Troy Polamalu wins Super Bowl and a few laughs

It's never fun to line up against USC alum Troy Polamalu, and Coke ad execs played into that with this commercial homage to their classic Mean Joe Greene campaign from the 1979 Super Bowl. Thirty years ago they went for touching -- this time they went for slapstick. The result was one of the better commercials of the year (my personal favorite was this gem from Doritos, followed by the punched koala and embarrassed Conan).

In case you missed it, Coca-Cola released a behind-the-scenes look at how the Polamalu commercial was made.

Houston Mitchell reviewed this year's ads for the Times. I mostly agree with his assessments, though the dubious financial wisdom of Cash4Gold was hilarious.

-- Adam Rose