Super Bowl 2011 Commercials: Hits and Misses

(CANVAS STAFF REPORTS) - As marketers strutted their stuff during Super Bowl XLV, an ordinary joe's $500 spot was among those most liked.

USA Today , which charted how 282 consumer panelists reacted to the commercials, ranked Doritos' Super Bowl ad along with Anheuser-Busch as its co-winners.

The Doritos spot featured a man who teased a hungry pug dog with a bag of chips but fell victim to the dog's revenge. The ad was made by JR Burningham, a 31-year-old part-time web designer who was among winners of the Crash the Super Bowl contest sponsored by Doritos and Pepsi Max.

His $500 investment turned into a $1 million prize from Doritos maker Frito-Lay.

See all the Super Bowl 2011 commercials .

Other high points of the advertising battle included:

• VW Darth Passat

VW's Passat commercial featured a cute child dressed up in a Darth Vader costume who runs out to start his dad's car with "the Force." His dad, unknown to the child, gives him a hand.

"It's brilliant and simple," Allen Adamson, managing director at WPP PLC's Landor & Associates advertising firm, said. "It will win the water cooler discussion."

• Ozzy/Bieber

Rocker Ozzy Osbourne, sporting "Tron"-type clothing, appeared in a commercial selling 4G service for Best Buy. Teen sensation Justin Bieber then steps in as a replacement as Osbourne messes up his lines.

As Ozzy later asks what a 'Bieber" is, Bieber reappeared with facial hair disguised as a crew member and says, "I don't know, but it kind of looks like a girl."

• Eminem and Chrysler

Chrysler joined up with Detroit rapper Eminem in a commercial that offers some attitude.

MyFOXDetroit.com said the two-minute ad, featuring scenes of Detroit to the tune of Eminem's hit "Lose Yourself" as he drives a Chrysler 200, is getting good reviews.

A voice in the commercial asks, "What does this city know about luxury? What does a town that's been to hell and back know about the finer things in life?"

Eminem later answers, "This is the Motor City and this is what we do." His manager, Paul Rosenberg, told the Detroit Free Press that there is a lot in common with Chrysler's story and Eminem's own ability to overcome.

• Snickers

In what is perhaps the evening's disputed call, Central Valley Business Times reported that measurements by TiVo Inc. placed Snickers' ad featuring Roseanne Barr and Richard Lewis at the top. A follow-up to last year's hit featuring comedienne Betty White tackled during a football game, this year's spot features Lewis complaining about having to work too hard as a co-worker gives him a Snickers and tells him he's whiny when he's hungry. The commercial ends with Barr struck by a log.

The Snickers spot drew less enthusiasm from People TV critic Tom Gliatto, who said he was least crazy about that and other commercials that used "knockabout violence as a source of humor." The Wall Street Journal called it a fumble, saying it failed to live up to the 2010 Betty White ad.

The evening also had other more noticeable fumbles:

• Groupon

Groupon, a clearinghouse for online "deals of the day," is drawing criticism for what the San Francisco Chronicle said was "an amazingly tone-deaf commercial about Tibet." The commercial featured Timothy Hutton who said the "people of Tibet are in trouble, their very culture is in jeopardy."

He then switches to talking about a half-off coupon he got at a stateside Tibetan restaurant.

"There must have been someone along the way who said, you know, 'This isn't actually funny enough to overcome the callous treatment not just of earnest advocacy in general, guys,' right?" Gawker asked.

"Wasn't there some courageous middle manager somewhere who said, 'Listen, I totally 'get' the joke, it's just not that funny, and not really worth it, and weirdly hostile to Tibet, and people who try to make a difference,' or something?"

• Pepsi Max

Like Doritos, Pepsi Max turned to consumer-created commercials. The Chronicle criticized the first two commercials for having the same punch line, someone being hit in the face with a can.

Slate criticized Pepsi Max for an ad that featured a black couple assaulting a blond jogger then fleeing the scene.

"Pepsi Max sets race relations back a decade or two with a mean-spirited ad …," Slate said. "Did this really trouble no one at PepsiCo?"

• Mini "Cram it in the Boot" ad

Mini Cooper's spot, "Cram it in the boot," featured a TV game show in which a contestant tries to shove odd-shaped items into the back of a Mini Cooper.

"Kind of funny," Dallas Morning News TV critic Tom Maurstad said. "Then again, I think I've already forgotten about it."

"It's hard to describe this one in a family newspaper," the Chronicle said.