Super Bowl XLII's Best Commercials

I never would have imagined that my most negative emotional moment of Super Bowl XLII would be when the driver of a Bridgestone Tire-equipped car swerved to miss a hyper and sequined Richard Simmons. This was moments after the driver nearly hit an obviously startled Alice Cooper.

Besides that moment of disappointment, the Super Bowl commercial crop of 2008 was a deep one compared to the pitiful lot of just a year ago. Several of the tried-and-true standby advertisers did their part, but a few newcomers to the ad world's biggest night - such as Bridgestone - made a mark as well.

According to The New York Times, commercial time for this year's big game cost advertisers $90,000 per second - which calculates out to 2.7 million for a 30-second spot. It's worth it if your ad boosts your visibility and prospective client base, but not if it's simply to be reviewed by billions with a look to fellow football fans with a shrug and a sneer that says, "That's a Super Bowl ad?"

The best Super Bowl commercials are either funny enough that you are laughing about them at your desk the next morning or fitting enough that they actually convince you that the product is worth buying.

So how well did advertisers spend their big bucks on this year's big game? We'll rate them on a scale of 1-10 for both how clever (or memorable) and how convincing they were (with 5 being neutral, 10 being extremely convincing and 1 being a deterrent to buying the brand). We'll then factor in the cost - and how much dough they should have spent.