Apple's award-winning 1984 ad, directed by Ridley Scott, introduced Macintosh to the world.
ATLANTA (WXIA) - Over the years, when it comes to the Super Bowl, the commercials have become just as watched as the game itself. This year's crop of commercials has a strong legacy to live up to.
We've selected what we think are the 11 "best" Super Bowl commercials, but of course, everyone has their favorites every year.
PHOTOS | Top 11 Super Bowl Commercials
RELATED | Full Super Bowl Coverage
On Super Bowl night, 11Alive News will conduct its own survey of what our viewers think are the best commercials running during the big game. You'll be able to vote on 11Alive.com, and we'll have the results here, and on 11Alive News Sunday night following the big game.
Our all-time top 11 list:
11: Miller High Life - 1 Second Ad, 2009 - the one second commercial was as simple as it gets, and reminded more than one of us in the newsroom of "blipverts" from the 1980s "Max Headroom" television series.
10: Snickers - You Play Like Betty White, 2010 - this commercial was among the moments that helped Betty White ascend to her role today as the queen of comedy.
9: Xerox - Monks, 1977 - the Xerox Monks ad, along with 1973's Joe Namath Noxzema shaving cream ad, started advertising executives down the creative and financial road toward making Super Bowl commercials what they are today.
8: Budweiser: Wassup, 2000 - "Wassup" became a national catch phrase that people used before the game and still use today.
7: McDonalds - Nothing But Net, 1993 - the Michael Jordan-Larry Bird game of Horse for their lunch was so big that McDonald's tried it again with LeBron James and Dwight Howard two years ago. It was nowhere near as popular as the original.
6: Coca-Cola - Mean Joe Greene, 1980 - everyone remembers the touching scene of the kid in the tunnel and a limping Mean Joe Greene. "Here kid, catch..."
5: VW - Little Darth Vader, 2011 - the kid didn't have to say a word. He just used The Force!
4: Budweiser - Frogs, 1995 - "Bud" "Weis" "Errr"... Everybody loved those little frogs.
3: Disney - "I'm going to Disney World!" since 1987 - Disney hit on a national phenomenon with this catchphrase, and it's worked so well for The Mouse that it's been used every year since!
2: Budweiser - Respect, 2002 - this ad only aired once and featured Bud's signature Clydesdales going to the shores of New Jersey opposite Ground Zero before simply kneeling. No words needed. The gesture communicated the emotion of the nation. Budweiser remade the commercial in high definition for the 10th anniversary of 9/11 this past September.
1: Apple - 1984, 1984 - this ad, directed by film and TV director Ridley Scott, also only aired one time, and served to introduce the world to a new form of computing that moved the world soundly and solidly into the information age.
You Might Be Interested In