The magic of Super Bowl ads is gone forever

Wow, this year’s Super Bowl ads were sure something, eh? That Snickers Brady Bunch/Danny Trejo spot was hilarious, as was the BMW one where former Today co-hosts Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel riffed on their 1994 ignorance of the Internet. Heck, even Kim Kardashian’s T-Mobile spot was amusing. And the NFL’s riveting domestic violence PSA was downright chilling. It’s hard to believe that another year of Super Bowl ads have come and gone, especially because I remember so little about the game itself.

Oh right, that’s because the Super Bowl is still a couple days away. It just seems like we’ve already seen all of the ads, because so many of the companies that shelled out up to $4.5 million for a 30-second Super Bowl spot have been flooding the internet with those commercials in the days (and sometimes weeks) leading up to the big game. While the rampant marketing might be helping those brands maximize their investment and take full advantage of the intense pre-game media spotlight, it’s also ruined the Super Bowl ads themselves, or at least the annual tradition of discovering them during the game.