I don’t know about you, but I’m excited for the Super Bowl – not because I’m a die-hard Seahawks or Broncos fan (I’m actually not a fan of football at all), but because of the commercials! While everyone else will be using commercial time to fill their plate up with snacks (yum!) and refill their beverages, that’s when I swoop in and steal the best seat in the house to see what clever ads will debut.

Just how much do these companies shell out in order to get a spot during the Super Bowl, though? Brace yourself! For a small fee of $4 million (per ad) you, too, could have your ad played during one of the most watched televised events of the year! That’s a 4 with six zeroes after it. All for just 30 seconds. (Does that mean a 60 second spot costs $8 million?!) That’s not even the most an advertisement has sold for. If you get off the couch to go to the bathroom, you could potentially miss the best commercial of the whole game! And while ads are usually readily available online, there’s something about seeing it for the first time during the big game that makes such a difference.

You can almost guarantee that Fox is pleased with these costs as these ads are projected to generate nearly $75 million of revenue for the broadcasting company. What will they do with that money? I know what they won’t spend it on. Here’s a fun fact – the half time show performers do not get paid by the NFL, but all of their expenses, like travel and production, are covered. I’ll be curious to see if Bruno Mars and the Red Hot Chili Peppers cause a blackout like Queen Bey did last year. Her show brought in a rating of 48.2/71, (approximately 111 million people), while the Super Bowl as a whole had 46.3/69, (average of 108 million people), according to Nielsen – which means that 48.2% of all televisions in the nation were tuned in to the performance while 71% of all people actually watching TV during the show were viewing the program. That’s pretty impressive.

So which big-brand commercials are you most looking forward to seeing this year? The famous Clydesdale horses with Anheuser Busch? A fan-created Doritos piece? Or H&M’s spot with David Beckham? By the way, it’s rumored that you can literally buy the clothes off his body with your remote. I know which one I’ll be waiting for…

But wait, it could snow?? In the event of a snowstorm, which, could very likely happen in New York in February, the game will be rescheduled for either the Saturday before, or the Monday or Tuesday after. The headache this could create in people’s travel plans should be saved for another discussion.

Check back in the coming weeks to see which ads we liked the best. Ashworth will dissect each ad using our marketing savvy, creative minds to let you know who fell short, who rocked our socks off, and who just went…a little too far.