When people hear the words “Super Bowl,” they tend to think three things. Either “Holy crap, I better get my bets in,” “All right, time to watch another unevenly matched game between two teams that should never play each other ever,” or “I wonder what this year’s commercials are?” For those who find themselves more interested in the commercials than the game itself, this story is for you.

Last year, most companies with commercials during the Super Bowl paid on average just less than $2 million for a 30-second spot. The U.S. government paid the highest amount of money it has ever paid for not just one, but two commercials. That amount: $1.6 million for each commercial. Those commercials: Anti-terrorism advertisements.

According to a study done by the Intermedia Advertising Group, the most liked commercial of last year’s Super Bowl was Budweiser’s Clydesdale horses heading to New York City. The least liked commercial was AT&T’s mLife, which kept telling us how great mLife was, yet never actually telling us what mLife was.

Is there really any advantage to having your commercial played during the Super Bowl? Associate psychology professor Brad Sagarin thinks so.

“The Super Bowl has a unique environment for commercials mainly because of the hype that surrounds them,” Sagarin said. “People pay attention in a different way.”

Sagarin added that there is more at stake than imagined.

“If a commercial is successful, the company may get free replay of the commercial during the following week,” he said.

Who knows what this year’s ad lineup will bring? Look for the usual Budweiser ads and upcoming movie trailers. Other than that, who knows what to expect? After all is said and done, you can find out how certain commercials did, which were the most popular and so on by visiting www.adforum.com or www.superbowl-ads.com.