Culture

Movies, Sci-Fi, Tablets: Wired's Guide to Super Bowl XLV Ads

One of the most Wired parts of any Super Bowl are the commercials, which can run the gamut from movie trailers to straight-up hilarity to major product announcements. And it makes perfect sense, because it's not often that you're guaranteed to get hundreds of millions of pairs of eyeballs at any one time, but Super Bowl XLV on Sunday will offer that to any advertiser willing to fork over some $3 million for air time.
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One of the most Wired parts of any Super Bowl are the commercials, which can run the gamut from movie trailers to straight-up hilarity to major product announcements. And it makes perfect sense, because it's not often that you're guaranteed to get hundreds of millions of pairs of eyeballs at any one time, but Super Bowl XLV on Sunday will offer that to any advertiser willing to fork over some $3 million for air time. Here's a sneak peek at some of the more Wired-type ads that will have people tweeting and updating statuses Sunday night, starting with a look back at the one that started it all. Above:

Apple Sets the Standard

Say what you want about Apple, but the company knows how to innovate, both with its hardware and its advertising. That fact became clear to an entire nation of football fans back on January 22, 1984, when this Ridley Scott-directed ad ran for the one and only time on national TV. Two days later, Steve Jobs unveiled the Macintosh at Apple's annual shareholders meeting, but anyone who had watched the Los Angeles Raiders destroy the Washington Redskins, 38-9, that previous Sunday already had a good idea of what was to come.