Super Bowl Ads 2012: Which Companies Made the Most of Expensive Time Slot?

A company can make or break their year with their Super Bowl commercial, as the time slot this year cost an average of $3.5 million and reached an estimated 117 million viewers.

So which companies struck gold on Super Bowl Sunday? Let's examine.

M&M: "Sexy and I Know It"

M&M capitalized on the recent LMFAO craze, while also debuting a new spokescandy, Ms. Brown.

For you older folks out there, LMFAO is a musical duo consisting of bushy-haired party fiends Redfoo and SkyBlu. You can watch them getting down with Justin Bieber and David Hasselhoff at the American Music Awards or in their odd Budweiser commercial on the NBA's opening day.

Anyway, it was a pretty funny spot even if you didn't know what they were referencing. This girl's got the right idea.

Kia Optima: "A Dream Car. For Real Life."

In an event that oozes manliness, Kia just put everyone else to shame.

After a cute little intro, one very lucky guy overdoses on sleeping dust and bursts into a dream world filled with Adriana Lima, giant sub sandwiches, Chuck Liddell and Motley Crue.

Kia followed a simple formula here: fast cars + hot girls + rock music = success. It doesn't take a genius to figure that one out, but car companies screw it up all the time.

Judging by this woman's reaction, the commercial was effective for the ladies as well.

Chevy: "2012"

Chevy did so many things to make this commercial work well.

The footage at the beginning? Great. The Bary Manilow song? Perfect. The not-so-subtle suggestion that driving a Ford will kill you? Hell yeah.

I'd almost give Chevy a 10 out 10, but this guy makes a solid point.

Even with the Twinkie distraction, however, I think Chevy scored on this one.