BrakingforCars.com’s Top Ten Super Bowl XLIV Car Commercials

Traveling companions in the 2011 Kia Sorrento Super Bowl ad

The Super Bowl is supposed to be “The Big Game.” A season of hard hits, impossibly accurate passes, and gravity defying leaps and catches boils down to one game where an undisputed champion is determined in a clash of Titans, Cowboys, Colts or Saints to name a few. However, more often than not, that champion is determined in the first quarter leaving fans with nothing to do during the remaining three quarters.

Super Bowl commercials have become the understudy for those lopsided games, but unlike most substitute entertainers, the ads during the Super Bowl hit the stage whether the headlining cast is present or not. For some, the ads are the highlight even if it is a good contest. For car guys, some of the best ads of the year will make their debut during that 60 minutes of play.

Based on how well the audience at a Super Bowl party we attended received this year’s commercials, we’ve ranked the ten most discussed Super Bowl car commercials. This is not all of the ads shown, only the ones that evoked some sort of response either for against the ad. If a spot didn’t make a big enough impression to warrant any impression, it was determined to be worse than bad, because after all, bad press is better than no press.

Circumstances during a game can be different than viewing the ads on-line. There are many distractions, and people losing their shirts may not see the humor in anything, let alone a Super Bowl commercial. So to be fair, we have also included their YouTube five star ranking.

We would however like to note one commercial that garnered no recognition whatsoever but we believe did deserve some: The Volkswagen ad featuring the game of Punch Dub starring Tracy Morgan and Stevie Wonder. This was a great ad and deserved to be on the list, but suffered the misfortune of following a New Orleans Saints touchdown on the first drive of the third quarter which started off with an onside kick. The excitement of the score was overwhelming and despite one editor’s own excitement about an ad featuring a blind man playing Punch Dub and pointing frantically at the TV to get party goers to pay attention so he could record some sort of reaction, his efforts were futile and the ad slipped away unnoticed. We hope it fared better at other gatherings.

So without further adieu, here they are; the good, the bad, and the overshadowed: