Larry Hagman was born in Fort Worth, Texas, to Mary Martin and his father was Benjamin Jack Hagman, who was a district attorney. When his parents divorced, Larry Hagman at age five went to live with his grandmother, in both Texas and California. His mother had become a famous actress by this time and began to bring her son to her movies. His mother married Richard Halliday and from that union Hagman’s sister Heller was conceived.

Influenced by his mother, Hagman began his acting career in Dallas, Texas, as a production assistant and began acting in small roles in Margo Jones during the 1950s. His two most notable acting accomplishments of the time were that he appeared in The Taming of the Shrew in New York City and also in 1951 he worked with his mother in the London production of South Pacific for one year.

He joined the Air Force but his love of acting brought him back to New York after leaving the military, where he appeared in the Off-Broadway play Once Around the Block, which was a William Sarovan project and Hagman earned great reviews for his part. His next project was yet another Off-Broadway play entitled James Lee’s Career.

Hagman switched to television but struggled for years to find a starring role yet made numerous guest appearances on many popular TV programs. His first major television role came in 1965 as he won the role of Major Anthony Nelson in the iconic series I Dream of Jeanie where he starred opposite the beautiful Barbara Eden. The show became a top ten hit its first year and was NBC’s answer in the ratings war with BeWitched and My Favorite Martian.

It was Hagman’s wife who later suggested he read the role of J.R. Ewing on Dallas. Hagman was cast as conniving older son and businessman who everybody loved to hate. Dallas originally had been written around Patrick Duffy and Victoria Principals characters but with the emergence of J.R. Ewing’s popularity by the third season the full focus of the show turned to Hagman’s character. When media frenzy around “Who Shot JR?” took off it made Hagman arguably the most popular actor in America for that period of time.

The television show Dallas ran for 13 seasons making it one of the longest running and most successful shows in television history. At the end of its 13^th season Dallas had 357 episodes and Hagman is the only actor who appeared in all of them.

After serving in World War II, Cosell started his law practice in Manhattan focusing on union law. Willie Mays along with other professional athletes and actors was part of his clients. The legendary baseball icon Jackie Robinson became Cosell’s professional as well as personal inspiration to him in his career. Cosell made it no secret that Robinson had long been his sports hero.

Cosell’s first broadcasting stint was with ABC Radio, where he had to get his own company sponsor in order to get air time for his show “Speaking of Sports” because the station couldn’t afford to spend money on undeveloped talent.

Years later his career in sports journalism got a huge boost as Cosell became the primary broadcaster covering a brash new professional boxer by the name of Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., better known as Muhammad Ali. Despite their obvious different personalities the two became friends and feeding off each other they both became two of the most popular people in America, if not the world.

Ali, known for his brash predictions in his fights and Cosell’s very unique style of reporting worked to transform sports broadcasting from being a mere play by play commentary to more of an in-depth reporting style. Cosell’s style really brought forth the full stories behind not only the sporting event he covered but the stories behind the athletes themselves. His style of broadcasting set a new standard that all other sports commentators were expected to meet.

Ironically, the same person who helped bring Howard Cosell his most fame also was a big part of the worst period of public enmity Cosell received when he backed Ali after the boxer’s championship title was stripped from him for refusing military service during the Vietnam War. Several years later Cosell and Ali found vindication when the United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of returning Ali’s title.

Howard Cosell passed away on April 23, 1995, and arguably no other man has ever left a more lasting impression in the world of sports and more specifically in sports broadcasting.

The latest episode started with Bianca worried that Chastity would find out that she kissed Joey because it was caught on the security camera. Well even after the tape was erased by Cameron Bianca still ends up telling Chastity about the kiss. This leads into a whirlwind of backlashes that is sure to keep the series moving along for several episodes to come.

Having never watched 10 Things I Hate About You, I was mildly entertained by the whole younger generation layout of the show. It strangely reminded me of the cast of Gray’s Anatomy but still in puberty, if that makes any sense. The feel of 10 things I Hate About You has a very “girly” tone in that this is the type of show appeals to most women, no matter their age, because the writers definitely are focusing on many of the topics that surely came up in all of our days of school and growth.

The cast is great together and they play their characters very well.  The show makes sense without any strange stuff that you would stop and say, “That would never happen” which really makes the funny and often silly situations these young adults struggle over appear more real.

