The votes have been tallied! In a Super Bowl that saw advertisers showing more skin than usual, it was family-friendly car ad from Volkswagen that was named America’s favorite commercial in the ninth annual SpotBowl national poll.

The Volkswagen spot starred an overweight pooch that sheds some weight so he can chase the new VW. The ad finished just ahead of a Doritos’ fan-made spot featuring a dog who bribes a man to keep quiet about a missing cat. It was Volkswagen’s second consecutive SpotBowl win, after taking the title last year with “Little Darth.”

Other spots generating pregame buzz included Honda’s “Ferris Bueller” remake starring Matthew Broderick, which finished 13th in the poll. Acura’s ad starring Jerry Seinfeld finished seventh, while the E*TRADE baby, perhaps showing his age, finished toward the middle of the pack in 20th place.

Among first-time Super Bowl advertisers, of which there were seven, MetLife won “Rookie of the Year” honors with its fifth place SpotBowl finish. The insurance company’s feel good spot featured Charlie Brown, and included cameos by dozens of other nostalgic cartoon characters.

Finishing in last place was Go Daddy’s “Heaven,” which featured race-car driver Danica Patrick and followed the company’s risqué Super Bowl advertising formula of years past. Go Daddy’s second ad, “Body Paint,” finished second to last.

Voting Closed
The polls are officially closed on SpotBowl IX! Thanks to everyone for taking time to sound off about your favorite ads. We’re tallying the votes and will announce the winner shortly.

Yesterday I posted a round-up of 10 upcoming Super Bowl spots. Yes, the pre-release of ads is definitely a trend this year, and why not? If you’re paying $3.5 million for 30 seconds (or between six and seven million for 60 seconds), why wouldn’t you try to drum up a little pre-game excitement about your investment?

Almost overnight, nine new ads were released, including Kia’s “Dream Car” (hilarious and awesome), Coca-Cola’s “The Catch” (polar bears), and CareerBuilder’s chimp spot, “Business Trip” (same old, same old). The new spots bring the pre-released ad total to 21, or almost half of the total Super Bowl ad inventory. Check ‘em out below.

E*Trade – “Fatherhood”

Coca-Cola – “The Catch”

Careerbuilder.com – “Business Trip”

Toyota – “Camry Stories”

Chevrolet – “Aliens”

Chevrolet – “Bug Ride”

Chevrolet – “Stunt Anthem”

Kia – “Dream Car”

Lexus – “Beast”

Hyundai – “CPR Car”

Hyundai – “Cheetah”

It used to be, if you shelled a couple million dollars for a Super Bowl ad, you protected that investment by keeping the details about the ad under lock and key until after the game. But now, because of the buzz-generating power of the Internet, more advertisers are releasing their spots days or even weeks before the game.

This year’s ad lineup is no exception, with no fewer than 10 companies offering full-length versions of their ads prior to game time.

ACURA – “Seinfeld vs. Leno”

AUDI – “Vampire Killer”

CHEVROLET – “Happy Grad”

GE – “Power and Beer” and “Louisville”

GO DADDY – “Heaven” and “Body Paint”

SUZUKI – “New Sled”

TOYOTA – “Reinvented”

DORITOS – Two of five “Crash the Super Bowl” finalists

The top vote-getter of the five fan-made spots will appear in the game. Doritos will choose another finalist to also make an appearance. All five finalists can be viewed on the “Crash the Super Bowl” website.

CARS.COM – “Confidence”

The Cars.com spot isn’t available for embedding, but can be viewed on the Cars.com site here.

General Electric has become probably the last company to announce its presence in the Super Bowl ad lineup and the 10th company this year to release its spots before the game (see below).

The pair of 45-second ads shine a spotlight on the hard work of GE employees, and appear to be designed more to fire up internal audiences than to sell whatever it is GE is trying to sell. (Electricity? Giant turbines? Budweiser beer?)

Yes, I said Budweiser beer. The first spot, “Power and Beer,” spends the last 15 seconds talking about how GE “makes the power that makes the beer.” I’m assuming Budweiser somehow pitched in to fund the purchase of this spot. If not, I’d like to tell Budweiser on behalf of General Electric: “You’re welcome.”