From E*Trade To Chrysler: The Best Super Bowl Ads Of 2011

It's that time of year again, in between buying our girlfriends booze on New Years Day and flowers on Valentines. Yep, it's Super Bowl commercial watching season again.

In between Cristina Aguilera destroy the National Anthem, the Black Eyed Peas destroying "Sweet Child O' Mine" (and any notion they were actually good musicians), and Aaron Rodgers destroying any notion that Brett Favre will be missed in Green Bay, there were a bunch of commercials. $3 million commercials. Yes, the price for a 30 second commercial during Super Bowl XLV was $3 million (which makes Eminem's two-minute long Chrysler one an astounding $12 million...bailout money at work).

While Green Bay fought a Pittsburgh comeback to win it's first Super Bowl in 14 years (and first in the Aaron Rodgers era), I was paying attention to whether Doritos and E*Trade are up to par (they weren't).

In a rather sub-par year for Super Bowl ads, here are some of the best.

Chrysler: Imported From Detroit

Imported from Detroit. A perfect way to spend $12 million. Eminem was awesome, the cinematography was awesome, the narration was awesome. This was better than some movies that are up for the Oscar in Best Picture. Man, I really want to go out and buy a Chrysler right now.

I also just found out that most people agree: this was the best commercial of Super Bowl XLV. No talking, stock trading babies, no stupid inventions to make it easier to get Bud Light, this was the best.

According to the LA Times, traffic for the Chrysler brand shot up 267% following the ad, including a 1,619% spike in searches for the Chrysler 200, the car Eminem was driving in the commercial.

You guys can keep your Toyota Accords and Honda Corollas or whatever. I'll gladly take my American made Chrysler 200.

Coca-Cola: Border

Taking place in two nameless, desert, rival countries were federal agents still wear silly uniforms (a post-apocalyptic English-Scottish border?), two border patrol agents forgo their national differences in order to share a Coke together. Not the best Coca-Cola commercial, but far from the worst.

Carmax: Gas Station From The Past

An exact parody of how people from today view the culture of yesterday.

Hyundai: Hypnotize

Is this the best commercial of XLV? No far from it. It's not the funniest either. But it is the most original.

Mercedes-Benz: Smart Cars

Woudln't it be awesome if Mercedes just drove themselves, like the cars that Will Smith movie i, Robot, promised us? Looks like the engineers back in Germany have to work on that technology, though.

Bridgestone: Beavers Are Smart

This is the first of two Birdgestone commercials on here. I think the other one is better, but this one's really good, too.

Chevrolet: Greatest Teacher Ever

Not only is this a pretty funny commercial, it's a pitch perfect parody of how most of the public views marketing drones.

Pepsi Max: Mind Reading

Pretty funny parodies of men and women. Well, "parody" is a relative term. This could've been a documentary about the inner workings of the mind.

CareerBuilder.com: Parking Lot

It's funny because it's exactly how most of us would react if this happened to us in a parking lot...albeit with people rather than chimps.

Snickers: Logging

In a remake of a classic ad from 2010, Snickers tries to come back with the Betty White magic...without America's Grandmother. While they don't, it still one of the best commercials of 2011.

Audi: Escape From Old Luxury Penitentiary

There's been an ad blitz (pardon the pun) of "Old Luxury" commercials by Audi. While none of them are that good, this one is by far the best.W

Budweiser: Wild West

I'm a massive fan of the semi-recently released video game Red Dead Redemption, which is set in three fictional states in the Wild West, and you play as a cowboy/outlaw dude in the frontier, who inherently reminds me of the main character of this commercial. This is very funny, but Budweiser's subsidiary, Bud Light, is much more famous for Super Bowl commercials, but Budweiser is known for a good commercial (e.g., their 9/11 commercial in Super Bowl XXXVI). This isn't up to that, but is still above average for XLV.

Bridgestone: E-Mail

The tire company Bridgestone pretty much came out of nowhere to have a metric crapton of very good ads. This is another one.

Volkswagen: The Force

Perhaps the cutest commercial of XLV, a Star Wars obsessed kid tries to use "The Force" against several average objects, to no avail. After his dad gets home, the kid runs out to try to use "The Force" against his new Volkswagen. His father presses a button on the key to make the car start, making the kid think that he used the force to start the car. While starting a car from a location not inside the car isn't anything particularly new, Volkswagen hit the ball out of the park with this ad.