What I liked about the premiere was that they brought in just a handful of new characters and didn’t go overboard with it. FlashForward is already a pretty intricate show so instead of bringing in a lot more new characters that might have made the series confusing they went in another direction and essentially did a better job at developing the newer characters that had already been introduced to us during the last few episodes in 2009.

What I took from the show was that it seems inevitable that Mark’s wife Olivia is going to leave him and get together with Lloyed which will send Mark off the wagon. Yet, it appears that the two will be working hand in hand on trying to prevent a second flash forward event from happening. What a dramatic set of events that is already shaping up to be.

One of the two geniuses that cooked up and engineered the flash forward machine has quite an interesting history. He turns out to be Suspect Zero, you know, the guy caught on camera walking around the baseball stadium while the rest of the world is turning upside down. As it so happens he is also one is a hair short of being a fully deranged maniac who proves to be a killer with little or no conscious… And that is just the tip of what makes him so pivotal to this series.

Of all the new shows that came out in 2009 I think you would be hard pressed not to count Flashforward as one of the top shows and this series just continues to get more interesting and more entertaining as it goes along.

I have no idea what these parents were thinking to be honest.  A young beautiful teenager living under the same roof with a handsome, foreign teenage guy… I mean what did they really expect to happen?

Anyway, the reality show is called First Love, Second Chance and it is about these two teenagers meeting again, but 29 years later! They are brought back together after all this time and discover that they are still in love with each other. Yes, they have grown children and she even has a boyfriend who she is in love with.

I found First Love, Second Chance to be a surprisingly interesting show that had a lot of different scenarios to be worked out. I mean, you didn’t even know if these two people would even be able to relate to each other after almost three decades apart. You didn’t really know if they even wanted to still be with each other until the very last five minutes or so of the show.

I’m not going to do any spoilers, but I think you will be surprised by what happened with this couple. Take a look at the entire show over at First Love, Second Chance on TV Land, and then come back and tell me what you thought about this new reality show.  I’d love for you to share your comments.

His father was a high school principle and Jerry Mathers made his first television commercial at the tender age of two for PET milk. In 1967 he graduated from Notre Dame High School, located in Sherman Oaks, California.  He went on to graduate college with a BA degree in Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley in 1973.

As a child star he appeared in several movies that included This is My Love and also in Men of the Fighting Lady in 1954. Then in 1955 he played roles in the movies The Seven Little Foys and The Trouble with Harry.

However, his greatest fame came when he won over the producer of Leave It to Beaver and garnered the role of Beaver Cleaver. This turned out to be a role he played for six successful years as he appeared in all 234 episodes of the show. Jerry  Mathers was the intricate part that helped the show to go on and be counted as one of the classics in the annals of television sitcoms. Rumor has it that Mathers told the producer at his audition that he would rather be at his Boy Scout meeting, rather than doing the interview. The producer liked him so much that he still offered him the role.

Other than Mathers, the other co-stars of the Leave It to Beaver were Barbara Billingsley, who played the role of June Cleaver, Tony Dow played Beaver’s older brother Wally, and Ken Osmond who played the role of Eddie Haskell. Frank Bank also played Beaver’s best friend, Lumpy, on the show.

Leave It To Beaver has been shown in over 80 countries and in 40 languages and after 50 plus years its merchandising still pays Jerry Mathers an income as he was the first child actor to make a deal to get a percentage of the merchandising revenue from a television show.

Don Cornelius hosted Soul Train for 22 years, from 1971 to 1993. However, he continued to own the franchise until 2008, when it was sold to MadVision Entertainment.

Don Cornelius, through his show, literally was the only TV personality who broadcast on a national level that brought the distinct sound of R&B and Soul music to Americans from coast to coast. Soul Train was the only primary television show that offered Soul singers an opportunity to perform live and get large-scale exposure. Because of this, Don Cornelius became one of the most influential people in the music industry.

Don Cornelius was very influential in not only getting new artist and their music out into the mainstream, but he also got all the latest and greatest dance moves put on display for everyone to see and imitate.

Cornelius had several catchphrases that stuck in American culture, the most popular is his closing remarks after every show; “… and you can bet your last money, it’s all gonna be a stone gas, honey! I’m Don Cornelius, and as always in parting, we wish you love, peace and soul!”

