Did Some Super Bowl Ads Go Too Far?

DETROIT (WJBK) - For years, the University of Detroit Mercy has been inviting high school students from the area to check out the Super Bowl ads. While many marketers will tell you that humor, violence and sex appeal sell, the question is did the Super Bowl ads go too far?

It was family time around the television for one of the biggest viewing nights of the year, a night when commercials are as big as the final score of the game.

Getting low marks on some radars, what were they thinking when they made one particular Doritos ad? The chips may be good, but the ad was tasteless, according to University of Detroit Mercy Marketing Professor Michael Bernacchi.

"The Doritos ad where you have the finger licking, pants sniffing individual. Too much. It's way too much. I'm surprised that it ever made the cut," he said.

Bernacchi has been dissecting the big television night for years. The ads have gone from risqué to too risky, he said.

A Kim Kardashian ad for Sketchers shoes was over the top for some in the sample. Just ask the young people at whom the shoes are aimed. A misstep?

"The Kim Kardashian commercial with the Sketchers, I think that it was very perverted. I think it was too much," one person told FOX 2.

"The Sketchers one with Kim Kardashian was a little too much. The whole sex appeal thing was just not entertaining," another said.

Bernacchi said the punch lines may have missed the spot. What were they selling in your favorite ad? Not easy to remember for some, but hard to forget the car ads. They accounted for 30-percent of Super Bowl ads amounting to $42-million.

The gritty, honest and extremely popular Eminem ad was one of the most memorable, at least for Detroiters.

"The brand is the economy is back, Detroit is back, Chrysler wants to be part of the mix. It doesn't really get any better than that," said Bernacchi. "There was buzz over the top on this ad."

All the high school kids were asked to rate the Super Bowl ads, and they kind of go in line with what everybody else seemed to think. Number one was the Chrysler ad with Eminem. The last on the list were the GoDaddy.com ads.

Click here to watch and rate all 101 Super Bowl commercials.