Well, Super Bowl XXXIX is history. Too bad for the folks whoconsider themselves the always-pullin'-for-the-underdogtype. The Bandwagon team won.

But, as far as Super Bowls go, the losers played well. Forthose who care, the Eagles actually covered the 7-pointspread. T.O. is the deal, too. At least on the field, anyway.

They had a chance late in the game, but poor field positionand bad clock management did them in. Scoring from 95yards out with 48 seconds left? That's a tall order.

So is getting/maintaining ad recall 48 hours after the finalgun. Whose $80,000 per second ad was worth it? Whowould've done better by writing me a fat check for $2.4million?

Read on, and find out. True to school yard rules: SuckersWalk. Losers are up first.

Losers:

Sorry, Donovan, but your three picks lands you in withGoDaddy.com, Quizno's, and Silestone. I don't care if youwere ill.

GoDaddy.com had a decent concept that quickly went bad.OK. Boopsie talking to a Senate subcommittee on C-SPANabout indecency. Good start- if they cut out any hint to lastyear's halftime debacle. But... they couldn't resist. So thebuxom wench wearing a GoDaddy.com t-shirt has a nearwardrobe malfunction. One of the craggy senators has to hitthe oxygen mask.

This ad was supposed to run again, but Fox pulled it mid- game. Good idea. I bet their stomachs were in as manyknots as Donovan McNabb's.

The Quizno's ad was mediocre at best. This talking babyconcept is tiresome. As cliché as it may be, it's still 80%less annoying than those whack rodents in pirate hats froma couple of years ago.

The one stinky Bud Light ad was one that the ESPN crowdreally dug - the parachute-less pilot heading out the door forthe six of Diet Bud. Dumb. The desert island one withCedric the Entertainer was iffy, too.

Speaking of stinky... what was up with Napster's ad? Ugh! Itcould wind up doing more to shut them down than theSupreme Court.

This bad concept was in stark difference to their introductoryspots featuring Flash animation based around their logo.Those were well-designed and entertaining. This one wasas fat and ugly as the seven shirtless blops they decided toshow with a letter on each of their overdeveloped beer gutsto spell N-A-P-S-T-E-R. It was done in house and, boy, did itshow.

The manufactured "reality" of the game and its atmospherewas lame and no one bought it. An ad taking place at theSuper Bowl should be IN the Super Bowl- done real time.And... trying to take on Apple's iTunes on price? That wasthe second dumbest decision of this ad. No wonder itfinished dead last in likability and recognition.

Now... Silestone. Valiant effort of an ad featuring Chicagosports legends. Voice over was good. It was shot nicely.But, it was a little too jumpy in the cuts to get the wholepicture the first time through. The quick cut style hurt thename recognition of the line of counter tops.

Silestone and Diana Pearl are not exactly householdnames. And Dennis Rodman slurred his line. It soundedlike "Dinah Pearl, rather than, "Diana Pearl." I'm sure thedirector or writer got dissed when they said, "Uh, Worm... it's'Di-A- na'."

"Sure. Dinah."

As a side note, why were only Chicago Bears in it untilDennis Rodman at the end? No Scottie Pippen or Slammin'Sammy?

On to the good 'uns...

Winners:

This year, the game was nearly as good as the ads, asthere were a surprisingly good number of breaking spots.Leading the pack was Career Builder, FedEx, Mastercard,and Anheuser-Busch.

FedEx likes to make ads relating to advertising onadvertising's biggest stage. They did it again - patchingtogether 10 "tried and true" Super bowl ad conventions togreat results.

Career Builder put a great spin on a stale category with thebest work since Monster's "I Wanna Be..." [a brown noser,forced into retirement, etc.] from '98. Three ads featuring ahapless chump working for chimps managed to put theirname into mind share largely dominated by two others.

MasterCard got a bunch of animated branded food iconstogether for a meal and a nice touch of nostalgia. Ad fansand agency folks dug this one.

A-B hit emotional hot buttons with a near-public service adsaluting troops retuning home. Yes, they were real military -not actors. Their uniforms just did not have any insignias,so the common soldier would be represented. For their lightbeer category, the ad with the head on the wall and thedesignated driver spot were the best for Bud Light.

Pepsi's second year of an iTunes promotion kicked off well.They ran a humorous spot featuring people openingwinning bottles for a free song. When the bottles wereopened, a song reflecting the drinker's taste in music wouldplay. Although the spot was humorous and worked, Pepsicould've really hit a home run by involving the older"authority figure" more into the ad. But, keeping with brandtradition, they kept the focus young.

AmeriQuest had two entertaining spots revolving around thethemes of misunderstanding and jumping to conclusions.Their message was, "We don't prejudge." The ad featuringspaghetti sauce, a cat, and knife will certainly make some'Best Of" reels this year.

Decent work also included Honda's new pickup/SUVproduct introduction. Good detail with benefit highlights. Leftthe "Honda" out until the end. Cadillac and Volvo had solidads. Volvo should have bought another ad, if not two, asmany people missed the early run. The audience also mayhave missed the details on their unique contest. But theydid follow up with some net portal ads the day after. Ford'sF-150 Biker spot was OK. Their line that "it makes YOUtough," really undercut the effectiveness.~

John is a freelance commercial writer based in Omaha,Nebraska. He publishes a free monthly e-zine focusing onbranding, advertising, and marketing from his web site http://www.brandedbetter.com Speaking with both agency andin-house experience, he knows the most valuable asset ofa business is its brand.