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Million-Dollar Duds: Many Super Bowl Ads Were Anti-Climactic

BALTIMORE (WJZ)—The New York Giants may have won the big game, but who won the other competition during the Super Bowl?  What was the most talked about commercial?

Mary Bubala has more.

With 111 million viewers tuned in, the stakes of Super Bowl Sunday are as high for advertisers as they are for the players.

"It's become a part of our culture, the Super Bowl has become the most manufactured thing in America," said Matt Doud, president and co-founder of Planit, an advertising and marketing firm in Baltimore.

Doud says many of the commercials were anti-climactic, mainly because companies released clips of the ads days before using social media.

"We all knew what was happening before it happened," Doud said. "So I think that's how our industry is evolving, that the Super Bowl becomes the end, not the beginning of the story."

Doud says the winners are the commercials that used humor effectively, like the Doritos ads, and the ones that told a story, like Chrysler's ad with Clint Eastwood.

"It was cool storytelling, epic in scale, it was inspirational, kind of reinforce the brand of who they are today, got people talking," Doud explained.

Doud says there were a few misses, including the Go Daddy ads, which he calls tacky.

Companies paid about $ 3.5 million for a 30 second spot during Sunday's game. About half of the 70 Super Bowl advertisers circulated their ads online before the game.

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