What can you remember? Super Bowl XLV Commercials

It's been a couple days since Super Bowl XLV between the Steelers and Packers ended.  While the game was a disappointment in itself for me, and something I'm hoping to forget, the commercials are something most advertisers are hoping we can still recall.

AdFreak posted a nice 2 min 24 sec. run down of all 61 commercials, in case you forgot about any.  And really, I think their abbreviated version makes some of the commercials look better than what they were!

So here's my list of commercials I give a big Kudos too.  I'll warn you, I didn't follow suite with all of the rankings... but I have my reasons.  Give me a chance... read on!

• Dodge Chrysler Town & Country minivan - This commercial is on my list because it was different than all the other car commercials.  The announcer was whispering.  Such a simple, minor concept, which surely turned viewers at louder venues away.  The commercial made you pay attention.  While the exact volume of the dialog was comparable to other commercials, because it was in a whispering tone,my house stopped, we glued our eyes to the TV (believe me this is tough when you have four kids under 6, two dogs, and four adults in a house) and paid extra close attention. The whispering demanded it.  Plus, the commercial theme was making safety standard and not an option.  Who doesn't want to be safe!?  So props to the Town & Country for not just showing they're another sleek, non-soccer-mom, mini-van that's cool to own.
• This commercial... I'm guilty.  I'm not 100% positive whose it was. BUT I thought it was creative and different, so it deserved to be discussed.  The Confer's Jewelers (local for my area, finally figured out for sure who it was!) was creative and different and deserves to be discussed.  It was a jewelery commercial.  However, there was no sound.  The screen was white with black text, that changed repeatedly, until at the end they tell you all the things they've been telling you to do (kiss your wife, tell her you love her, etc.) they can help you say better.  I thought it was classic!  Again, sticking with the Town & Country idea, it demanded you pay attention.  You had to read it.  While this surely lost a lot of viewers who didn't have the attention span, or concentration this late in the game, to do so, it was different.  They took a risk. While I don't know if it really paid off (perhaps not since even I can't confidently tell you who it was) it was a hell of an effort to keep it simple and unique from all the others.

Watch the video here on their Facebook page.

By now you should have noticed that I didn't link either  one of these commercials.  There's a reason.  I can't find them  it....  This you're thinking is predictive of how good they were.  But I challenge you to not just look at the humor factor, the celebrity factor, or the cute factor, but also the creative and risk taking factor these two advertisers took on a big scale.  I was impressed by their efforts.  But was impressing one twenty-something year old girl worth the $3 million for a :30 sec spot (Reuters)...

Here's the 'made national lists' funny and cute ad's I enjoyed most!

Only thing that has this one listed 3rd is that they showed it on some commercial preview on Friday night.  For me that ruined me counting it as 100% SuperBowl new!