There is now an annual Soul Train Music Awards that honor the top performers in the R&B category each year.

The Avengers

Some speculate that because the show had a live studio look and feel, it made it less appealing to American audiences which had abandoned that type of television years ago. Not only that, but American censors also rejected some of the content of the series such as when Steed, played masterfully by Patrick Macnee, is shown stripping down to his underwear for decontamination in one episode. In another episode the character Mrs. Gale, played by the lovely Honor Blackman, was shown in a black lace brassiere, which was not unusual for the more relaxed British audience, but far to open a scene for the American censors at the time.

Perhaps the most popular female stars of The Avengers was Emma Peel, which was played by the beautiful Diana Riggs. Of the many co-stars that played along side Patrick Macnee, it is widely conceded that Diana Riggs made for the best chemistry between the two for the series.

The Avengers aired for eight successful sessions from 1961 to 1969, which was the longest continuously running espionage series to date. The spy series was so popular that it ran in syndication in some 90 countries making it one of the most successful television shows of all time. Seven years after the original series ended the show was brought back to television by ITV who dubbed the new version of the series simply as The New Avengers. Patrick Macnee continued his role as John Steed while he got a new sidekick in Joanna Lumley.

Joanna Lumley was the latest of Steed’s pretty female partners from the long list of beauties. The Avengers female stars such as Honor Blackman and Dianna Rigg went on to become Bond girls in the extremely popular James Bond series of movies. Honor Blackman starred opposite Sean Connery in Gold Finger while Riggs starred in the bond film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service in 1965, in which Riggs played James Bond’s only wife.

They have assembled an excellent team of actors and actresses with many being familiar faces to me such as; Cliff Curtis, Derek Luke and Aimee Garcia. What really separates this show from others is the intensity of many of the tragic scenes which the actors did not undercut with poor acting. The acting in my opinion was top notch and it really made you believe these emergency, first on the scene, rescuers cared about saving the victims. It was portrayed exactly how you would hope it happens in real life.

For whatever reasons the special effects, you know the collisions and explosions and the rolling tumbling scenes, seem to be at a higher standard than most made-for-TV series. I mean this series really shows some life-like catastrophes, which I’m sure is taking a toll on their production budget.  But it sure impressed the heck out of me.

Overall, I really would have to say from this one show I watched that Trauma is much better than I ever imagined. It already has like 10 other episodes, which now I “gotta” go back and watch to get a better feel of the chemistry between the actors.  Hopefully, like such shows as 24 and Grey’s Anatomy, Trauma will stay on my must watch every week list.

Babylon 5

The five mile long space station was created to be a place where all the races of the galaxies could come together and foster peace for everyone. What it turned out to be was a centralized place for political intrigue and then, over time, it became the centerpiece of galactic war.

Continuing on what George Lucas began with Stars Wars, Michael Straczynski, who was the primary writer and producer of Babylon 5, introduced a large number of new and strange looking alien beings to garner the attention of the audience.

There were five main races during the shows early episodes. They included the Narn, Centauri, Minbari, Vorlons and of course, Humans. Later in the series a dark, more sinister race named Shadows were introduced. Along the way there were dozens of other races introduced throughout the story lines.

I personally didn’t ever warm up to the series, though I was obviously in the minority for most people loved the show and it reflected as much in its strong ratings.  Babylon 5 garnered several awards including two Hugo Awards for Best Dramatic Presentation, and two more Emmy Awards for visual effects and makeup.

If you’re like me, you’ll have to go to the DVD library to catch up on this cult classic.  It’s an obvious gem in the annals of science fiction television that simply didn’t catch my eye during its peak, but thanks to modern technology we don’t have to miss out on this one altogether.

I particularly like the fact that they were able to deal with some fairly common issues such as divorce and how it affects the children.  One scene, where the son left home to go be with his father only to discover that his father wasn’t willing to make time for him, is an all too common real life tragedy that you hear about all the time. Parenthood brought this scene out very well without over doing it by just allowing the characters to display their emotions.

It seemed the show touched on several issues that plague many people’s daily lives including children outside of marriage – and interracial at that. It not only revealed the emotions of one generation of children but also the relationship of fathers dealing with sons and with the dad of a kid with mental challenges calling on his own father for help and guidance.

