Best Super Bowl commercials ever

This memorable commercial technically aired before Super Bowl XIV, though it was featured again during the game itself. Pittsburgh's "Mean" Joe Greene, a member of the Steelers' famed Steel Curtain defense, famously downed a Coca-Cola offered to him by a young fan in this ad spot, after which he tossed the boy his game-worn jersey in gratitude. Greene noted later that finishing his lines proved difficult due to excessive burping from drinking the entire bottle.

Similar to Coca-Cola's Mean Joe Greene ad, the Wendy's "Where's the Beef?" campaign started in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl. However, its airing during Super Bowl XVIII propelled it into the national consciousness, with the catchphrase popping up in the 1984 presidential election when Democratic candidate Walter Mondale used it to refer to his rival Gary Hart's economic policies. Quite a long way from some senior citizens trying to find a meat patty.

Apple's iconic introduction to the Macintosh personal computer forever changed the nature of Super Bowl commercials. Directed by famed director Ridley Scott, the one-minute ad featured a drab, dystopian society modeled on George Orwell's "1984." A lone runner, chased by what can be presumed to be the Thought Police, approaches a telescreen filled with the face of a Big Brother-like figure droning on about the virtues of conformity. As the leader's speech hits its crescendo, the runner hurls a sledgehammer right into the screen, causing it to erupt and shocking the crowd. Definitely a dramatic way to sell computers.

Anheuser-Busch's stop-motion showdown between its signature Budweiser and Bud Light brands had the advantage of running multiple commercials during the Super Bowls in which it aired. Often, these Bud Bowls featured greater drama than those Super Bowls, even earning its own sportsbook entries for bettors looking for better action. The campaign started in 1988 for Super Bowl XXIII and aired eight times over the next nine Super Bowls.

Pepsi unveiled its new can design by enlisting the services of the world's biggest supermodel. Cindy Crawford was arguably at her peak in 1992 when the ad aired, and Pepsi cleverly used her sex appeal to draw eyeballs, though the commercial's conceit — that of two boys watching Crawford purchase a Pepsi from a vending machine and drink it — delivered a surprise twist at the end, subverting expectations. It's certainly memorable and not just for Crawford's outfit.

Larry Bird challenging Michael Jordan for his Big Mac seems like a silly premise for a commercial, but it was just the right tone for this meeting of two basketball legends. What better way to poke fun at the otherworldly skills of Larry Legend and Air Jordan than by having them make baskets from outside the gym, in the rafters and from the rooftops of skyscrapers?

Today, director Gore Verbinski is known for directing the first three "Pirates of the Caribbean" films, but back in 1995, he directed one of the most well-known alcoholic beverage advertisements ever: the Budweiser frogs. The frogs, known by their individual names — which happen to consist of the three syllables making up "Budweiser" — were an instant Super Bowl commercial classic, much to the chagrin of parents, who found that their kids recognized the Budweiser frogs just as well as other ad icons. Anheuser-Busch eventually halted the campaign, but the frogs' impact lives on.

Nissan has run only one ad in the Super Bowl, this "Top Gun" parody, replete with Tom Cruise-ish flyboys and Kenny Loggins' immortal "Danger Zone" serving as the soundtrack. A 1997 parody of a film from 1986 might not seem like the freshest idea, but it was a hit with viewers, proving the staying power of the film and the everlasting appeal of scatological avian humor.

Monster.com survived the dot-com crash, likely thanks to the American public's propensity for desiring employment. This clever, no-frills ad featured a number of children articulating various dreams of "being a yes man," "having a brown nose" and "clawing [their] way up to middle management," among various other representations of the drudgery of working adulthood.

2000 was the height of the dot-com bubble, and this was reflected in the advertisements that aired during Super Bowl XXXIV. Few encapsulated the dot-com attitude more than this E*Trade ad, featuring a monkey tapping his feet and clapping to the rhythm of a jaunty salsa tune. At the end, a text overlay states, "Well, we just wasted two million dollars" — a perfect summation of what many dot-com companies' business ethos were.

Electronic Data Systems was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2008, but it left its mark in the advertising world with this original, humorous ad. It was difficult to decipher just what it was EDS actually did, but the sight of a bunch of roughneck cowboy types herding "ten thousand wild short-hairs" was enough to make this commercial a hit with viewers.

