Super Bowl Ads 2012: Why This Year's Commercials Will Leave Fans Disappointed

It's going to be a down year for Super Bowl commercials judging by some of the previews released over the past couple weeks. The overall ad quality in recent years has dropped dramatically, and it doesn't appear 2012 will buck that trend.

Of all the advertisements released onto the Internet so far, the one generating the most hype is a Honda CR-V piece featuring Matthew Broderick (see below).

That's the extended version, and it's not even any good. To think that's the most talked about one leading up to the big game doesn't bode well for what else is out there.

There was a point about a decade ago when the ads were looked forward to with the same anticipation as the game itself. They were a reason to stay in the room during a break in play, but that simply isn't the case anymore.

The problem seems to be companies thinking too hard to come up with something outlandish instead of keeping it simple. Think of the best Super Bowl commercials ever: frogs talking, two legendary basketball players going one-on-one and Cindy Crawford having a soda.

These aren't groundbreaking ideas, but their uniqueness combined with simplicity is what got everybody talking around the water cooler on Monday morning.

Now that companies are spending upwards of $3.5 million on each 30-second spot, everybody is trying to come up with the next big thing for an entire year. As the old saying goes: think long, think wrong.

Hopefully, there will come a day when the commercials become a must-see portion of Super Sunday once again. They add to the spectacle of the entire event, which is one of the greatest days of the year to begin with.

It won't happen this year, though. We're in for another lackluster group of commercials that nobody will remember at this point in 2013.