The Super Bowl ads are the one time of the year that people actually look to toward commercials instead of fast forwarding them, and typically the companies go all out to make the ads great with big stars headlining a lot of the ads.
Two of the ads that were among the best came from Pepsi and Downy. The Pepsi ad featured Elton John as some sort of royalty and was a judge to decide who would or would not get Pepsi and if the performer was bad they were dropped down a trap door. Then came in Melanie Amaro who apparently was a contest on X-Factor and sang her way to win Pepsi for everyone. The ad gets weird John walks across the floor in his outlandishly dressed outfit(or that could be his everyday outfit since he is filthy rich), but in the end John goes down his own trap door to meet Flava Flav. It was just odd enough to keep your attention and for that I applaud Pepsi.
The other ad is from Downy which is a take on the wildly successful 1979 Coca Cola ad featuring former Pittsburgh Steelers great 'Mean' Joe Green. Many products have tried to replicate the ad, but Downy does a great job putting in the key elements from the original ad. Green also said this is his last commercial he will be in.
Need more? Check out our full list of Super Bowl 2012 ads and all of our Super Bowl XLVI coverage.