Best and Worst Super Bowl Ads

(CBS)  Some of the commercials during the Super Bowl were awesome, while others didn't quite make it.

For its 20th year, USA Today conducted its Super Bowl Ad Meter, a live rating system that gets viewers' impressions in real-time on game day. And, for the first time, a Snickers commercial featuring legendary actress Betty White grabbed the No.1 spot.

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White is pummeled by 20-something football players in the advertisement. Actor Abe Vigoda also gets knocked off his feet by the young players in the ad.

The No. 2 spot was seized by amateur ad man, Joshua Svoboda, a 24-year-old from Raleigh, N.C. Laura Petrecca, business reporter at USA Today, explained on "The Early Show" that every year for the last few years, Doritos has asked regular consumers to create ads and to submit them to their Web site.

Svoboda's ad shows a dog putting his dog collar around his master's neck that shocks him and allows him to get into a bag of Doritos.

Svoboda won $600,000 because the ad ranked second on the USA Today Ad Meter. If it had ranked No. 1, he would have won $1 million. Petrecca said Svoboda only spent $200 making the advertisement.

Bud Light's house of cans advertisement also scored high on the Ad Meter test, Petrucca said. The ad shows what happens when friends and family are invited over to a house made entirely of full Bud Light cans.

Petrucca said the ad was so successful because it's quirky and full of one-liners.

"Great writing in that ad," Petrucca said.

Another ad that made a splash on game day was the David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey and Jay Leno advertisement. Petrucca said it was "such a wonderful surprise."

Pulled together by Letterman, the ad features Leno and Letterman at a Super Bowl party with Oprah between the late night hosts, acting as peacemaker.

Petrucca said to shoot the advertisement, Jay Leno had to sneak into Letterman's studio, wearing a fake mustache, sunglasses and a sweatshirt so no one would notice him.

"Early Show" co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez said, "But the chin had to give him away! That was definitely my favorite."

Rodriguez said her second favorite was the Google commercial that followed a love connection through Google searches.

Petrucca said that wasn't a great rater in their test, but online it generated a lot of buzz.

The E-Trade ads with the talking babies scored high again this year, Petrucca said. However, some ads missed the mark, scoring low on the Ad Meter, including shoemaker Sketchers and Web domain seller GoDaddy.com.

[daonlybear]

Surprised nobody mentioned the E-Trade baby's..."Milk-a-What!!? Pure comedy....also, Will I Am's "My Generation" by the Who. Who? You had to "be there" to understand and appreciate the spot....still doesn't make me want to buy a Flo.tv. Why pay for something I can still get for free. Didn't care one iota about the game...I'm only here for the commercials...!!

[CBSisCommunist5]

The green police.

Obama will start that soon....

[cbserforjoy]

Did Betty White actually out-Megan Megan Fox? Betty was also funnier than Megan :)

[ALBrainTrust10]

KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY MAMA AND PUT THE CHIP BACK!!!

LOVED IT!

[lavernelong]

booty call,this is not a booty call,just someone she has asked off.all men look at women like that.it's a joke.booty calls,don't come with kids

[pragmatist1]

The ads show a steady decline in humanity, taking the pulse of what the young really think, assaulting old people or causing pain to others is hardly humorous. Ironically, the joke's on them, because before they know it, they too will be the object of another's ridiculous and sick ire.

[nwowl]

come on - it's just humor, I think it's great Betty White is a star again even if for a little while, and people will be looking up her and Abe Vigoda's history and maybe appreciating them more. Says something as well that the Go Daddy ads absolutely fell flat - maybe humor sells more than sex? Wouldn't be a bad thing these days.

[chaseangus]

Hooray for Betty White. Nice to see the Doritos booty call ad didn't make it to the "top".

[tomr2619]

When will CBS have a Republican response to Obama's free Superbowl ad? I know Couric favors any democrat but this was ridiculous.

[bobnjersey]

[When will CBS have a Republican response to Obama's free Superbowl ad?]

why bother ... doesn't everyone already know what the response will be?

[erich_1-2009]

...also the guys running around with there pants on the ground and moaning about emasculation is OK, CRUDITY is OK, and exploitation of women is OK, but if you do a 30 second Pro-Life commercial the women feminist's explode.

Frankly, that commercial should not have upset anyone! The women feminist's are hypocrites!

[AllennellA]

Are you really claiming to have done a SURVEY of femisist responses to Super Bowl ads? Is that your claim?

"...also the guys running around with there pants on the ground and moaning about emasculation is OK, CRUDITY is OK, and exploitation of women is OK,"

There's always some response like this one... like the guy has actually read a "feminist" magazine to know what they are saying. Big assumption pal... you set up a fine Straw Man to knock down. ;-)

How do you know there are no complaints about that? Are you reading or looking at media or social outlets where (what you'd call) feminists would be complaining about that?

I felt that this years ads hit a new low. You hit the theme "emasculation." It was like every ad was saying, If you don't buy our product than you are a henpecked Henry (I can think of a cruder term. Offensive theme not just to women but to the young men they aimed the ads at... they are not all Man/Boys with Mommies rather than partners.

[rondivoo]

Who cares!