Let’s face it, part of the fun of Super Bowl commercials is making fun of the celebrities who make fools of themselves in the ads. You have to wonder if companies plan for the ads to be so horribly embarrassing as a way to make them more memorable.

Earlier this week we told you about the best celebrity cameos in Super Bowl history, so now we’ve compiled a list of the worst. Will anyone from this year’s game join the worst of the worst? Time will tell, but Donald Trump (Century 21) is expected to make a strong showing.

JAY LENO for DORITOS (1989)

Leno was a spokesperson for Doritos for several years, and it seems every commercial he appeared in was cheesier than the last. The 1989 Super Bowl ad titled, “Peer Pressure,” in which Leno encouraged viewers to stuff their faces in the bag while telling them, “We’ll make more.” was not funny and actually quite boring.

DAN QUAYLE for LAY’S POTATO CHIPS (1994)

The former vice president is certainly not remembered for his intelligence, and spelling was obviously not his best subject, considering that he misspelled potato on national television. Criticism of the ad revolved around the potato-chip maker aligning with one of the most ridiculed politicians of all time (or maybe that was the intention; to make him look silly). Either way, the spot was a dud.

FRED ASTAIRE for DIRT DEVIL (1997)

Through no fault of his own, the late Fred Astaire was a spokesperson for Dirt Devil in the 1997 Super Bowl ad.  Critics of the ad say it was a terrible example of grave robbery, while poor Astaire didn’t even have the chance to nix to the lame commercial.

KEVIN FEDERLINE for NATIONWIDE (2007)

In the ad, K-Fed dreams he is a wealthy man surrounded by beautiful women only to wake up as a fast-food joint employee. The ad was leaked days before the game, and although it received attention, most people forgot the company behind the spot (Nationwide) and instead remembered it as, the Kevin-Federline-makes-himself-look-like-a-fool ad.

DANICA PATRICK for GODADDY.COM (2010)

The famous race-car driver has created an uproar in the racing community as a successful female driver, but her GoDaddy.com ads have come under fire at times. They are no doubt provocative ads, and Patrick stands out in a male-dominated sport, but maybe she should stick to racing.

I don’t think there’s ever been a Super Bowl that didn’t feature at least one rookie advertiser. At least not in the modern Super Bowl advertising era (1985-present).

This year’s game is no exception, with six first-timers – Dannon, Century 21, Lexus, 2nd Story Software, H&M, and Samsung – going head-to-head to see who’s got what it takes to take home SpotBowl’s coveted Apple Macintosh/Pets.com Memorial Rookie Super Bowl Advertiser of the Year Award.

Admittedly, the five newbies don’t sound like the most exciting bunch but they’re the cards we’ve been dealt, so let’s break this matchup down.

• DANNON YOGURT – Yeah, it’s yogurt during the Super Bowl, but let’s not forget that the game’s 100 million-plus viewers include a lot of thirty- and fortysomething men and women who are watching the game quietly at home while reading the Steve Jobs biography on their Kindle Fire. Plus, the Dannon spot will star John Stamos. That’s kind of good, right?

• CENTURY 21 – The ad will feature Donald Trump, Deion Sanders and Olympic speed-skating gold medalist Apolo Ohno. The trio will demonstrate the company’s new position that its agents are “Smarter. Bolder. Faster.” Donald Trump is pretty much a real life cartoon character, which gives this spot a head start against the rest of the rookie pack.

• LEXUS – It’s hard to get excited about an ad for a car I’ll never be able to afford. Sure, the teaser was pretty cool, but I’m still not too optimistic about this one.

• 2ND STORY SOFTWARE – The “cutting room floor” teasers released on the company’s website feature a child, a mother and a cat reacting to something frightening in their home. It looked kind of cool and fun, but then I remembered that this is an ad for tax preparation software, which means the ominous presence will probably turn out to be a giant stack of receipts or a “really scary” W2 form.

• H&M – David Beckham stars in this spot promoting his line of men’s Bodywear. The teaser images feature Beckham in his underwear, which means this spot will score with the ladies. Good for them. After 46 years of light beer bikini ads and farting horses, the ladies will finally get an ad made just for them.

• SAMSUNG – This spot, for the company’s GALAXY II S smartphone, will be a continuation of the current ad campaign, which pokes fun at Apple fans camped out in front of a store, awaiting the release of the new iPhone. It’s a funny campaign, the only question is, can they make it Super Bowl funny?

