TVSquad

Look, I knew as soon as I saw the promo for 'The Late Show with David Letterman' that featured Letterman, Oprah and Jay Leno, that nothing was going to top that. There was just no way anything could be better than that 15-second ad. While I was correct, there were some commercials for non-CBS products that put a smile on my face. Of course there were many others that made me groan, wince or sigh, but Bob's handling those.

The videos below are from Hulu, because they were the first ones available. If you can't view them due to location restrictions, they will all be up at Fanhouse.

The first big Super Bowl shocker came early tonight, in a CBS promo, no less. The Super Bowl is on CBS, so it's no surprise we get a shot of David Letterman on a couch in his Colts jersey, but here's where things get weird: he's at a Super Bowl party with Oprah, and he's complaining about how it's the worst Super Bowl party ever.

We then see Jay freakin' Leno, who says that Letterman is only saying that because he's there. Letterman then mocks Leno, and then we see that this whole thing is a promo for 'The Late Show with David Letterman.'

How in the hell did this happen?

Will Rogers once said, "Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money they don't have for something they don't need."

And how do you that? That's easy. Just sprinkle in some sex! It's nature's negotiator.

Of course, it's not as simple as it sounds. These days, people are easier to offend than Catholic nuns and the FCC has made it nearly impossible to advertise products the way God intended (i.e. naked girls with abnormally large boobs writhing and moaning over the awesomeness of Flonase). So an even subtler art of using sex to get your money lies within this deeply layered process. Here are the best of the best and the worst of the worst.

Even though CBS has hacked and slashed an abnormally large number of Super Bowl ads, they aren't the first and they sure as hell won't be the last.

The Huffington Post has compiled a list of some of the more outrageous banned Super Bowl ads including the steamy PETA "veggie sex" ad and this ad for Smartbeep that has been floating around the Internet for years but didn't know until now that it was supposed to air during the Super Bowl. Thank you, Internet. You're the teacher that none of my teachers could ever be.

There's a problem with having the most-watched sporting event of the year on your channel: not everybody watches sports. Usually the event can pull in non-sports fans (like myself) by having a myriad of clever commercials that one could not see at any other time of the year. Spike.com thought of this and is having the 'Commercial Bowl', which will show commercials from the just-broadcast Super Bowl as well as commercial highlights from the previous eight years worth of the "Big Game".

It's a clever idea and obviously successful if this is the ninth year. It's more tempting now to simply wait for the game to be over and click on over to Spike.com. This concept does lend itself to some questions, though. Will the videos for each commercial have commercial breaks in between? Are the people that made the commercials in question actually sponsoring the event or do the users have to put up with banner ads as well as commercials?

Either CBS' advertising department is run by the biggest whiny fusspot since 'Frasier's' Niles Crane last visited his neighborhood Sizzler or these tough economic times have forced them to take Eric Cartman's "you can't come" business model to heart.

CBS has rejected yet another ad for their Super Bowl broadcast. This time, it's for the upcoming hack 'n slash adventure video game 'Dante's Inferno'. Unlike other controversial ads for GoDaddy.com and ManCrunch.com, this time they only had a problem with the commercial's tagline, "Go to Hell." Instead the ad will air with the tagline "Hell Awaits," which is way more creepy and disturbing since it implies that "Hell" is waiting to come to me instead of vice versa.

Don't watch the following ad if you're disturbed by having to read the word "Hell."

It's good to know that while CBS is turning down ads for the Super Bowl left and right over nimbly fears over people having to see a flamboyantly gay man dressing underwear models or two dudes making out that an interesting one will make the cut...for now.

Mosiac, a Los Angeles based megachurch, is one of the six finalists in a Doritos contest to win some free air time during Super Bowl XLIV. Their proposed ad titled "Casket" spoofs the resurrection with the awesome power of Doritos and currently holds the top spot in the contest's online poll.

And if I were a betting man, I'd say it's going to stay there unless Jesus produced the "guy wears dog shock collar" ad.

[via TV Week]

Now that the NFL has moved the Pro Bowl to the week before the big game, the Super Bowl will be the last TV event on the football schedule for the year. During Sunday's game, truTV will hype a new show, called 'NFL Full Contact,' with an ad starring Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu, or, as he is known in the ad, Punxsutawney Polamalu.

In the ad, a mini version of Polamalu (by the magic of green screen, played by Polamalu and wrestler Steve Richardson, a.k.a. Puppet the Psycho Dwarf) gets pulled out of a tree stump and sees his shadow. Thus, six more weeks of football. Meaning, of course, six weeks of 'NFL Full Contact.'

Since I started writing for this site, I've had the pleasure of seeing episodes of shows like Dexter and Leverage before anyone else. I've had the pleasure of conversing with some of the industry's most interesting characters. But now I know I've truly made it: I got to watch a Super Bowl ad before the rest of the world. Who wants to touch me?

