Go ahead, watch the video above. Funny spot, right? It aired in the Super Bowl and a little over 100 million people thought it was funny, too. After all, who doesn’t love the E*Trade baby?

One person who didn’t think it was funny and who doesn’t love the E*Trade baby is Lindsay Lohan, whose lawyers announced that the “actress” is suing E*Trade for $100 million because of the two-second appearance of the “milkaholic” baby named Lindsay. Lohan’s lawyer’s claim that she’s got “single name recognition” like Oprah or Madonna. The makers of the ad claim they chose the name because it was popular and someone on the creative team also had the name.

I can think of a lot of single names Lindsay Lohan is synonymous with, but “Lindsay” isn’t one of them.

In other Super Bowl advertising legal news, Punxsutawney Phil — the famous shadow-seeking groundhog known for pissing off millions of people every year with his predictions of six more weeks of cold, snowy weather — is suing TruTV for its portrayal of him as a “long-haired hippy, bearing a striking resemblance to Pittsburgh Steelers All Pro strong safety, Troy Polamalu.” I actually think Phil has a shot at winning this one. That thing they pulled out of the hole does look an awful lot like Troy Polamalu.

The Super Bowl is the biggest day of the year for two things: football and advertising. That’s why Pavone created SpotBowl.com, which I’d like to invite everyone to visit if you’re looking for a worthy distraction before, during or after the big game (kickoff is Sunday at 6:28 p.m.).

Many of you are probably already familiar with our annual ode to the ads. Now in its seventh year, SpotBowl is an advertising poll that lets America sound off about what they really thought of the game’s ads. Last year, as it has in many of the past years, SpotBowl registered more than 100,000 votes from fans in all 50 states and several countries around the world.

At its core, SpotBowl is a public survey – polls open as soon as the game starts and remain open until Monday at 3 p.m. – but it’s grown into much more than that. For instance, this year, Pavone has optimized the site to allow mobile voting for the first time ever (I’m pretty sure it’s the first ad poll of any kind to do so). That means Super Bowl viewers can watch the ads and register their votes from their iPhones, Blackberrys and other web-browsing devices from wherever they may be on Super Bowl Sunday.

We’ve also upped the pre-game draw by adding a section of the site that helps fans plan the ultimate commercial-watching party, complete with recipes provided by some of the best food and beverage brands in the nation.

So I invite you to check it out and let me know what you think. I also invite you to vote as often as you’d like. And don’t be afraid to be blunt in your assessment of the ads that fumbled. For $2.8 million per 30-second airing, they deserve nothing but our brutally honest opinions.

May the best ad win! (And it might just be the one below.)

Good news for companies with gobs of money left over in their media budget. For the first time since 2002, and only the fifth time in 43 years, the cost for a 30-second ad in the Super Bowl will not increase. Though in today’s marketplace, you kind of assumed it wouldn’t, especially after NBC charged a record high end of $3 million per spot in last year’s game (a price set by the network and shelled out by many advertisers long before the economy fumbled).

CBS owns the rights to the big game this year and is charging $2.5 to $3 million per ad and they’ve already sold 70 percent of their inventory. By comparison, NBC had sold 80 percent by October of last year. Hyundai, Careerbuilder, InBev Anheuser Busch, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Bridgestone, Frito Lay/Doritos, and GoDaddy.com are reportedly all returning to the line-up.

And with that, here’s the best Super Bowl commercial of all time… if your criteria is goose bumps.

Okay, I know a Super Bowl themed edition of “Ads I love and hate” is a little overdue, but it’s taken me three weeks just to recover from what feels like getting hit in the groin on a Japanese game show because of the awfulness of some of this year’s ads. That’s not to say that they were all bad though. In fact, for the most part, I’d say they were well done.

There were some funny spots out there. However, as someone that works in advertising I get insulted by everyone thinking funny automatically means its good. It’s not that I don’t enjoy dudes taking snow globes to their, um, snow globes and the senseless beating of Koala bears, but just because it makes you laugh doesn’t mean it’s right for the brand.

ADS I LOVED

Miller High Life – “One second ad”

Outstanding.  Those of us in the advertising industry will tell you that the one second spot is just like trying to tell a joke in a crowded conference room.  Few people have the stones to do it, and If you go through with it…it better good. Miller succeeded with this one. They started a buzz with a full 30 second spot and backed it up perfectly on their website. As far as I am concerned this is a case study in how a one second spot can be successful. Even the most internet ignorant people I know heard about this campaign and were looking out for it on the night of the big game.  With Superbowl spots costing $3 million (or up to three Illinois senate seats), that easily makes this $100,000 spend the best Superbowl ROI of 2009.

