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Area communication professionals were keeping a close eye on how companies used the ever-pricey 30-second spot to get a laugh and reinforce their brands.
Among this year's favorites were Bud Light's rock, paper, scissors ad, Blockbuster's mouse click spot and an awkward near-kiss between two macho Snickers eaters.
Ray Somich, president of WELW-AM 1330, said the Doritos ad that likened real-life scenarios to attributes of the chips was entertaining and reminded people of the product with words like "cheesy," "crunchy" and "smooth."
"It was truly memorable and everybody here thought it was great," he said of his fellow Bowl watchers.
"The Doritos ad really drove the product home."
Another popular spot, particularly among women in his group, was the Budweiser ad featuring a white dog that gets Dalmation-ized by mud and gets some special attention, he said.
On the flip side for Somich was a Garmin GPS ad mimicking a Japanese horror flick that did little to reinforce the product, he said.
"You watched this thing and it was like, what the heck is this all about?" he said.
Jon Benedict, vice president of Burges & Burges strategic communications in Cleveland, was entertained by Bud Light's rock, paper, scissors fight to win the last bottle of beer and thought Budweiser did well overall.
However, this year's ads seemed a bit more conservative and less creative than in previous years, he said.
"It seems like this year's are more amusing than funny, more clever than creative, but all-in-all it's a decent year," he said at halftime.
Judy Cerne, president and owner of McKinney Advertising and Public Relations in Cleveland, named Blockbuster's mouse-clicking frustration ad as one of her top picks along with the daydreaming robot who loses its job at a GM factory after dropping a screw.
"I liked the tag line - 'Everyone at GM is obsessed with quality,' " she said.
Top brands on Cerne's list for overall effort were Coke and Budweiser.
The Bud spots continued to hold up well as they have in the past, she said, though they pursued slightly different strategies to market the two lines.
"The two things that I noticed were that the Bud Light ads were a little more edgy and the Budweiser ads were more conservative," she said.
While most companies had ads that were better than non-Super Bowl spots, Cerne remained somewhat disappointed.
"Overall, I didn't see anything that was exceptionally creative," she said.
Pat Perry, president of Promark Enterprises, a Mentor-based public relations and marketing firm, loved Blockbuster's effort to remind viewers of its online offerings with the common experience of frustrating mouse clicks.
"I think we could all relate to that, and it really stood out because of the humor," she said.
Perry said Pizza Hut's Cheesy Bites Pizza ad featuring Jessica Simpson probably cost more than it was worth in terms of leaving an impression with viewers.
"It's a good example that sometimes utilizing the star doesn't always have the most impact," she said.
Perry said she thought most of the Super Bowl's top spots were front loaded in the first quarter.
"I think there could be some classics out of this Super Bowl, but I think it would be out of the beginning," she said.
The most expensive Super Bowl slots this year reportedly cost more than $2.6 million for 30 seconds of air time, up from $2.5 million last year.