The show Parenthood is about going to children’s plays and baseball games. It not only covered the relationships between parents and children but also between brothers, and sisters with them all dealing with life and the tragedies that befall us all at some point and time in our adult lives. Parenthood has set a solid foundation to suck in a large audience after the success of this premiere.

Doritos is a cheese flavored brand of corn chip that was created by Arch West in 1964 for the Frito-Lay company, which is a division of PepsiCo, Inc. The brand holds the title of being the first corn chip to be sold nationally and as early as 1994 it began to produce about one third of the company’s entire gross sales.

In recent years Frito-Lay has advertised heavily during the NFL’s Super Bowl and it has paid off big for the company. One of the most talked about Super Bowl commercials was produced by the company came back in 1995 when it featured two recently-defeated US state governors in Mario Cuomo and Ann Richards.  As part of the commercial the two politicians discussed change, leading viewers to think politically when in fact they were talking about the new packaging for Doritos. This was a very popular commercial that received a lot of attention even before it aired.

In 1998 a former Miss USA winner named Ali Landry was cast in a Doritos commercial for that year’s Super Bowl.  The ad was a simple one showing Ali in a laundry mate catching Doritos chips in her mouth.  The ad was such a huge success that Frito-Lay signed Landry, who became known simply as “The Doritos Girl”, to a lucrative three-year contract.

“Crash the Super Bowl” was the theme for the XLI Super Bowl commercial where Doritos launched a contest that allowed consumers to create their own Doritos Commercial. A similar theme was used in the 2009 Super Bowl which paid the creators of the winning fan made commercial a cool 1 million dollar check for their laughable “Crystal Ball” commercial.

For the 2010 Super Bowl the company plans on airing three fans created commercials. If any or all of the commercials land in the top three positions in the Ad Meter contest, they stand to win a share of a huge $5 million dollar purse, plus each commercial maker would get an additional $1 million.

I can’t wait to see what three Super Bowl Commercials Doritos will enter this year. If history repeats itself, as it often does, these should be some very interesting and fun shots. Bookmark the page now; I’ll have at a minimum the best of the three commercials available right here for your entertainment.

E-Trade is a company based out of New York City, or anywhere you have an Internet connection. It is one of the most popular holdings companies in the world with its major business being an online stock brokerage service for investors who want to take the reins from a broker and stay more in control of their own stocks, bonds and mutual fund choices.

Part of what has made the company so popular is their investment dollars in Super Bowl commercials where they’ve scored big points with their “Talking Baby” commercials which first appeared during Super Bowl® XLII. The expensive, yet massive viewer ship of the Super Bowl spots, it cost a cool 3 million dollars for the 2009 commercial spot, certainly helped put the company in front and center of the investment world.

One of the cleverest marketing approaches ever the E-trade Super Bowl commercial featured a baby in front of a Web cam discussing investing and finance in an adult voice. The commercial was so popular that the talking baby returned for the next year’s Super Bowl® XLIII, along with several new few friends.

Since his debut this little toddler has won the hearts of viewing audiences, including my own, and has really become a pop icon in his own right with mentions on late night and early morning talk shows. There is even a Facebook fan page as well as updates on Twitter and videos found on YouTube.

I personally can’t wait to see what E-Trade has to offer for the 2010 Super Bowl Commercial. Last year’s “Talk Baby” Commercial again scored high points in the Super Bowl Commercial ranking charts. Last time around they introduced not only a talking baby but a singing baby as well.

What will the new E-Trade Commercial be about, well, bookmark this page right now and you’ll possibly known as soon as Super Bowl night as the new commercial will be posted right here for your viewing pleasure.

Go Daddy quickly learned in 1995 that Super Bowl Commercials with all their exposure can dramatically sky-rocket their domain sales. It was very evident In Super Bowl XVlll when their two commercials helped increase their domain registrations by a whopping 110%

If you’ve been under a rock and haven’t heard of them, Go Daddy is an Internet Domain Registrar and also provides web hosting. They are in fact the largest company of its kind and no doubt their always popular Super Bowl commercials have had a lot to do with it. The Go Daddy commercials are known for their sexy and even controversial nature. Without a doubt the super sexy Candice Michelle who first got notoriety as a WWE wrestler, then her Go Daddy commercial became so popular that she has become known as “The Go Daddy Girl“.