PREDICTION – Food brands always do well in the Super Bowl, but I don’t think a yogurt ad will take home the rookie title. Based on the sheer amount of planning that went into it (two years, according to some) and the star power around the “smarter, bolder, faster” theme, I’m giving the edge to Century 21. But it’s not much of an edge, trust me.

There are a lot of newspapers you can go to for your daily download of what’s happening in this crazy world – the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune – but the one I go to is the Sacramento Bee. I kid, although the Bee is among the nation’s best newspapers named after an insect. (I wonder if the editor-in-chief is called the “Queen Bee,” even if the editor is a guy, and I wonder if that makes it hard to convince men to become the paper’s editor-in-chief.)

The Bee staff (is their newsroom called “the beehive?”) recently put together a great article chock full of Super Bowl advertising-related factoids. I enjoyed it, and I’m sure you will, too. (When someone writes a really great article, I wonder if the other Bee reporters say, “Wow, that story is sweeter than honey!”).

Among the article’s many nuggets (stingers?):

• The average 30-second commercial price reached $1 million for the first time in 1995. The $2-million mark was first topped in 2000, and commercial costs reached $3 million for the first time in 2009.
• Commercials viewed during the first quarter tend to be the best remembered and the most liked.
• The second-half kickoff of Super Bowl I had to be replayed because NBC was airing a Winston cigarettes commercial during the original kickoff.
• New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms (Super Bowl XXI, 1987) was the first player to be filmed on the field after a Super Bowl for an “I’m going to Disney World” commercial.

An article on the Atlantic website asked the $3.5 million question on everyone’s mind: Why do Super Bowl ads keep getting more expensive?

The simple answer, besides the steady increase in the game’s TV viewership, boils down to the fact that Super Bowl is one of the few television events that still draws a captivated audience. According to the article:

“As audiences have fractured [in] the age of Hulu and DVR, the Super Bowl is among the last of an increasingly endangered species: The truly mass audience live TV event. In good times and bad, that distinction has been worth a premium to advertisers.”

The article also included a handy little chart to demonstrate the rising cost of a 30-second Super Bowl ad over the last decade. At the current rate of increase, an ad in the 2018 game will cost $47 million, plus the Ark of the Covenant and one small Caribbean island.

Now that the quarterbacks are established, we can focus on the real celebrities of the Big Game – those starring in the famous commercials. Typically one would use a commercial break to refill a drink or use the bathroom, but not during the Super Bowl. People look forward to the commercials; more importantly, they look forward to the celebrities who will appear in them.

The SpotBowl team has analyzed celebrity cameos in Super Bowl ads dating back to the first game in 1967, and we’ve decided these five are the best of the best. Granted, not every celebrity appearance in Super Bowl commercials is a fantastic success. Many flop.  Check in later this week for the worst celebrity cameos in Super Bowl commercial history.

JOE NAMATH AND FARRAH FAWCETT for NOXZEMA (1973)

Noxzema’s ad is considered one of the Super Bowl’s first famous ads. Former New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath and “Charlie’s Angels” star Farrah Fawcett share a steamy, lathered moment in the simple but effective spot.

MICHAEL J. FOX for PEPSI (1985)

Fox performs leaps and bounds to fetch his beautiful new neighbor a Diet Pepsi. This ad made NBC’s top ten Super Bowl ads of all time.  What happened to that kind of over-the-top chivalry, gentlemen?

SHAQUILLE O’NEAL for REEBOK (1993)

After signing with the NBA, superstar Shaq joined with Reebok to promote the brand.  For the 1993 Super Bowl commercial, Reebok enlisted the help of some of Shaq’s predecessors to wow the Super Bowl audience.  Shaq lands an impressive slam dunk while sporting a pair of Reebok sneakers in order to impress the basketball legends.

BRITNEY SPEARS, BEYONCE, PINK, AND ENRIQUE IGLESIAS for PEPSI (2005)

The trio of female pop stars belt out “We Will Rock You” in a gladiator-themed ad while Latin sensation Iglesias watches from the stands and drinks a Pepsi. The three ladies were arguably some of the most popular celebrities of the year. Add up four popular artists, little clothing and great singing and you have the perfect recipe for a Super Bowl commercial.

BETTY WHITE for SNICKERS (MARS) (2010)

A backyard pickup football game at its finest, with Betty White portraying a sore loser in the Snickers ad. Betty’s character turns back into a man after his girlfriend feeds him a Snickers, a play on the brand’s tag line: “You’re not you when you’re hungry.”