I don't know when the Golden Age of Super Bowl Commercials ended, but can we all agree that it's over and that it's time to stop pretending the SB commercials are any better than one that might debut during N.C.I.S.?

This isn't the first time I've thought we're well past the end of the GAoSBC's. In 2010, I remember sitting in a Flint, MI hotel, eating pizza, watching the game, waiting for a job interview the next day. I was taking notes on the game to put together a plan for the next day's show (even when I was unemployed, I almost always made out a plan for each day's show). And I one of my notes was, "Are any of these really worth talking about?" No, they weren't Not. One. Bit.

Super Bowl commercials have become a cultural phenomenon of their own alongside the game itself; many viewers only watch the game to see the commercials,[1] national surveys (such as the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter) judge which advertisement carried the best viewer response, and CBS has aired yearly specials since 2000 chronicling notable commercials from the game.

And judge they do...but what question are they asking? They're asking, "Which is the best of this group of commercials?" I think the question should be, "Are these really worth rating?" Or maybe, "I wonder if there's any beer left in the fridge."

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Herman Snodgrass waiting for amusing Budweiser frog commercial. Getty Images
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Are there standouts each year? Of course...but do they justify the time investment? Or the pre-game chatter? Or "leaks" to the YouTubes?

Oh, and let's talk about "leaked" commercials and "banned" commercials.

They're NOT leaked and they're NOT banned. They say "leaked" and they say "banned" because "leaked" and "banned" get clicks. No commercial is released before it's time to release it. It just doesn't happen. And a commercial being rejected isn't the same thing as being banned. You wouldn't be able to watch them at all if they were banned. So, they're not banned. At all.

Advertising agencies know the rules and if a commercial gets rejected and stays rejected, 99% of the time it is because they didn't want to get it approved. Why?

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The First GoDaddy Model. Getty Images
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Because it would cost A LOT of money to actually run them during the game. But, they can submit it, get it rejected, and then use that real rejection to get you to watch it on the YouTubes. I'll bet some don't even bother submitting 'em to be reviewed. They just say they were banned and get the clicks anyway.

And even with all that hub-bubb, they ain't that great. How did we get to a place where we're excited to watch mediocre Super Bowl commercials on line before the game...sometimes WEEKS before the game? I don't know, but kudos to the businesses and Rabe Shot to us, I guess.

What do I hope will come of this? I hope next year there's no buzz. No talk about the commercials. We watch the Super Bowl, if the commercial is funny, we laugh. If it's not, we don't. If it makes us cry we cry. And that's it. We move on to something far more important...the food people brought.

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