Ed's Note: Our resident Super Bowl expert presents this blog post about his favourite aspect of the annual sporting spectacular.

For those of you that follow that other kind of football (you know the one that actually allow the use of hands), then yesterday was your Holy Grail. Super Bowl XLIV came and went with the Drew Brees-led New Orleans Saints defeating the juggernaut of Peyton Manning and his Indianapolis Colts 31 to 17. The still recovering city of New Orleans gets its first championship while Manning might have hurt his legacy by yet again choking on the biggest stage after throwing a costly interception that was returned for a touchdown.

But just as important as the game itself (maybe even more important to some) are the ads that run during the game. These 30-seconds spots are heavily coveted by advertisers as the game is watched by an estimated 150 million viewers. So it’s easy to see why they cost millions of dollars. This year, the advertisements ranged from the funny to the thoughtful. There was a scare of a nationally televised commercial against abortion starring superclean, college football superstar Tim Tebow that turned out to be nothing more than but his mother talking about her famous son. Without further ado, here are the best of the bunch from this year.

The Google Search ad

The Bridgestone ad

The Dove for Men ad

The Bud Light ad

The Tim Tebow ad

Fun fact: Although companies spent as much as US$3 million (HK$23.4 million) for an ad in this year’s Super Bowl, that’s not even close to being the world's priciest advertisement. That distinction goes to the 10-second slot just before midnight on Lunar New Year Year’s Eve, during China’s Spring Festival Evening Gala, which costs a ginormous 52 million yuan (HK$59.2 million). In other words, almost HK$6 million per second.