Another year, another pile of clients' money tossed into the media circus that is the Super Bowl. And while this year, the actual game provided more than its share of surprises and memorable moments, the spots, for the most part, didn't fan the flames of outrage as much as last year's batch. No robot suicides or closeted mechanics in this round.

That's not to say there weren't some grave missteps, two of which came from Salesgenie.com's animated offerings, "Panda" and "Sales Hero". While the company's spots in last year's Bowl drew considerable ridicule, the extremely exaggerated voiceovers for the spots' two hero characters have a wealth of pundits condemning them as racist. Put these genies back in the bottle.

We also shook our heads at the Pepsi Sobe Life Water spot through New York's Arnell Group, and Bridgestone's "Unexpected Obstacles" from The Richards Group. But maybe we're just wondering how culturally relevant Naomi Campbell and Richard Simmons are these days. And as for GoDaddy.com's "too hot for TV" gambit featuring Danica Patrick and CG beavers... suffice to say, it's not. It's just not very good.

Much better in the celeb endorsement department was Bud Light "Endorsement", featuring Will Ferrell as virile basketball coach Jackie Moon. No one can rock the crotch shot quite like Will. The Bud batch this year brought more antics from the Clydesdale horses (we would've loved "Clydesdale Team" if the dog somehow spoke in the voice of Burgess Meredith) and dudes in un-dudelike situations ("Wine and Cheese").

We still haven't tired of Saatchi & Saatchi's talking stain for Tide, neither were we grossed out to the point of nausea by the clever Careerbuilder.com "Queen of Hearts" spot helmed by TWC's Suthon Petchsuwan. And who can deny the charms of a banking baby with the voice of Randy Krallman (E*Trade). We're also unanimous in our praise for Coca-Cola "It's Mine!", the brilliant air balloon ballet shot by MJZ's Nicolai Fuglsig for Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, to the point where it almost makes us forget about Coke's other entry into the game, "Jinx".