Joining the ranks of the Go Daddy Girl lineup in 2006 was Danica Patrick of Indy Car fame. She has become a prominent member of the Go Daddy Commercials.  In the 2009 Super Bowl Danica took not one but five showers in this steamy commerical known simply as “The Shower“ that got a lot of attention but it was Go Daddy’s “Baseball” commercial that got the votes as being the better clip.

I can’t wait to see what the Go Daddy team will have up their sleeve for this year Super Bowl Commercial line up – If they don’t make them so steamy they get banned…  Go Daddy does make it a point to push the envelope. Hopefully Candice and Danica will give us something to remember. Be sure to add this post to your favorites list, and you can even Twitter it so all your friends can watch the 2010 commercial right here. We’ll be posting them maybe as soon as Super Bowl night.

We all know how popular the Coca Cola company is and one of the biggest reasons behind their success is that they know when and where to invest their advertising dollars to gain maximum exposure. The company, based in Atlanta Georgia, claims that their soft drink which is most commonly known as Coke, is sold in more than 200 countries around the world. 

Coca Cola has long been one of the key players when it comes to Super Bowl Commercials and they have no plans on ending that trend anytime soon. In last years 2009 Super Bowl the company had multiple spots spending at least 3 million per commercial to get maximum exposure for not only their flag ship product Coca Cola but also for Coke Zero, which is their sugar free version of the original.

Last year the Coca Cola Commercial entitled “The Picnic” gained the company a lot of attention because of the uniqueness of the commercial. An imaginary new styles of commercials that helped the company maintain its strangle-hold on the soft drink industry.

Be sure to Twitter this post to all of your friends, and Facebook us as well as we plan on being one of the first to post the new Coke commercials so you can get a first look right here.

Budweiser is one of the most popular beers made in the U.S.A. and the lager style of brewing was introduced in 1876 by Adolphus Busch. Since its inception the brand and the company has grown to become one of the highest selling beers in the country.

Part of the success behind the beer’s popularity has been its marketing symbols such as the Clydesdale Horses that are known from coast to coast. Just the mention of the name or whenever I see a picture of one of these magnificent animals I have to admit that one of the first things that come to my mind is Budweiser Beer.

Budweiser has used the massive exposure of the annual NFL Super Bowl game to keep its brand fixed solidly in every beer drinker in the land.  The advertising spots for last year’s Super Bowl Commercials were reported to cost in the neighborhood of $200,000 per second. Meaning a 15 minute commercial would cost $3,000,000 and Budweiser chose to run three different commercials last year.

One in particular was the very funny “Meet­ing” (Bud Light) Super Bowl Commercial where a guy is thrown out a window for joking about no longer drinking the light beer version of Budweiser. They also came in with the traditional “Clydesdales/Generations” Commercial that again helped cement the long standing tradition on viewers’ minds. The 2010 Super Bowl is right around the corner, lets see what Budweiser has in store this time around for the mania that is the Super Bowl Commercials.

In 2000 Boost Mobile was founded in Australia and in New Zealand by Peter Adderton. The company is now actually a division of Nextel and was brought over to America originally to compete for the teen and young adult market. Boost Mobile quickly grew to become a national provider of very low cost cellular phone service and were one of the first to offer a flat rate unlimited calling plan.

Positioning itself to become a major player in the wireless communications market Boost Mobile has decided to follow the example of other companies that were in the up and rising mode and chose to establish there brand via the massive exposure of the NFL’s Super Bowl Game.

Boost Mobile did not run a commercial during the 2009 Super Bowl but they’ve thrown their hat into the 2010 Super Bowl Commercial frenzy opting to spend millions of dollars for a 15 second commercial spot that will expose their services to perhaps a 100 million viewers.

We have to see how creative their commercial will be and how they will attempt to leave a lasting impression in the viewers minds. There have been many other companies such as Go Daddy and E-Trade that has used the grand stage of the Super Bowl to successfully expand their sales dramatically. But each had one thing in common… They developed Super Bowl Commercials that are hard to forget. That’s Boost Mobile’s challenge for the up coming 2010 Super Bowl Commercial derby.