ADS I HATED

Pepsi – “Pepsuber”

Oh I get it, because Saturday Night Live came out with a moderately funny skit mocking MacGyver, you think it’s fiscally responsible to dump $3 million into riding their coat tails?  That’s a real win. In the wake of spending $1.2 billion overhauling the Pepsi brand, you feel it is in your best interest to hit the market with something unoriginal? I really hope this embarrassment doesn’t get blamed on their creative agency, because at one point a bunch of overpaid executives sat around a conference room and approved this one minute waste of time. And way to go on showcasing that brand new logo you paid so much money for. If you had planned on taking the “intentionally making a commercial that sucks” route, you should have at least made sure your multi-million dollar logo was visible.

Thanks for listening, and if you want to check out all the spots and America’s opinion of them, stop by our Spotbowl website.

Anyone catch that football game this weekend? As the organizers of America’s largest Super Bowl advertising poll (SpotBowl), we here at the thinkbank were watching intently. The polls are closed now, but you can check out the finishers here (congrats Bud!). Here’s an overview of some highlights and low lights according to the SpotBlog:

OVERALL GRADE: B-

GENERAL IMPRESSIONS: The game was definitely better than the ads this year, but it’d be pretty hard to top that game. Overall, the ads were fair to good. Some smart marketing efforts were seen and hearty laughs were had, which is exactly what people want out of the big game, no matter how bad the economy is.

THE BEST

Doritos (“Crystal Ball“) – Not bad for a consumer-generated ad. Not only is it ranking near the top of the SpotBowl polls as I write this, but it actually won USA Today’s annual Ad Meter. For that distinction, the two amatuers from Ohio took home an extra $1 million. That’s still less than what Doritos would have paid an ad agency to create this same ad.

Bridgestone (“Up on Blocks“) - Moon dudes four-wheelin’ to some old school House of Pain? Awesome. The guys get stranded when their rover’s tires are stolen? Hilarious. The fact that Bridgestone was able to so deftly weave their product into the punchline? Priceless.

Hulu (“Evil Plot“) - This is a nice effort by one of the last advertisers to buy ad time in this year’s game. Alec Baldwin is great (as usual) and the idea that TV doesn’t rot your brain, but “only softens the brain like a ripe banana” is laughable…because it’s true.

THE WORST

Dreamworks (“Monster vs. Aliens“) and Pepsi (“Lizard Lake“) – We don’t usually judge movie trailers here at SpotBowl, but we’re lumping the film promo in with the SoBe spot for one reason: The 3D was major letdown. The best part was the paddle ball comin’ right atcha in the first few seconds of the movie trailer. The rest looked better with the glasses off.

Vizio (“Something about a TV“) – This one was just awful. Some guy talking and some words on the screen over a funky blue background. The only creative part was the little arrow in the beginning pointing to our not-Vizio TV logo.

GoDaddy (“Shower” and “Enhancement“) – We get it, you’re edgy, but the gag is getting old. Who’s GoDaddy’s target audience? 15-year-old boys? Anything Danica Patrick does to reverse gender stereotypes on the race track is immediately canceled out by her appearance in these spots.

WORTH MENTIONING

Miller High Life (“One Second Ad“) – I missed this one when I looked away to shoot a high, arching three-pointer into the trash with my 3D glasses. Good thing I was able to catch it again on SpotBowl.com. The Miller folks never intended for this spot to win an awards, but they definitely got their money’s worth with a ton of pre- and post-game buzz.

Coca-Cola (“Mean Troy“) – This remake of the classic Mean Joe Greene spot was okay. The appearance of the Coke brand manangers — two guys from another Coke ad campaign — wasn’t quite the twist I was hoping for. Them babbling about suing Coke was confusing, especially if you weren’t familiar with their previous work. It also virtually assured that this spot would have no nostalgic value past November 2009. This ad would have been a lot better if they’d have had a ref snatch the Coke and watch Troy finally take out some aggression on “the man.”

Pepsi (“Pepsuber“) – I’m a big Saturday Night Live fan, so when I saw the SNL characters reprising their roles for this MacGuyver skit-turned-ad, I was excited. But I can see why a lot of people might not have liked this spot. Still, you have to love the original MacGuyver, Richard Dean Anderson, making a mulleted cameo. Pepsuber!

Bud Light (“Conan in Sweden“) - I liked it, even if the reaction was mixed otherwise. It was definitely the best celeb cameo of the night.