Budweiser's 1990s ad campaigns centered around its famous frogs — and later, lizards — but after 9/11, its ads largely became sentimental in nature. This tribute to the Twin Towers featured the famed Budweiser Clydesdales making their way over the Brooklyn Bridge to a spot across the East River. The horses stop as the camera pans to show the space where the World Trade Center once stood, and the Clydesdales bow their heads solemnly — a simple, elegant tribute.

In 2002, Michael Jordan's career was coming to its third and final end. Still, as the pre-eminent face of the NBA, he drove massive advertising dollars to both the league and himself. This Gatorade ad featured the 39-year-old Jordan taking on his 23-year-old incarnation, played by a lookalike who was able to mimic the young Jordan's moves. The play was so seamless, many viewers swore it had to be credited to CGI.

Reebok took a turn for the absurd in 2003, featuring former USFL player Lester Speight as "Terry Tate: Office Linebacker." Tate is the fictional office's enforcer, serving football-style discipline (read: brutal, crushing tackles) on workers who took long breaks, didn't refill the coffee pot and committed various other workplace infractions, usually of a trivial nature. It may not have been the first ad of this nature, but Super Bowl commercials began taking on an absurdist, violently humorous tone as the 2000s went on.

The Tom Hanks film "Cast Away" featured the actor as a FedEx employee whose company plane went down, stranding him on a desert island for four years. Hanks, ever the dutiful company man, returned a package that stayed with him on the island to its intended recipient. FedEx's Super Bowl XXXVII ad gently spoofed the film's ending, featuring a great twist as to the package's contents.

Ameriquest's lending policies helped contribute to the 2008 economic crisis, but prior to that disaster, the company's "Don't judge too quickly. We won't," campaign was an effective tool to reach borrowers looking for an easier time getting loans. Of course, this attitude allowed for the types of loans that would edge the country toward disaster, but in the service of an easy laugh, this commercial featuring a well-intentioned man's home-cooking plans gone awry served its function well.

The sight of octogenarians Betty White and Abe Vigoda struck a chord with viewers, who gobbled up Snickers' celebrity-laden "You're not you when you're hungry" campaign. The candy bar company apparently sensed that the sight of the former Golden Girl getting demolished by a tackle would go well. Just an evolution from prior campaigns like the Reebok office linebacker spot years before, only with senior citizens.

The city of Detroit was already beset by economic woes before the 2008 crisis, and its seemingly perpetual path to recovery has been a much-written and talked-about subject in the United States. The automotive industry, of course, is inextricably linked with Detroit's rise and fall, and this ad from Chrysler appealed to the city's — and the nation's — hopes of getting things back on track. Chrysler decided to spotlight its all-new 200 featuring Detroit's Eminem, showcasing the company's Motor City bona fides.

Volkswagen walked a fine line between cute and funny but handled it with aplomb in this 2012 ad for its Passat line of cars. Balancing the adorableness of the young child was the sight of the kid in his Darth Vader costume — which, admittedly, was still pretty adorable. The young Sith Lord tries desperately to move things using the Force, growing more and more discouraged as he fails. Upon his dad's return in the family's new Passat, he gives it one last try — and starts the car. Dad, inside the house, puts away his key fob.

Post-2008, domestic car companies played largely to the public's desire for a return to the halcyon days of the American working spirit. Nothing embodied this romantic view of days past than the farmer, and Dodge sagely utilized legendary radio broadcaster Paul Harvey's speech "So God Made a Farmer." Delivered to the 1978 Future Farmers of America Convention, Harvey weaved an evocative tale of the hardship and sacrifice inherent in the farmer's toil, and Dodge set a series of photographs of rural America to his words in this powerful, unforgettable ad.

Doritos launched its "Crash the Super Bowl" ad campaign in 2006, asking consumers to submit their self-made commercials and awarding contest winners cash prizes, Super Bowl tickets and airtime during the big game. While early winners stayed with a conventional musical- or product-driven slant, the contest winners grew more absurdist in tone as ads evolved into the 2010s. Doritos' 2013 winner, featuring a Doritos-mad goat and the owner trying to rid himself of the beast, hit the tone perfectly, and viewers took to it.

One company that didn't go down the path of weird ad spots was Anheuser-Busch, which continued to use Budweiser's storied Clydesdales effectively and usually with no small dose of sentiment. In this 2013 spot, a young ranch hand raises a foal to a strapping Clydesdale, selected to represent — who else — Budweiser. Their goodbye and subsequent reunion is expressly designed to make eyes wet, and it does its job admirably, never coming off as cloying or saccharine.