Bud Light: Product Placement

Bud Light was less-than-stellar in 2011, as they're normally head-and-shoulders above the rest of the advertising pack. This was their best commercial, and it was actually pretty funny.

Samsung/Cellular South: Bar

While this started out as one of my much-hated factual ads, it turned into a pretty funny one at the end. Samsung and Cellular South M. Night Shyamalan-ed the ending perfectly.

Doritos: The Magic Chips

While I saw this ad a day in advance on MSNBC (they were doing a piece on Super Bowl ads, and got this one early) it's still pretty funny. As with most of these commercials in 2011, the ending is the best part.

Kia: One Epic Ride

Another one that I saw early on MSNBC. Why did MSNBC have to ruin two of the better Super Bowl commercials for me by showing them to me early? Whatever. More and more powerful things (aliens, Greek gods, Mayan priests) keep fighting for this Kia Optima. While it didn't inspire me to go out and buy a Kia like the Chrysler Eminem commercial did (still the best of XLV), it was much better than Mini's "Cram it in the Boot".

Mini: Cram It In The Boot

While the majority of this ad is basically a pun on some toilet humor (I prefer my comedy classy, unless it's George Carlin telling it), this is one of the better ads of 2011. The look on the contestant's face when the host says "Have you ever crammed it in the boot before?" is priceless.

E*Trade: Another Super Bowl, Another Baby

E*Trade has hit gold with the E*Trade babies. It's been done to death, and E*Trade has set the bar with their previously baby commercials so insanely high, that this year's couldn't possibly be as good. It wasn't, but come on. It's E*Trade. Even in an off Super Bowl ad year like this one, it's still very good.

Chevrolet: Innovation

Not a particularly funny ad, but certainly a high quality one.

Cars.com: Going First

Another vaguely humorous ad which is actually really good towards the end. Cars.com has abandoned it's previous ad campaign of "Geniuses hate buying cars, but they use Cars.com so they're better at it" in favor of this one. I really couldn't tell you which one I like better. Probably this one.

Best Buy: Bieber'd

I hate Justin Bieber. I hate him more than I hate Ke$ha, more than I hate Lady Gaga, more than I hate Coldplay. I hate pop.

And when I saw Ozzy Osbourne appearing in an ad (and a pretty stupid one until the end) with Bieber, it just disgusted me.

However, if you grin and bear it and make it through the end, Bieber makes fun of himself. And it's hilarious.

Does this mean I'll enjoy his movie which I know my girlfriend will drag me too? Will this make it any less good that he was actually on an episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart along with the Chairman of the freaking Joint Chiefs of Staff?

No, absolutely not.

Chevrolet: Silverado=Lassie

A pitch-perfect parody of the stereotypical Lassie episodes, this was one of the funniest ads of 2011.

Jack-In-The-Box: The Most American Thing Of All...

My state doesn't even have a Jack-in-the-Box. Whatever, that doesn't matter. Anyway, I thought that JITB was going with a pretty bad parody of Glenn Beck-watching, Sarah Palin-listening, gun rights-supporting, gay rights-opposing stereotypical Conservatives, until the end. I should really learn to hold judgment on Super Bowl commercials until the end.

Teleflora: Faith (Hill) Saved Me

Teleflora is some sort of flower service. You get to send the person you're sending the flowers to a personalized card. This guy seems to have taken Faith Hill's advice a bit to seriously. I'd like to see Kim's reaction after she reads the card.

Worst Ad: Stella Artois Beer: What Is This...I Don't Even...

Stella Artois is a really, really fancy beer. That doesn't matter. What does matter is that this ad really doesn't make sense. Adrian Brody isn't the most attractive actor in Hollywood, Stella Artois isn't the most affordable beer in Detroit, and this isn't the best spending of $3 million (I'm sorry, $6 million) in history.

I really have no idea what's going on. Brody is singing a song which is causing impossibly attractive women to swoon and cry, as he walks towards a bar at this club which keeps freaking Stella Artois on tap.

If someone actually has an idea on what's going on (is it supposed to be obvious funny and I just don't get it? Is it ironic funny? Is it not funny at all?), please leave a comment.

NFL: Television

Photoshopped images of NFL garb onto classic TV scenes and characters? Oh hell yes. If it wasn't for Chrysler, this would be the best ad of XLV.