University of Iowa business majors gathered at Kinnick Stadium last night to watch the Super Bowl, and more specifically, to watch and rank the ads. The commercials reportedly sold for three-million dollars per 30 seconds. Nick Weiland a 25-year-old U-of-I student from Iowa City, says there are always a few companies every year that people expect to have great ads.

“The Bud Light ones, you know are going to be good,” Weiland says. “You get some good ones from Pepsi, but it’s the ones that are unexpected I think that are best.” From car companies to cell phones to snack foods, the students watched and rated them all. Twenty-six-year-old Tara From, of Dodge City, Kansas, says there was one stand-out in her playbook.

From says, “The Pepsi Max ad was my favorite just because they got the product in really early, it was humorous and it was an easy concept to understand.” Of course, it’s possible to enjoy an ad even if you know you’re not the target. Weiland singled out one of the luxury automobile commercials.

“I’d love to buy an Audi, yup, if I had the money for it,” Weiland says. Meanwhile, 26-year-old Andrew Topps, of LaGrange Park, Illinois, was more realistic about the Audi versus Mercedes ad: “I’m a poor college student. I can’t afford much of anything, except for the Doritos.”

Students say the overall goal is to simply make people laugh and give customers a good feeling about a company’s brand. Reports say last night’s football game was seen by more than 100-million people.

By Mark Geary, KCRG, Cedar Rapids