This year's Super Bowl will, of course, feature new commercials for Coca-Cola including a rather interesting one featuring that mecca of brand advertising, The Simpsons.

It actually takes quite an interesting turn from what you might expect. It's not all that silly. It's actually quite sad and even sullen, compared to ads featuring the show's characters in campaigns for Butterfinger and KFC. Watch it for during the game, even if you're like me and you actually watch the Super Bowl for the actual Super Bowl.

One of television's biggest success and tragedy stories has started to take a turn for the worse.

TV legend Ed McMahon, 85, has been in the hospital for the last month and his condition has only gotten worse.

TMZ reported a source close to the family said his condition has been upgraded to "extremely serious" since he has been moved into an intensive care unit. He has also contracted pneumonia, which at his age can make things very serious.

(Editor's Note: In anticipation of editing the Best/Worst Super Bowl ads, I paid close attention to the ads while I was watching and decided that some could go either way. Sure enough, Rich and Bob picked a couple of the same ads - Cash4Gold and CareerBuilder. Check out Rich's Best Super Bowl ads, and tell us which category you think the ads fall into ... Jane Boursaw)

There weren't any Super Bowl ads that made me want to kick in my television set this year, but I think that says more about the dullness of the ads rather than any brilliance. There weren't many memorable ads. I asked a friend of mine about the ads, and she said, "I think there was a cute one, I don't remember what it was."

Below are the five ads I chose as the worst of the night (not including the movie ads - those are in a different category and shouldn't be counted when you're judging the commercials). They range from confusing to lame to downright sad.

With a three million dollar price per thirty seconds along with an extremely down economy, many of the regular supporters are bowing out of their standard Super Bowl spots. But apparently Hollywood is stepping up to fill in the gaps.

Since its origins, television has always been supported by the movie industry. It makes sense since they're so interconnected (television is mostly an ad-based revenue stream and I've heard that the marketing budget of a lot of studio films is something like 40% of its total cost).

I'm sort of sorry to hear this. I'm not a sports fan but have always tried to catch the Super Bowl because of the clever commercials. It's not likely that Star Trek or X-Men Origins: Wolverine is going to do a Bowl-specific ad. On the other hand, if they did get Hugh Jackman to dress in costume and puncture a football with his claw, or Chris Pine to vaporize it with a phaser, it would be the talk of the water cooler the next day.

Super Bowl XLII is all done except for the cleanup and the hangovers. And, you are probably doing one of two things right now. Either you are joyously celebrating the win of the Wild Card New York Giants over the undefeated (until Sunday) New England Patriots, or your are cursing out that f@#&ing Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick for screwing up a perfect season and, most likely, starting a new sports curse in New England.

Oh well, at least you have the commercials to take your mind off of it all if you were a Patriots fan. This year's crop was pretty diverse with a mix of serious and humorous ads. Plus, a little star power thrown in just for taste. Thanks to Jason Hughes, Jen Creer, JJ Hawkins, and yours truly, TV Squad has postings about every new commercial that aired, from the E-Trade baby to the guy who attached jumper cables to his nipples.

If you're scratching your head on what the hell I mean then jump over to the next page, where you'll see a list of links to all of our commercial reviews.

Every year Budweiser puts together an uplifting commercial about some animal who strives to achieve his dreams and with hard work and perseverance, achieves it. This year's installation involved a Clydesdale who didn't make the cut to pull the Budweiser wagon. "Maybe next year, Hank." This leads to a very fun montage of training clips set to the Rocky theme as a dalmation takes it upon himself to get the Clydesdale into tip-top shape. Shots of the horse starting off pulling a little wagon mixed with jogging in place in the rain, running around trees in a snow-covered obstacle, lifting bales of hay until finally he has grit to pull an entire train! Not funny like the Bud Light commercials, but these Bud spots are always feel-good fan favorites. And this one was just as good as any of them.

Oh, and of course Hank makes the hitch team the following year. The high five at the end between the dog and the horse was just perfect. I don't know what it is, but Anheuser-Busch simply has one of the best advertising and marketing teams as they virtually never miss when it comes to their Super Bowl ads. Another banner year for them it looks like.

It's not baby-talking Adam Sandler, it's not sensitive yet funny Adam Sandler, it isn't even serious and angry Adam Sandler. It's Adam Sandler as Borat. Well, from the preview that was shown it seems like he's channeling Borat.

I guess Adam is taking a break from some of his more serious roles to go back to his wacky comedy roots. However, since this isn't Cinematical I'm not going to debate whether or not this is a good idea for Sandler. All I'm going to do is rate the preview. Eh, not that funny. Seen it all in plenty of other previews before. Maybe the movie will be better.