A number of commercials are shown during the Super Bowl, one of American football's biggest annual events. The number of viewers leads to the major advertising revenue.

As of 2006, the cost of a 30-second commercial on average is $2.5 million. The first famous Super Bowl commercial was a 1974 ad for Noxzema featuring Super Bowl legend Joe Namath. One of the most longlastingly famous Super Bowl ad campaigns has been the "I'm Going to Disney World" ads for the past 20 years.

Other famous Super Bowl commercials include:

• A Master Lock ad from 1974, where a sharpshooter shoots at a Master lock, while the lock remains strong, thereby testing its durability.
• An ad for Xerox copiers from 1977. A monk named Brother Dominic needs to make 500 copies of a manuscript, so he journeys to an office and makes the copies.
• A 1984 commercial for Apple Computer directed by Ridley Scott. A giant video screen, featuring the IBM "God", who designates people as slaves to IBM. Then, a person swings a blunt object at the screen, destroying it. The commercial ends with "On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce the Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984."
• The famous Bud Bowl campaign from 1989.
• A McDonald's campaign from 1993 featuring a showdown between basketball legends Larry Bird and Michael Jordan. While not as famous, it was successful nonetheless.
• The Budweiser Frogs from 1995, which famously coined the line "Buddd. Weissss. Errr."
• A commercial for the Nissan Maxima from 1997, where a flock of pigeons (one of whom is voiced by John Ratzenberger) tries to "bomb" the shiny new Nissan, but the garage door protects it.
• A 1999 commercial for Monster.com featured kids talking about what they want to be when they grow up. "When I grow up, I want to have a brown nose." "When I grow up, I want to work in middle management." This is famous for being one of the first .com commercials.
• Another commercial for Budweiser, this time from 2003. In the Arctic, a zebra is watching a replay TV, which is showing the famous Budweiser Clydesdale's feet. A man remarks "That referee's a jackass", to which another replies, "No, I think he's a zebra."
• Office Linebacker, a commercial series for Reebok which first aired during Super Bowl XXXVII. The commercial featured Lester Speight as "Terrible" Terry Tate, an American Football linebacker giving out pain to those in the office who are not obeying the rules.
• For Super Bowls XXXVIII and XXXIX, The NFL Network did a series of ads featuring players and coaches of teams who didn't make the Super Bowl singing the song "Tomorrow" from the Musical Annie, each ad ending with the line "As of Tomorrow, we're all undefeated again."
• From Super Bowl XL in 2006, a Mobile ESPN ad called Sports Heaven, in which a sports fan walks through a star-studded sports universe, passing dozens of famous athletes.
• Also during Super Bowl XL in 2006, a commercial geared to a female audience: In Dove's "Campaign for Real Beauty", pictures of girls who are insecure about their appearance were shown, spreading the word that beauty is more than skin deep.

External links

• links to all the recent Super Bowl ads
• a large selection of the ads from Super Bowl XL

Super Bowl | Television commercials