ET / 6:17 p.m. PT]
“Ferris Bueller” is back and he’s swapped out the Ferrari for a Honda. So new life for a legend? Or a pathetic reboot 26 years after the fact? This one could seriously divide any household with more than one child of the 80s. But despite the nearly unforgivable absence of Abe Froman, the Sausage King of Chicago, I think they managed to pull it off.
But the debate continues:
[9:05 p.m. ET / 6:05 p.m. PT]
Aaaand, back on Twitter that Chrysler ad is going over pretty well:
@jackgraycnn: @HLNTV the Clint Eastwood auto industry spot was the spot of the night. Powerful in a way unique to him. Incredible.
[9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT]
Anybody else remember Seinfeld's Superman AmEx ad? That was solid advertainment right there.
[8:57 p.m. ET / 5:57 p.m. PT]
On the Seinfeld Sliding Scale of Success, that Acura ad fell somewhere between "Bee Movie" and... "Seinfeld." Kinda wish we got to hear Jerry's dirty limerick, so that was a downer. Though always fun when the Soup Nazi shows up unexpectedly.
Also, it was nice to see somebody still finds Jay Leno funny.
[8:49 p.m. ET / 5:49 p.m. PT]
John Stamos is Greek. So John Stamos knows Greek yogurt. And if Uncle Jesse Katsopolis says Oikos is the best in the world, who are we to disagree? Put your hand down Chobani guy.
[8:44 p.m. ET / 5:44 p.m. PT]
Comparing your upgraded sedan to time-traveling, poop-free babies? That Camry’s gonna have a lot to live up to.
And did Donald Trump really need any help ginning up more publicity for himself? Gee, thanks Century 21.
[8:22 p.m. ET / 5:22 p.m. PT]
As promised, here's the fantastic first half ad recap from Consumerist.com senior editor Chris Morran:
Hyundai -- "Rocky"
As a Philadelphian, the Rocky theme will always hold a place in my heart, but this ad has already been upstaged by the VW dogs and their Star Wars barking. Maybe this needs a dog in an AT-AT suit. Speaking of which, that pre-Super Bowl VW ad was significantly funnier than the follow-up that aired tonight, which just stinks of a tie-in to the upcoming 3D butchering of the Star Wars movies.
Audi -- Daylight head lamps
It's nice to see that Audi has finally caught on to the whole "vampires are cool" thing, about six years late. And while I'm no fan of the living dead and their bloodsucking ways, it's a little gruesome to see such a wholesale massacre. Maybe they could have just glittered like that hunky R-Pattz.
Best Buy
It's really nice to put a face to the inventors of all the amazing technology that I go to check out at Best Buy before I go back home and buy it online for significantly cheaper.
Chevy -- "Silverado Apocalypse"
So if you drive a Silverado you'll survive to eke out an existence in a shattered, male-only post-apocalyptic world with only Twinkies for sustenance and Barry Manilow blaring in the background?
Doritos -- "Cats & Dogs"
Easily the funniest ad of the half. But if you really think about it -- Is this man so hard-up for snacks that it only takes a $1.99 bag of Doritos to convince him to cover up a catricide? And where in the world is this dog getting all these Doritos?
Pepsi -- "King Elton John"
That might be the most modest costume elton john has ever worn. On a side note, what the hell does "Where there's Pepsi, there's music" mean? I have some Pepsi in my fridge right now; maybe it's only playing when I close the door.
Hyundai -- "Cheetah vs. Veloster"
If only every ad that featured dangerous wild animals would end like this. Imagine if the Coke polar bears suddenly grew tired of doing tricks for the cameras -- it could get bloody… and bloody hilarious.
Random Thoughts
-Creepiest ad so far: The Cars.com confidence tentacle. I will not be the only one having nightmares about that tonight.
-What's Sony PlayStation's Kevin Butler from doing in a Bridgestone ad?
-Does anyone actually go to GoDaddy to see "a lot more"? You would think that after the first dozen or so times of going to the site to see G-rated non-nudity, people would catch on.
-Skechers' moonwalking dog was more believable than Mark Cuban's single line.
-Is Smash premiering tomorrow?
-Thank God they put the "do not attempt" disclaimer on the Doritos ad where the old woman slingshots the young baby. Because I was thisclose to going next door to try that out on my neighbor's infant.
-"From Hasbro the company that brought you the Transformers"? What's next -- "From GlobalChem, the company that provided the red dye used to make some of the chips in Connect Four?"
Read more from Chris and the excellent team at The Consumerist every day right here.
[8:08 p.m. ET / 5:08 p.m. PT]
If we may interrupt your Vogue-ing for a moment: so what did you think of the first half batch of ads? Any clear favorites? Looking like the M&M ad is showing up a bunch in your comments. Anything else? And any total flops?
