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My sense is that they had the best of intentions, but sometimes advertisers aren't always as sensitive as they should be. There have been a number of ads in which both veteran and newbie advertisers have offended at least some segment of the viewership, and one wonders why they hadn't considered the possibility earlier. 

One year, a relatively unknown company called Sales Genie ran two separate animated spots that contained particularly obnoxious stereotypes of Asian-Indian people. And Snickers one year ran an ad showing two male mechanics kissing that offended a lot of gay rights organizations. The Super Bowl brings in the broadest possible audience of any TV event, and some marketers forget that what seems funny to them may not seem funny to other people. 

That's a good question, but it's becoming more common to leak some portion of your ad before the Super Bowl starts. VW was running around the last several days talking about how many hits the ad got on several Web sites. And while the ad may have gotten a little played out before kick-off, the company still got a lot of buzz going that probably enticed people who hadn't seen the ad to make a point of watching it. It's not like this ad had a surprise celebrity or some joke that was ruined by giving it away earlier. So VW might have had the creative concept that allowed them to talk about things a little earlier than other marketers who used Kenny G or Joan Rivers.

E Trade isn't backing off this character. They're getting a lot of buzz off of it. In fact, during the AFC and NFC championship games, they managed to get the E Trade baby on set with sportscasters from CBS and Fox. While the humor of each ad may differ, chances are you're going to see more of this kid in the not to distant future.

I think you're right, it's a pretty riske ad, and I was a little suprised that that phrase was allowed on national television. I bet there are families across the nation who have kids asking,"what does cram it in the boot mean?" Maybe the ad aired later in the game, so some kids were falling alseep, but this was a surprising piece of work. And not in a delightful way.

There was a Clydesdale ad this year, but it really just featured the horses in a cameo. That's kind of surprising, because for years, Budweiser has gotten a lot of good feeling from showing the horses, who are usually depicted as being stately and elegant. This year, a team of Clydesdales was seen for mere seconds in an ad that had a cowboy singing Elton John's "Tiny Dancer." Next year, maybe Anheuser will use the horses in a more expected fashion.

The Darth Vader ad from VW and the border patrol ad from Coca Cola are kind of "old school" Super Bowl commercials that play on sentiment or spectacle to make their point. That's mostly how Super Bowl ads were done in the 70s or 80s, but in recent years more Super Bowl marketers are using more of a hard sell approach. So why the VW and Coke ads may get less chatter, is because they're surrounded by other ads that aim more directly for the funny bone.

Those ads aim for a certain, probably younger, audience. They were also "crowdsourced" in a way, the result of a contest held by Pepsi-Co., who owns both Doritos and Pepsi, to award a prize for the best commercial generated by consumers. Most of the consumers seemed to like jokes about dumb guys doing silly things. The ads are getting a good reaction in some circles: one of the Doritos ads tied for first in USAToday's annual Ad Meter.

That's an interesting question. I have interviewed the head of Go Daddy, Bob Parsons, a number of different times. And he says the investmet they put each year into the Super Bowl does an amazing amount of publicity for the company. He's told me in the past that what the company does, which is selling online domain names, isn't the easiest thing to explain in a commercial, so if you're going to try and make a go of it, then why not do it in the Super Bowl? They clearly have some return on their investment because they keep coming back year after year, even though some people probably wish they wouldn't.

I wonder what Skechers was trying to accomplish with that commercial. Clearly they were hoping the appearance of Kim Kardashian would be enough to put it through and make a point, but maybe not everyone was excited by her presence and had other questions to ask.

Chrysler is definitely taking a little bit of a risk with the "imported from Detroit" tagline. The automaker was trying to play up an image that its cars are seen as being as great as any foreign import. It's true that a person living in any part of the United States will import nothing from Detroit, but a good ad typically doesn't let hard, cold facts stand in the way of making an interesting point.

Yeah, you're thinking of the 2004 Super Bowl, that's when both Viagra and Cialis ran Super Bowl commercials. Some people called it the "erectile-dysfunction bowl." You may also recall that year featured the now-infamous Janet Jackson halftime show, and a lot of people involved in the Super Bowl and its telecast decided to tone it down in 2005 and a few years afterwards. ED drugs are probably a good fit with the male population watching the game, but Super Bowl brings in a very broad audience, and marketers need to be very mindful that their message plays to everyone in the room, not just a smaller set.

People tune in for a good game, most of all, and for all of the hype and spectacle that comes with the Super Bowl. It's one of the few things still on TV that people watch live and in large groups. The ads have grown outsized because of the very large audience watching and the game and the commercials seem to go hand in hand.

This is definitely a bold ad. The company bought out two minutes of air time, esssentially an entire commercial break, something that just typically isn't done in the Super Bowl. Clearly, Chrysler is trying to portay itself as being on the rebound, even though it's well known that the company has had its ups and downs in recent years, owing to the economy and its recent hook-up with Daimler overseas. You have to give them this: car ads usually look a lot alike, and their's definitely stood out. 

Here's my question: Do you think viewers who weren't around n 1984 to see the Apple commercial understood the reference? A lot of people were buzzing last night on Twitter about this ad, and I think it was a pretty interesting effort. It's not easy, after all, to take a swipe at Apple, one of the savviest advertisers around. That said, you could argue that the ad focused too much on Apple than it did on the new product that people haven't heard very much about.

For some reason the image of a guy taking it in the groin seems to make some people laugh. But not everybody. I'd argued that this joke has been done so many times in the last 10 years, that all its shock value is gone.

You sound like you have ad burnout. And to be honest with you, there isn't a cure coming. And as the economy has grown more strained and its audiences have begun to split from TV to watch new tech devices, TV audiences have gotten so much smaller. To keep the ad dollars flowing in, the networks are allowing things, ad-wise, they never would have sanctioned just five or 10 years ago. So you're seeing product placement and all kinds of sponsorships that clog up the screen. You might think that if the economy gets better the stuff might go away, but I doubt it.

I think Groupon will have to work a little harder to make sure people understand what it was trying to say. Even if their heart was in the right place, the ad was interpreted in a different fashion. It's hard to put the cat back in the bag once it has escaped.

There's definitely a patriotic streak going on during the Super Bowl. I think of all the major sports leagues, the NFL tries to align itself with American themes. The Super Bowl is seen by some people as a national holiday. Some of this stuff is definitely over the top, and I guess if it's not your sort of thing, you should wait til kick-off to start tuning in.

The Super Bowl is often split between marketers that go after the entire audience  and the others who target a particular segment. Pepsi Max is a drink aimed at young guys, and the humor of the ad is as well. The danger here is that other audiences are also watching and may not find the message as funny or smart.

In years past, maybe. But when you're agreeing to spend $3 million on 30 seconds of ad time, I would hope you're being responsible to your company and your boss and not to what your ad agency is telling you.