The biggest event of the American broadcasting calendar aired on Sunday. To this day, the 2011 Super Bowl remains the most-watched American television program ever, with an average of 111 million viewers. It’s no surprise that the large viewership has resulted in an increased advertising interest, with the cost of a 30 second commercial slot rising to US$4 million this year. The hype has been going for 30 years, ever since Apple debuted their seminal advertisement entitled 1984 for the Macintosh computer, directed by Ridley Scott. Since 1989, USA Today have held a survey concerning the Super Bowl commercials, with first place regarded as a treasured accolade amongst advertisers. In the age of social media, advertisements have been elevated to another level; companies seek to increase the hype with previews, ‘leaks’ and online audience-participation. So, how did 2014’s attempts stack up?

The unsurprising favourite was Budweiser’s heartfelt and tear-inducing offering, Puppy Love, which is well worth a watch, and will be for years to come. Budweiser have a tradition of incorporating their Clydesdale horse mascots into their annual ads, a convention that has proved effective, with Budweiser, or Bud Light, winning USA Today’s poll 12 times since 1999. Although undeniably adorable, the puppy’s tale feels faintly reminiscent of Budweiser’s award-winning contribution last year; the human replaced this time with a much cuter canine protagonist.

Ridley Scott’s son, Jake Scott, directed the aforementioned Budweiser advert; yet this was not the only crossover between the world of cinema and advertising at this year’s Super Bowl. Highly-anticipated blockbuster film previews were scattered throughout the proceedings, including the conclusion of the teaser of The Amazing Spider Man 2 that was released online earlier in the week. Surely, though, in order to see what happens next, one should have to wait until the film’s release and see it in the cinema? Isn’t that the point of teasers? Other sequels also featured, with Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Transformers: Age of Extinction both making an appearance. Transformers 4 proved to be the most popular, announcing the retirement of Shia Leboeuf, replaced by Mark Wahlberg - although, regrettably, Michael Bay is still at the helm (cue explosions).

A-list actors made numerous cameos throughout, from the absurd to the downright ridiculous. An example of the latter, Kia gave us a perplexing 90-seconds featuring the Matrix’s Morpheus singing Puccini’s ‘Nessun Dorma’ to a couple in their car in order to demonstrate the sound of luxury - while spoons bent and streetlights exploded all around. Unfortunately, I can neither comprehend nor explain to you the meaning behind this particular ad. Keeping with cars, Jaguar recruited British baddies Ben Kingsley, Tom Hiddleston and Mark Strong in an attempt to explain why Hollywood antagonists seem to always be played by Brits. They cite, amongst other reasons, the way we sound, our focus and precision, an apparent obsession with power, and the fact that we all drive Jaguars. If only this were all true…

Scarlett Johansson appeared in Sodastream’s controversial commercial which attempted to snub both Coke and Pepsi. The actress quit her role as an Oxfam ambassador earlier in the week after accepting an approximate £243,000 to appear in the advert for the Israeli-based drinks company, who operate a large factory in the occupied West Bank. Last year, CBS refused to air Sodastream’s advertisement which directly attacked its two rival soft-drink giants Coca-Cola and PepsiCo - two of the major and most popular advertisers at the Super Bowl. This year, Scarlett Johansson’s provocative line, “Sorry, Coke and Pepsi,” was instead removed. The contributons of the two cola-makers were numerous and mixed: the two strongest were, surprisingly, football-orientated, with Pepsi even explaining the ‘origin’ of the half-time show, which they sponsored this year.

Other companies also resorted to big names: H&M presented us with a nearly-nude David Beckham to show off their range of underwear. However, harnessing the power of social media, they shot two editions of the commercial and gave the public the choice between seeing Becks #covered - wearing nothing but briefs - and #uncovered - his humility protected only by careful camera positioning. Unsurprisingly, the world chose ‘uncovered’; after all, it’s David Beckham and we’re all only human. Similarly, Doritos published five fan-made commercials online several weeks earlier and held a vote to see which two would air on Sunday - further incentivising candidates with the offer of a cash prize for the winner. The two victors were equally charming and oddly professional for amateur offerings, far surpassing many of the more expensive slots.

Much like the game of football interspersed between the numerous commercials, many of the subtleties in this year’s advertisements were no doubt lost on a British audience. A ‘Full House’ reunion for the benefit of Oikos proved immensely popular on Twitter, although eighties sitcom references have a lot less significance this side of the Atlantic. Certain ads, such as the clever and cute ‘slow bark’ commercial from CarMax, fell on deaf ears here, where the brands remain unknown.

However, despite all the hype, attention, and controversy, the best Super Bowl advertisement of 2014 was most certainly the one that never aired. Newcastle Brown Ale, surpisingly, a Dutch-owned British brand leaked a faux Super Bowl advert, starring Pitch Perfect actress Anna Kendrick, seeking to rebel against the absurdity of the over-priced commercials discussed above. Taking the paradoxical form of an advert about an advert that was never filmed, it cleverly has the actress conducting a monologue about whether or not she’s even "beer commercial hot". Best of all, though, it bleeps out the two carefully trademarked words that have so many other advertisers meticulously planning for months in order to spend millions of dollars in seconds: Super Bowl.