I consider the Super Bowl to be like the deadbeat, black sheep brother of Thanksgiving. Much like the Turkey holiday on “Super Sunday” people get together to share mass quantities of food, beverage and watch football.  The Super Bowl manages to include all the elements of Thanksgiving but maintains a more causal feel.

O'Donnell

One popular aspect of Super Bowl Sunday that even non-fans of sports tend to enjoy is the commercials that air during the game. Companies fork over big bucks to get their commercials air time during the most watched sporting event of the year. These companies put extra muscle behind the creative presentation of these spots. A well made or funny commercial can equal big revenue for companies.

In the days and weeks following the Super Bowl people from different media venues concentrate on what ads were a success. It is these analysts who try to determine how effective was the ad, was it entertaining, did people strongly dislike it and did it just fall flat with a bland message.

An interesting thing I’ve noticed in how I took in the ads this year is that for me they served as an educational tool. The sometimes silly Super Bowl ads taught me a lot about my fellow humans and myself. After reviewing lists of ads picking which were hits and misses it becomes a quite telling examination of us a people on earth in 2012.

Ads from Doritos, Careerbuilder.com and Volkswagon earned high marks from the USA Today Admeter.  These ads nail home the fact that people love silly dogs, babies and monkeys wearing human clothes. These commercials all bought into old adages that have seemed to grab the attention across a wide demographic.  Super intelligent dogs outsmarting their human counterparts can be traced back to black and white television with Lasse.  Almost every year there is a few comedies centering around babies performing feats that if you tried to recreate at home with your infant Child Services would be called pretty fast. Finally there is the long standing idea, that if you have a monkey performing everyday human tasks like going to work, smoking, tying a tie, then you will be sure to have an audience in tears from laughter.  Evolution has not brought the human race past the fact that we will sit in front of the TV and laugh wildly at a monkey in a suit and turn to a friend to exclaim “Look that silly monkey thinks he is a human.”

The next lesson learned from the 2012 Super Bowl ads is Clint Eastwood will forever be crazily intense. It does not matter if he is playing Dirty Harry or discussing the auto industry in a simple ad, the aging actor always seems posed to knock some one’s teeth in. With his face looking like it was roughly carved out of granite and a voice that sounds like an old growling animal, Eastwood made many take notice with his ad this year according to the USA Today Admeter.

Its official, I am tired of every single Insurance company commercial. Its because of this, I think there needs to finally be a street fight between the three major companies pitch people. Its time for either Flo from Progressive, Mayhem from Allstate, or that irritating Gecko from Geico to finally go.  These ads have just grown incredibly stale and all the concepts have been worn out.

Also, there needs to be national mandate issued that if Budweiser is to run Super Bowl ads, then they have to have atleast one that features the famous clydesdales. When there is no spot featuring the iconic horses galloping in the snow or on a sunny day, I feel like I’ve been ripped off.

Another thing is, I’ve come to firmly believe that when I am old and gray and cooped up in my nursing home, I will still be seeing Coke commercials featuring those adorable cartoon polar bears.  The long running ad campaign was back again this year.  These spots were running when I was a little kid and will still be airing on a TV somewhere during my funeral.

I owe a huge thank you to Dannon yogurt and their commercial. Just when I was starting to really worry, I was filled with reassurance on Sunday that John Stamos is not dead. Thank you.

Overall, this year I can say I enjoyed the selection of commercials from the Super Bowl. Not only was I entertained I felt I left with new found knowledge.  I cannot say I was encouraged to acquire any of the products advertised but I enjoyed the entertainment provided.  My analysis of the commercials this year did leave me with one problem.  I was so busy taking in all my revelations and making notes I forgot to watch the stupid game. I still am not sure who won, it was the blue team right?

Jordan O’Donnell