Bookmark, Twitter and FaceBook this post to all of your friends and lets all cast a vote on whether Boost Mobile Super Bowl Commercial hits the target or not. We plan to post it right here for your enjoyment.

Levi Strauss & Co has been in business in the United States since 1853 and began to specials in what we consider modern jeans since the 1920s. The popular Dockers brand of the company has been around only since 1986 and quickly became a leader in the business casual cloths category for men.

Dockers have not made a commercial for the Super Bowl since 2002, but are again entering into the highly publicized, not to mention scrutinized, mania that is the annual Super Bowl Commercial spree.  This is quite frankly the biggest push I can recall Dockers making to help solidify their position in the business casual clothing line in a long while. Certainly they wouldn’t spend the millions of dollars it takes just to get to the Super Bowl Commercial dance if they weren’t looking to boost their sales.

For the 2010 Super Bowl Commercial run the company is to release a commercial entitled “Men Without Pants”.  It seems to be about a bunch of guys walking through a field proclaiming they are men who don’t wear pants… Then their singing of this ridiculous anthem is interrupt with a proclamation “Calling all Men – it’s time to Wear the Pants.”

It sounds pretty funny but who is to say how well it will rank with some of the top dogs in the Super Bowl race to be the highest ranked commercial of 2010.  Again, it sounds like a solid stroke of marketing that should stick in your mind long after its Super Bowl premier, but only time will tell. Here is a sneak-peak clip just for you – Dockers.

Monster.com was arguably the first employment website to become a household name.  As of 2006 Media Metrics reported that Monster.com was one of the top 20 most visited websites in the world. Monster.com has established a stranglehold on the job search market and is the largest job related search engine in the world. It is reported to have a million job postings at any given time plus over 150 million resumes filled its database as of 2008. There is no guessing how the recession has affected them but, you would think they would have more business from job seekers than ever.

Part of the popularity of Monster.com is the name itself.  It’s distinct and memorable, very much like its humors television commercials. In 2009 it ran a laugh out loud and bizarre commercial about a guy working at the feet of a moose.  This became a popular commercial and the nearly 100 million 2009 Super Bowl viewers really took to it.  At an average of 3,000,000 dollars for one 15 second commercial their marketing team came up with a unique clip that stood out from the crowd… In other words they hit a home-run with it.

The commercial and the volume of new business from their 2009 Super Bowl spot was so good that they will run a new commercial for the 2010 Super Bowl featuring a live beaver, of all things, according to a report on the New York Times. Despite last years success Monster.com is sure to have some stiff competition and have to deliver another unique and memorable commercial to make the multi-million dollar investment pay off again.

Motorola, the big cellular phone manufacturer out of Schaumburg, Illinois has decided to jump into the limelight of cast by the NFL’s Super Bowl game. The rumors began right after the 2009 Super Bowl that Motorola would develop their own commercial for 2010 and it seems to be true.

However, Motorola is being very secretive about the project and has only disclosed a simple shot of a very nice looking bathroom as a teaser as to what’s to come. Their also is word spreading that there will be a big star who gets out of or gets into the tub, but they won’t say who that star is.

I don’t know what impact Motorola’s Super Bowl Ad will have, but they certainly get cool points for building up the anticipation.  Without a doubt sex sells and it will be interesting who the company chose as the top sexy person, out of all the sexy people in the world, which they would use for their high priced Super Bowl advertising venture.

In 2009 the Super Bowl was watched by some 98 million fans and you just can’t get this volume of media saturation anywhere else, so the last year’s going price of $200,000 per second was well worth it for companies that produced the more appealing ads.  Traditionally, many Super Bowl advertisers see a huge sales increase and certainly this is what Motorola expects too. Let’s see who what star they are depending on to make their commercial standout from the crowd.

Volkswagen, the auto manufacturer out of Germany, is going to run a Super Bowl Commercial during this 2010 game.  The Volkswagen Super Bowl 2010 ad marks the first time in nine years since the company has run a commercial during the Super Bowl.

It will be interesting what approach the foreign auto maker will take with its super bowl ad. With so many companies shooting for humor and even sexiness in their commercials it will be interesting if Volkswagen will follow suite.

To be quite honest, I can’t think of a Volkswagen television ad that sticks out in my own mind. Sure, I know the brand and the reputation for excellence because they’ve been selling cars since 1937, but I truly can’t think of anything that I may see or be doing that would make me think of Volkswagen.

