The Super Bowl is never guaranteed to please in the entertainment department. One year the game can be a riveting, down-to-the-wire affair (see Patriots-Rams two years ago) and other times it can be a one-sided contest as exciting as a Democratic Presidential debate (see Bucs-Raiders last year).

One guarantee viewers can always count on is that the $2.25 million, 30-second commercials during the Super Bowl will be the most imaginative offered to the public during any single television program. In a recent poll conducted by market research firm InsightExpress and media publisher MediaPost, a quarter of viewers say they scrutinize the commercials more than the actual game. An equal number also admitted buying a product or service they had seen marketed during the Super Bowl.

What are the five greatest Super Bowl commercials of the past 37 years? The List has a few candidates:

No. 5: Bud ... Weisssss ... Errrrrr (Super Bowl XXIX)
Advertiser: Anheuser-Busch
Title: “Frogs”
Year: 1995

Anheuser-Busch had invariably used animals to sell its product. In a break from the familiar Clydesdales, Budweiser turned to three frogs to sell its beer.

“Quiet, simple, curious, and dramatic,” was one way the Budweiser Frogs spot was described at the time. At first, the viewer has no idea what the frogs -- who each are responsible for one syllable in “Budweiser” -- are trying to say as they sit side-by-side in a quiet swamp on a summer evening.

Towards the end of the spot, the frogs' progression of Bud-weis-er gets louder and more intelligible. The speed in which each croaks “Bud-weis-er” accelerates as the camera zooms out behind the frogs to reveal neon Budweiser sign placed in front of them, blinking the syllables in order.

Game: 49ers 49, Chargers 26
More memorable (game vs. commercial): the commercial

No. 4: Larry Bird and Michael Jordan can’t miss (Super Bowl XXVII)
Advertiser: McDonald’s
Title: “Showdown”
Year: 1993

Two men who have collectively earned over a billion dollars during their respective careers duel in a game of H-O-R-S-E for an even bigger prize: a Big Mac.

The game starts off with layups and hook shots, but Bird escalates the competition by declaring a shot to go, “off the floor, off the scoreboard, off the backboard, no rim." Of course, Bird’s shot touches nothing but net.

Jordan proceeds to up the ante: "Over the second rafter, off the floor, nothing but net.” Again, swish.

The game eventually shows Bird and Jordan on top of the Sears Tower in Chicago, with Jordan saying, “OK, one bounce off Michigan Avenue, over the river…"

The spot ends with the McDonald’s logo and the sound of a swish.

Game: Cowboys 52, Bills 17
More memorable: the commercial

No. 3: When day-trading was a viable way to make a living
Advertiser: E*Trade
Title: “Monkey”
Year: 2000

Again, a non-human is used to sell a product (they do work cheaper). In this spot, two elderly men are clapping to the tune “La Cucaracha” while watching an E*trade-clad monkey dance along to the music. Like the “Frogs” spot, the commercial makes little sense until the punch line comes in the final five seconds:

“We just wasted two million dollars. What are you doing with your money?”

At a time when the stock market was on the tale-end of its boom before the dot-com collapse, this spot was very appropriate for its era. In fact, it was reported two weeks after “Monkey” aired that it had the highest recall overall of all the spots shown during the game despite having the lowest production costs.

Game: Rams 23, Titans 16
More memorable: the game

No. 2: Big Brother becomes an Orwellian reality
Advertiser: Apple
Title: “1984”
Year: You probably figured that out by now

Directed by Ridley Scott of the “Alien” movie series, this spot introduced Apple’s Macintosh computer to the world. Surprisingly, it was only advertised for one-week following its Super Bowl debut.

Using 200 extras and costing an eye-popping-at-the-time $400,000 to produce, the commercial aimed to portray rival IBM as Big Brother. The spot begins with a shot of rows of bald, robotic-like people captivated by Big Brother's image on a huge screen.

"We are one people with one will, one resolve, one cause," pronounces Big Brother.

The camera then focuses on an athletic woman sprinting through the crowd with a sledgehammer, being pursued by police in ultramodern uniforms. Before they can get to her, she heaves the hammer through the big screen, causing an explosion that sends smoke over the enthralled audience.

The startling spot ends with a narrator saying, "On Jan. 24, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like 'Nineteen Eighty-Four."'

Game: Raiders 38, Redskins 9
More memorable: the commercial

No. 1: A game within the game that is always a nail-biter (Super Bowl XXIII)
Advertiser: Anheuser-Busch
Title: “Bud Bowl I”
Year: 1989

Advertising Age magazine called the inaugural Bud Bowl, “Stupid and magnificent. Delightfully idiotic. Ridiculous and sublime.”

Bud, banking on another Super blowout, showed six different spots/game highlights of its Bud Bowl -- a championship game played by animated cans -- throughout Super Bowl XXIII, building to the dramatic finish of Budweiser beating Bud Light 27-24 on a last-second field goal by its seven-ounce “nip” bottle placekicker, Budski.

Bud Bowl I had it all:

• End-zone celebrations featuring Bud Light's "patented high-six"
• A huge quart bottle fullback out the Refrigerator Perry mold named "The Freezer," a.k.a. "The Appliance Of Defiance"
• A quarterback named “Budway Joe” (given Joe Namath’s recent troubles, that name seems appropriate now)
• Protective collars for long-neck linemen
• The Bud Light coach wearing a Bear Bryant hat
• Beer-can fans doing "The Wave"
• A shot of the owner's box showing three bimbos hanging all over Spuds MacKenzie

This spot was supposed to be a one-year only gimmick, but was so successful that the Bud Bowl was brought back several times.

Game: 49ers 20, Bengals 16
More memorable: the game (the one not played by cans)

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