Best Super Bowl Commercials 2012: David Beckham, Doritos, Clint Eastwood Among Memorable Ads (VIDEO)

As far as the dejected New England Patriots are concerned, there was only one winner at the Super Bowl. And, it wasn't them. But the New York Giants are not the only team that had a banner night. Several of the advertisers and marketing firms behind the night's most popular Super Bowl commercials were likely celebrating by the time that Tom Brady's last-gasp heave to the end zone dropped harmlessly to conclude Super Bowl XLVI.

As usual, there was a bevy of advertisers hoping that showing skin was the way to win. David Beckham's H&M ad certainly got people tweeting. On the other hand, Ms. Brown -- the latest M&M character -- drew raves, in part, for insisting that she was actually fully dressed.

Nearly as lauded as Eli Manning was Doritos, who had two funny ads vying for the top spot on the USA Today Admeter. With so many ads going for laughs, one of the night's most memorable spots differentiated itself by going in an entirely different direction. Clint Eastwood starred in a stirring Chrysler ad and spoke about the revitalization of Detroit and America.

Here are some of the commercials that generated the most positive buzz during the Super Bowl. What was your favorite?

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Comments

[Smaiyna]

11:07 PM on 02/12/2012

Anyone that thinks the Clint Eastwood commercial is political or for the Obama's re-election campaign needs to have his brain examined.

[kapalabhati]

06:15 PM on 02/09/2012

Oh, it's that kind of party!

[nonameavble]

08:45 AM on 02/09/2012

All the money spent on the xar ads should have gone to the debt they still owe the taxpayers. Stupidest was the apocalyptic one placed in this year with the ford guy not making. How much of a bail out did they take?

[huffnduff]

02:11 AM on 02/09/2012

My favorite was the Fiat Commercial. I had no idea what it was about but being a typical hetero male she sure got my attention. Definitely will remember her next time I see a Fiat on the road. Simple & to the point.

[BeanBoo]

04:47 PM on 02/08/2012

Are people getting to be more uptight or did I just not notice it until I started reading comments on articles?? The Doritos commerical is bad because the one pet killed another, the Sketchers commercial was bad because it promotes "animal cruelty," the GoDaddy commercials are too sexy, wah wah wah. What exactly is it that you people want to see? Everyone holding hands (and paws) on top of a rainbow singing "Give Peace a Chance"??? Or would that somehow be offensive to someone?

[wayne64]

12:36 AM on 02/09/2012

Sexy is fine...the death of a pet not so much so.

[BeanBoo]

11:58 AM on 02/09/2012

I get it. I'm an animal lover. However, I don't see the problem with that commercial. It's a joke. It's like the old cartoons where Jerry would blow up Tom and he'd end up in cat heaven. We need to get our sense of humor back.

[WhippetGood]

01:29 AM on 02/09/2012

A bud ad promoting rescue dogs = awesome, a VW ad with a beautiful, happy dog (and a fabulous doggie-themed teaser) = awesome, an ad glorifying the abuse of greyhounds = three pairs of Sketchers immediately tossed in the garbage.

As Wayne64 noted, sexy is fine too, but cat killing . . . not so much.

[OhManOhMan]

12:49 PM on 02/08/2012

Hard to say, there are many good SB ads this year.

Good job people

[lioness39]

12:09 PM on 02/08/2012

The snack ad with the dog having killed the cat sent a terrible message. Loathed it.

[orcinous]

07:29 AM on 02/08/2012

After watching the Beckham commercial, I can see why Roland Martin said to smack someone. Lame commercial, I don't want to look at a man all covered in tatoos, and the underwear was hardly shown in comparison to Beckham. Let's get a shot of some babe like that and see how many women protest.

[mydoglucky]

09:39 AM on 02/08/2012

Think GoDaddy. geesh, it happens to women all the time.

[orcinous]

02:42 AM on 02/09/2012

Although wearing skimpy outfits, they are not showing off that much skin.

[Juli3]

12:32 PM on 02/08/2012

o orcinous;

Spoken like a true hypocrite. Women have to deal with sexual objectification *all the time*! Have you *seen* the Victoria Secret's commercials? And when we *do* protest, you tell us to get over it! Turn about is fair play.
Not mention the fact that Roland Martin is a homophobic creep;

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/CNN-Fire-Roland-Martin/

Peace, Salaam, Shalom, Juli

"The animals of the world exist for their own reasons.
They were not made for humans any more than
black people were made for whites or women for men."