Certainly, if a company is going to spend millions of dollars on a 15 second commercial you would imagine it would have to stand out as one of the best for the year. The word is they are basing the commercial around a game called “Punch Buggy”. I’m not real familiar with the game but it sounds humorous.

As we all know, the competition is fierce when it comes to producing a high performing ad for the big game. It’s almost a festival type spirit and I’m just very intrigued to see what Volkswagen will give us.

One of the biggest laugh-out-loud commercials of the 2009 Super Bowl was the one from Doritos entitled “Crystal Ball.”  This is one of those commercials that are so stupid you just have to laugh.

Frito-Lay, who markets both Doritos and Cheetos snacks, invested some heavy advertisement dollars in the 2009 Super Bowl commercials by running four commercials in 2009.  Based on reported advertisement costs, it may have cost them as much as $12 million to get their brands in front of the 98.7 million viewers who watched the 2009 Super Bowl.

In particular I enjoyed the Doritos Crystal Ball commercial mainly because it was flat-out one of the funniest commercials I’ve ever seen. Instead of having one punch line, this commercial actually had two inside of its 30-second time slot. This particular video was ranked 1st in its category by USA Today’s Ad Meter focus groups.

The commercial revolves around two guys in an office environment, chatting in a break room area. One of them has a snow globe, which he believes to be a crystal ball.  Using the globe, albeit not as intended, he ends up getting “free” Doritos for the day.  The other guy is skeptical but decides to go for it.  His results, however, were less than spectacular.

This again was a very stupid, yet hilarious Super Bowl commercial that I’m sure the millions of viewers enjoyed at least as much as I did.

Part of Frito-Lay’s approximate $12,000,000 advertisement barrage during the 2009 Super Bowl commercials included the Doritos Lucky Day commercial.  This commercial is a mix of funny, sexy and ironic all rolled into one 30 second, $3 million commercial.

I have to admit that this particular commercial was definitely one you wouldn’t soon forget, especially the super-sexy part in the very beginning when the guy crunches into a Doritos Corn Chip and this beautiful woman’s clothing goes flying off. I don’t care who you are, that would at least make you pause.

Next he walks up to an ATM and crunches another chip and cash starts flying out, although he is too busy munching on his Doritos to get his share of the loot. When a police runs over to see what the commotion is all about another crunch of Doritos turns him into a little circus monkey.

It seems to be a great day for this guy until he runs out of Doritos and gets run over by a bus… There’s irony for you.

This was one of four commercials Frito-Lay threw at us during the 2009 Super Bowl commercial frenzy and Luck Day was one of the better commercials in my opinion. Although it wasn’t funny enough to stick with you long term, it was, however, memorable all the same. I mean it didn’t have a catchy jingle that you couldn’t get out of your head and there wasn’t anything that was so drop-dead funny you couldn’t forget it, but if someone brought it up, you’d remember the Doritos Luck Day commercial for sure.

One of the most expensive 2009 Super Bowl commercials was produced by the Coca Cola Company. This one minute video cost the company somewhere int the neighborhood of $6M to be shown during the Big Game of 2009 considering the going rate was about $100K per second for that year. Well, if there is one company that can afford to dish out that type of money maximum exposure of their product, then Coca Cola would be that one.

The commercial, A Bugs Life, is a mix of animation and reality and uses the angle of cuteness to catch the viewer’s attention. Borderlining on being a science fiction clip, the commercial is about a guy laying down for a nap in the grass with a bottle of Coca Cola by his side when a bug flies in and lands on the cap of the bottle. Well this little bugger calls in several of his friends and they manage to move the bottle away through a mix of clever tricks where it finally arrives at their destination, upside down. There, a huge beetle pops the cap and the bubbly soft drinks splashes down into cup shaped flower petals as even more bugs fly in to take their share of the prize.

There is a very cute end to the commercial as a group of insects form themselves in the shape of a Coca Cola bottle as the real soda is being taken away. The guy awakes and grabs for his drink only to see if flutter away on wings right before his startled eyes.

This was easily one of the coolest special effects commercials of the 2009 Super Bowl run which made it all the more memorable and USA Today’s Ad Meter focus group gave in a 3rd place ranking overall.