Super Bowl Ads: Great Online Analysis

The New York Times Web site has a terrific interactive look at Super Bowl ads from 1984 to 2007. Use the slider at the top of the screen to move through the years. For each year, it shows a count of the number of ads in different product categories (vehicles, beverages, travel, food, etc.) plus the percentage of ads each year that featured humor, animals, and celebrities. 2007 had the highest percentage of ads with humor (72%) of any year, though there's no analysis of the quality of the humor. Selected ads can be viewed on screen.