~ Alice Walker ~

[georgecarlin76]

04:29 AM on 02/08/2012

Buds Prohibition Is Over was cool...now end the fraudulent Drug War, fascists.

[Juli3]

08:58 AM on 02/09/2012

Yup, I'm down with that. If they were really concerned about the drug cartels, they *would* end it. Makes you wonder who all *is* profitting (besides private prisons) from the "War on Drugs"

[FDRliberal]

02:30 AM on 02/08/2012

I work in new media but I would rather watch the Republican debate than SB commercials

[wayne64]

02:01 AM on 02/09/2012

No doubt...thought I was the only one....Republican Debate Live !!!

[theaustralian]

12:59 AM on 02/08/2012

commercials are the only true american artform.

[FDRliberal]

02:28 AM on 02/08/2012

Yeah except for, like, Jazz and Abstract Expressionism, etc

[blwllm]

11:52 PM on 02/07/2012

...Clint is the MAN... and WE are America... 4 more years to fix the mess left US is all we need. Obama 2012

[FDRliberal]

02:29 AM on 02/08/2012

Funny....How did it work out that Clint is now an Obama supporter ? Whatever it takes to beat Thurston Romney the 3rd

[blwllm]

03:34 AM on 02/08/2012

Well Gilligan... Lil' Buddy... I'm not so sure anything would be obvious to you...

[zelduh]

03:53 AM on 02/08/2012

He is an intelligent Republican who cares more about country than party.

[zelduh]

03:52 AM on 02/08/2012

Agreed, blwllm!

[belinda65]

07:31 PM on 02/07/2012

The Doritos commercial that implied it's cool to kill cats - thereby propelling one of the oldest and most harmful cliches in the world- and misspelled " nothing" for some dumbing down effect was the epitome of primitivity. Oh wait - the other Doritos commercial where the joke of the slung shot baby is dragged out in slo mo to an Italian aria was close behind. Man, those USA Today "average joe" voters have bad taste. I'm not surprised

[mydoglucky]

09:07 AM on 02/09/2012

Yes, the baby and cat ads bothered me too.

[RickM1969]

06:29 PM on 02/07/2012

How about bulldog racing greyhounds?

[WhippetGood]

11:25 PM on 02/07/2012

That ad sucked because it glorified animal cruelty (i.e., greyhound racing).

The Wego rescue dog ad rocked though.

[Jeffer]

11:49 PM on 02/08/2012

I agree. One, I loved the message regarding rescue dogs. Two, I loved the message that you don't need a pure bred dog. They all deserve love. Three, it was just fun.
And yes, I had a purebred rescue dog. But I'd take lil Wego anyday.

[JerzGirl226]

07:38 PM on 02/09/2012

I loved the Wego ad. Too precious.

[bartandyc]

06:29 PM on 02/07/2012

HAHAHA PEOPLE REALLY WATCH THAT CR-P IT APPEARS THE WORLD IS IN A DOWNWARD SPIRAL LOL, 2 TEAMS THAT SHOULD HAVE NOT BEEN THERE WERE THEN THE LEAST LIKELY WON ? MAKES ONE WONDER !

[jrwest78]

08:18 PM on 02/07/2012

There was only one game that the Giants played this season where they were thoroughly beaten...

Most of the other games, New York brought a physicality on both sides of the ball that I haven't seen since the early version of the Ravens, or when Pittsburgh used to play mean and were able to demoralize opposing lines for a good part of twenty years...

I am a Packer fan, and I remember seeing something from the Giants in week 13 that was hard to ignore: if you actually watched any of their games you would never suggest anything as silly as your critique on either team

I am also not one of New England's loyal supporters, but no other team this past decade has produced more with less talent than they were able to...

They never had a dominant running back, they had good but not exceptional receivers, a quarterback that signaled in plays for most of his college career, a middle-aged and slower version of a 3-4 (the most demanding scheme in the NFL), and the ire from most of the league

You may think that there are bad teams in the NFL, but you are wrong...

wins are worth acknowledging no matter how you try to dismiss them. On any given play, there are tens of thousands of probabilities working themselves out that are too incalculable, and too chaotic to determine a team's worth based on the final score of a game

[Robin Generaux]

11:10 PM on 02/07/2012

Your comment: "2 TEAMS THAT SHOULD HAVE NOT BEEN THERE WERE THEN THE LEAST LIKELY WON ? MAKES ONE WONDER" makes me wonder why you posted this garbage. !

[zelduh]

03:44 AM on 02/08/2012

Me 2!