Super? Nah.

As usual, I was tasked to write about this year's best and worst Super Bowl commercials, and as I sat down around halftime to write a rough draft of the story, I realized that I didn't care. Even the good commercials (like the FedEx caveman spot) don't get me jazzed anymore the way, say, Bud Bowl did. There's no thrill of discovery anymore, because even when the spots are well-executed, we know all the tricks (like the MacGyver MasterCard ad). So instead of doing a best-and-worst ranking, I wrote this:

Super Bowl commercials are over.

I'm sorry, but it has to be said. The ads have long since taken over Super Bowl Sunday, where in parties across the country, people gab during the game and hush up for the sponsors. The NFL Network's halftime spot last night even acknowledged that "you might just watch for the commercials."

But honestly, when is the last time a Super Bowl ad genuinely got your blood pumping the way the Macintosh "1984" spot did? The last time you laughed as loud as you did for the first Bud Bowl? Or even for the first Monster.com spot?

The one and only airing of "1984" coincided with a long streak of big-game blowouts, so it was easy for the ads to overtake the action as the main reason for watching. But the games have gotten closer and better in the last 10 years, just as the commercials started to slip.

You can find the whole column here.