Scott D. Pierce: Fat dog/little Vader topped the Super ads

Published February 6, 2012 9:59 am


Sunday's Super Bowl was hugely entertaining. The commercials — not so much. This was the best that Madison Avenue could do?

We want to be entertained. We want to be amazed. We want to be amused.

Most of the ads were just OK.

Here's a ranking of not the most effective, but the most entertaining Super Bowl commercials of 2012.

1. Volkswagen: Fat dog works out so that he can make it through the doggie door and chase the Volkswagen. Great all by itself — but then it cut to a "Star Wars" cantina re-creation, with an alien offering the opinion that this spot was better than the little Darth Vader Volkswagen ad. Until little Vader used the dark side of the force on him. Two great ads in one.

2. Honda CRV: LOVED Matthew Broderick starring in a sequel to (remake of?) "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."

3. Coca-Cola: All three of the ads featuring the animated Coke polar bears were fun to watch.

4. TaxACT.com: The little boy who REALLY had to go finally relieves himself in the pool. Cute, funny and only a little disgusting.

5. Doritos: Even if you're a cat lover, c'mon, the ad with the big dog burying a cat was funny.

6. Galaxy Note: This phone commercial was the best high-energy musical spectacular of the night. (Did you hear that, Madonna?)

7. Bud Light: Here we go! How did they get that little dog to fetch all that beer?

8. Toyota Camry: Liked the idea of reinventing everything. Especially the poopless baby.

9. Chevy Silverado: Silverados and their owners who survived an apocalypse were made more amusing with Barry Manilow singing "Looks Like We Made It" in the background.

10. Chevy Sonic: How can you not love a car skydiving out of an airplane, doing barrel rolls and bungee jumping?

11. Oikos Greek Yogurt: That John Stamos is still so cute. Especially when he's being viciously head-butted by a girl.

12. Doritos: Grandma slingshotting the extraordinarily cute baby to grab the chips from the bratty kid was amusing.

13. M&Ms: Would you believe stripper M&Ms? "My shell is brown. It's just looks like my milk chocolate is showing."

14. Acura: Jerry Seinfeld was funny; Jay Leno, not so much.

15. Skechers: Loved the little dog outrunning the greyhounds. But moonwalking across the finish line and an appearance by Mark Cuban kind of killed it.

16. Pepsi: Doing a commercial with Elton John and Flava Flav has some merit, although it wasn't as funny as it was intended to be. But including Melanie Amaro, the virtually unknown winner of "The X Factor," was a major misstep.

17. Fiat 500: Again, never going to make me buy the car. But the guy imagining a Fiat as a sexy Italian woman was clever.

Scott D. Pierce's column appears Mondays and Fridays in The Mix. Email him at spierce@sltrib.com. Watch the ads