While we look for that you'll want to look for this: Consumerist.com's Chris Morran has tallied up his own fantastic ad recap which we'll be rolling it out in just a few minutes!
[7:57 p.m. ET / 4:57 p.m. PT]
E*Trade baby does it again. That kid should literally and figuratively be showing his age by now, but that was pretty funny. Though the line of the ad went to his “speed dating” nursery pal. Great stuff, and adds a whole new dimension to the term “robbing the cradle.”
[7:50 p.m. ET / 4:50 p.m. PT]
And a couple more of your tweets:
@writingaddict @HLNTV the @GoDaddy commercial with the objectification is out of control & unnecessary. I'm moving my domains Monday
@moonjean: @HLNTV @showbiztonight cute dorito commercial but gramma gonna get reported to CPS child protective services lol #SuperBowl
[7:45 p.m. ET / 4:45 p.m. PT]
I guess this starts to answer our Beckham question:
"@CarrieASkelly: @HLNTV No commercial this Superbowl will top #BeckhamforHM Yummy & in love!!"
[7:39 p.m. ET / 4:37 p.m. PT]
Ads with the two most muddled points so far:
Apparently if you need one car and only one car to drive out of an airplane, it should be a Chevy Sonic.
And I guess the takeaway from the Budwesier prohibition ad is... nothing excites or unites America like booze?
[7:37 p.m. ET / 4:37 p.m. PT]
Ladies, is David Beckham still a thing? Men, do you now have an uncontrollable urge to buy H&M underwear? Urgently awaiting answers to both questions.
Oh yeah, speaking of H&M, did you hear about this? Yikes. Probably not the kind of pre-Super Bowl publicity they were hoping for.
[7:27 p.m. ET / 4:27 p.m. PT]
Don’t know if VW could possibly have topped last year’s borderline iconic “Mini Darth” ad, but that was a pretty good second act. The dog chase part was fun, but the “Star Wars” cantina crew clearly stole the show (Mos Eisley, respresent) in the nod to last year’s hit.
And I guess we now know why VW teased their ad with a chorus of dogs barking the “Star Wars” theme.
[7:10 p.m. ET / 4:10 p.m. PT]
Twinkies and Chevys: the only things to survive an apocalypse. Neat concept, point well made. Except for the small detail that Twinkies’ parent company just filed for bankruptcy protection. NOW what will those Chevy-driving post-apocalyptic dudes eat? Man, the future is complicated.
[7:03 p.m. ET / 4:03 p.m. PT]
Oh hey! Look! Another GoDaddy.com Super Bowl ad with implied nudity and women in super-tight clothing! This is definitely not at all getting old yet!
[7:02 p.m. ET/4:02 p.m. PT]
Early frontrunner for Best Current Events Reference goes to the “Word With Friends” guys on the airplane in that Best Buy ad. Somewhere Alec Baldwin is preparing to tweet about this.
Nice to also see the brains behind some of our indispensable modern gizmos get some recognition in front of 100+ million people.
[6:52 p.m. ET/3:22 p.m. PT]
Well that was a Royal Cameo Fest for Pepsi Max. King Elton, plus the “X Factor” queen, colliding with Flavor Flav, who’s been known to wear a crown. The “Pepsi will liberate us all!” angle might have been a bit hollow, but a well-timed “yeahhh, boyyy!” by the clock-rocking Flav saved the day. Also: nice to see there's apparently no expiration date on that catchphrase.
[6:45 p.m. ET/3:20 p.m. PT]
Not into the vampire trend. No amount of half-naked bloodsuckers with complicated love lives and conflicted emotions can change that. Sorry Twihards. HOWEVER, great Audi ad right there. Yes, taking out a $3.5m ad to tout your headlights of all things is a bit odd... but that delivered. And hey, 25 fewer vampires now running wild. So hooray headlights.
[6:20 p.m. ET/3:20 p.m. PT]
OK, we know kickoff is still about 10 minutes away, but we just had out first legit "laugh out loud" here with that Sacha Baron Cohen trailer for "The Dictator." Already looking forward to it. Hoping it's more "Borat" than "Bruno"
Welcome football (and non-football) fans!
Indianapolis, shmindianapois. This is where the real action is going on tonight.
We'll be dishing out real-time reactions to the Super Bowl ads and looking for your take too. Just wipe the buffalo sauce off your fingers before banging out your opinions in the comments section.
We're just about to get going, but curious if anybody is really looking forward to one ad in particular tonight? Enough have already been leaked online that you probably have a pretty good idea of what's coming down the pipe. That "Ferris Bueller" Honda spot is getting a bunch of buzz, Volkswagen's "Mini Darth" follow-up looks promising too and an early hunch that the Bud "Hockey game/flash mob" spot might be one of the big favorites.
What else looks promising?
Join the conversation...