I missed whatever spots were on at half time. I can’t watch Madonna although I admire her astonishing marketing skills. She could sell extra stink in an outhouse. Nonetheless, I learned:

Clint Eastwood probably hasn’t been for a walk in Detroit for a while;

Anheuser-Busch (or InBev – great name for an old school stripper, huh?) has finally realized that Budweiser and Budweiser Light have two completely different target audiences. One is older and wiser, the other isn’t;

$3,500,000 gets an advertiser 30 seconds plus a huge bonus – Buzz on the Internet. But the spot had better be terrific. Very few of them were. The spot also has to appeal to the kind of people who care about Buzz on the Internet. Most geezers don’t.

The “I’m going to Disneyland” idea featuring the game’s MVP is still terrific after all these years, especially if the MVP is a quiet, likeable guy named Eli Manning;

Memorable commercials are tricky. No problem with Doritos as long as you show the bag but spots based on distracting concepts like Ferris Bueller make us remember … Ferris Bueller;

Two hours after the game, I made a list of the commercials I still remembered. Clint was top of the list but it took me a minute to remember the sponsor’s name: GM or Chrysler? It didn’t matter. Clint was spokespersoning for Detroit and there are three big car companies still HQed in that moribund city. Second on my list was Budweiser’s lovely Prohibition is Over spot which undoubtedly zinged right over the heads of 90% of the audience.

Nothing rose to the level of Apple’s 1984 or Budweiser’s post-9/11 Clydesdales.