The Best Super Bowl XLIII Commercials

For many watching Super Bowl XLIII, the highlight wasn't the close game between Pittsburgh and Arizona but the commercials between the plays. At $3 million dollars per ad, companies pulled out all the stops to make sure that their commercials were the most memorable of the year. While some were mildly funny, such as the Hulu.com ad starring Alec Baldwin, and some were downright horrible, such as Pepsi's lame McGyver rip-off "Pepsuber", a number of super bowl commercials hit it out of the park this year. Below are the best ads from Super Bowl XLIII, with links for you to watch them and judge for yourself.

Best Super Bowl XLIII Commercial #4: Hot Item

www.nbc.com/super-bowl/commercials/video/clips/bridgestone-hot-item/981101/

This commercial for Bridgestone tires featured a couple of astronauts on a joyride in their lunar rover, doing donuts on the moon's surface and dancing to hip hop music as they collect moon rocks. As they turn around to get back into their car, they discover aliens have stolen their tires, leaving their rover up on rocks. The juxtaposition of the barren lunar surface with the hip hop music made our group of watchers stop talking about the game and look at the television. The punch line made us all laugh. Therefore, Hot Item comes in at #4 in our list of the Best Super Bowl Ads.

Best Super Bowl XLIII Commercial #3: One Second Ad

Miller High Life gets the award for most bang for their buck, choosing to forgo the $3 million price tag for a thirty second ad and spending that money on a number of ads leading up to the Super Bowl with a group of delivery men insisting that they didn't need 30 seconds to advertise their product because it is so good. When their Super Bowl ad did run, it was exactly one second long, just a shot of one of the delivery men in front of a box of Miller High Life yelling "High Life!" In fact, the ad is so short, it's not even up on either of the sites that are carrying the Super Bowl Ads, hence the lack of a link. The commercial was so different from the average one that it got everyone in the room's attention and those who hadn't seen the previous week's ads were filled in by the rest. Very innovative ad and a great use of limited resources.

Best Super Bowl XLIII Commercial #2: Mean Troy

www.nbc.com/super-bowl/commercials/video/clips/coke-zero-mean-troy/981684/

This commercial for Coke Zero actually split the roomful of watchers into two camps. The younger and less football savvy in the room didn't get it and didn't care for the ad. The rest of us who were old enough to have grown up with the iconic Mean Joe Green Coke Commercial of yesteryear thought it was one of the best of the night. The clincher was the punchline at the end where Pittsburgh Steelers Safety Troy Polamalu deviated from the old commercial by giving the young boy not his own shirt but the shirt off the back of the Coke Brand Manager. Coke gets double points for nostalgia and humor and snags the second best Super Bowl Commercial of the night.

Best Super Bowl XLIII Commercial #1: Swedish

www.nbc.com/super-bowl/commercials/video/clips/bud-light-swedish/981841/

This Bud Light commercial featuring Conan O'Brien ran early in the game but our group of watchers knew immediately that it wasn't likely to be topped. Talk show host Conan O'Brien is urged by his agent to do a commercial for Bud Light because "it's a big check and it will only run in Sweden." O'Brien reluctantly takes the job and what follows is a hilariously bad commercial set to terrible techno music where Conan crawls seductively towards a Bud Light, does the robot, and poses in a ring of fire. Back in New York, Conan exits a cab, only to see his Swedish commercial being broadcast on Times Square. The Swedish commercial alone had our group rolling and the punchline at the end was the kicker. At the end of the night, it wasn't even close. Conan O'Brien takes the top spot with the best Super Bowl XLIII ad.