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Best Super Bowl 2012 Commercials: Our Favorite Ads From Sunday Night

The Super Bowl is every bit as well-known these days for its commercials as it is for the football game itself. Sunday night's contest, however, was a bit lacking in the "quality" department as far as the commercials go, in this writer's opinion.

That isn't to say that there weren't any good ads. To the contrary, there were a few good ones. After the jump, I will present you with my five favorite ads from Super Bowl Sunday.

1) Doritos - "Sling Baby"


I don't know how much I need to do to justify putting this as my favorite, but I can sum it up in about four words:

It's. . .a. . .flying. . .baby.

The little guy raising the chip in victory at the end made me laugh out loud, too. I don't mean "LOL"ing, either. . .I mean physically laughing out loud.

2) Trailer for "The Avengers"


I've never really been much of a "comic book" guy, but I know enough about them to be absolutely geeked to see this movie. This movie is going to be an amazing action film. . .or a complete and utter train wreck. Whether it's intentionally or unintentionally, I think I'm going to end up being entertained by it.

3) Chrysler - "It's Halftime In America"


This goes back to last year's ad with Eminem talking about the city of Detroit and how it's on the comeback trail after some rough economic times. The big difference between that ad and this one is pretty simple. . .Clint Eastwood scares the holy hell out of me, and if he tells me that Detroit is on the way back up, then man, I'm inclined to believe him.

4) Volkswagen - "The Dog Strikes Back"


You know, I wanted to put this one higher. I really, really did. Because it was a pretty good ad. . .up until the last ten seconds or so. The dog is so wanting to go out and chase this one particular car so badly that he whips himself into shape, and finally reaches his goal. That part was awesome. Then, at the end, we get a total non-sequitur to a kid in a Vader helmet "force choking" some alien at a bar. That part was dumb. If this ad gets play in the future, I hope they cut off those last 10-15 seconds.

5) Chevrolet - "Happy Grad"


Not only is this a pretty funny ad, it was also submitted as part of a contest. It was done by a guy named Zack Borst, who entered it into Chevy's "Route 66" competition. He beat out hundreds of filmmakers for the right to have his spot shown on Super Bowl Sunday. Congratulations to him!

For even more ads from Super Bowl Sunday, be sure to check out SB Nation's entire Super Bowl Commercial story stream on the main site.

Photographs by Micah Taylor, clairity, and Fibonacci Blue used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.