Anheuser-Busch still king of ads

For a record seventh year in a row, Anheuser-Busch has won USA TODAY's exclusive Ad Meter consumer ranking of the top Super Bowl ads. In this year's winner, by DDB Chicago, when a skydiver refuses to jump, his buddy tosses out a six-pack of Bud Light. The guy still doesn't jump, but the pilot does.

Once again, Anheuser-Busch made winning look easier than popping the top off a Bud. Besides the top-rated ad for the evening, it also logged three of the top seven and five of the top 12. The beermaker was the game's single-largest advertiser, airing nine spots during the game.

Super Bowl rookie Ameriquest took the No. 2 spot with an ad featuring a cell phone chat being mistaken for a store robbery.

Even then, Anheuser-Busch faced some surprising competition from two Super Bowl rookies: CareerBuilder.com, whose three chimp-as-office-worker ads all ranked among the top 10. And Ameriquest, whose ad about a store customer's cell phone chat being misunderstood as a robbery, ranked No. 2.

But the beermaker's big win came during one of the more uptight ad evenings in years. Hanging heavily on the minds of advertisers was the uproar from last year's Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction," which spilled over on the commercials.

The only outwardly provocative ad was from GoDaddy.com, a little-known domain registry site. The ad showed a buxom woman have a wardrobe malfunction while testifying before a congressional panel. Even before the game, several controversial ads bit the dust. Anheuser-Busch opted not to air an ad that poked fun at the Jackson incident. And Ford withdrew an ad for a Lincoln after an advocacy group charged that it made light of sex abuse.

Some ads seemed like minisalutes to their distant youth: There was Gladys Knight for MBNA and Burt Reynolds for FedEx. There was the Pillsbury Doughboy and Mr. Clean shilling for MasterCard. A bevy of superheroes hyped Visa.