Going into last night's game the odds of the Giants winning Super Bowl XLII were about the same as the odds of Charlie Brown winning at, well anything. Yet by game's end Sunday night both underdogs had won.

The Giants had sent Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and head coach Bill Belichick back to the drawing board for perfection and Charlie Brown -- thanks to a simple, playful, visually brilliant piece of branding magic for Coke created by Portland agency Wieden + Kennedy -- literally rose high above the competition in this year's clash of ad titans.

The 60-second Coke commercial chronicled an aerial battle royale at a Thanksgiving Day Parade between cartoon character balloons, over a giant inflatable bottle of Coke. At first the war is between the precocious demon child Stewey of Fox's "Family Guy" and animated 1960s icon Underdog.

From the start, the commercial had me transfixed, a battle between goofy '60s values and contemporary postmodern snark played out on a grand scale, high above and sometimes smashing into the skyscrapers of Manhattan. When the Charlie Brown balloon finally swooped in out of nowhere and claimed the Coke bottle (not long before David Tyree snatched Eli Manning's miracle fourth quarter pass out of the air) the spot ratcheted up several notches in my eyes, from memorable to the hallowed level of its classics, "Hilltop" and "Happiness Factory".

Why? For one thing, by this stage of the game I'd grown tired of and a little embarrassed for the men in the dearth of formulaic sitcom-ish skits making asses of themselves for the 10th year in a row in order to sneak -- oh my goodness! -- a bottle of beer! For another, I was still disturbed by seeing an unattractive woman rubbing, um, nuts -- the supposedly tasty product -- on her person on behalf of the good yet misguided folks at Planters.

On top of that was the fact that this year's game featured derivative, contrived ads featuring gekkos and cavemen -- but not for the brand that put them on the cultural map, Geico. (Note to creative directors and C.M.O.'s: cavemen, lizards, frogs, and Clydesdales have already been claimed. Please email me for a complete list of available critters.)

Or maybe the Coke spot stood out because anything would seem like a classic if it followed either of Salesgenie.com's C.E.O.-created train wrecks which somehow managed to be visually, aurally, and racially offensive.

What else stood out? The Audi "Godfather" execution for its R8 model defied the cliche sandtraps of "movie homage" work and was well executed, smartly paying off its position that old luxury is being put on notice. I only wish that the on logo on the grill of the "dead" car in the bed (Mercedes? Rolls?) could have been more recognizable.

Tide's "Talking Stain" spot was a flawless piece of advertising. Visually compelling, smart, funny without a gratuitously shocking moment, and built upon that rarest of thing in Super Bowl ads, a salient consumer insight: Stains can be distracting to a fault.

I knew that a punch-line was coming with the Doritos "Mousetrap" ad, but the giant person in a rodent suit attacking the trap-setting, chip-munching foil was the last thing I expected. It's benefit-driven cheese joke almost saved the day for Doritos' other offering during the game. You know, the spot with the cute young woman singing the folksy feel-good song because she'd won a contest that we apparently were supposed to have known about. In any case, it did not make me think of or want to eat anything crunchy.

A few moments into "Giant Pigeons" and I knew it was a FedEx spot, and I could clearly see where it was going, a series of hyperbolic avian shipping disasters, but it was so well produced it still managed to surprise, amuse, and reinforce FedEx's core message.

Watching Shaq make his way around a horse track as a jockey was an absolute joy. The race was beautifully filmed and I guess it made sense midway through the clubhouse turn when the track announcer threw away the line that the big man had apparently guzzled some Vitamin Water before the race and felt particularly emboldened.

However the problem I have with this spot is that it was one of several sports drink ads that ran during the game, and none (Gatorade, SoBe, Vitamin Water) staked out any unique brand territory that could separate them from the rest. Perhaps one of them should follow Bud's lead and become the Official Sports Drink of the Super Bowl.

I had a similar problem with GMC's "Sisyphus" ad. Great animation of the man pushing the rock up the endless mountain. Smart language about trying hard and commitment and all that. But can't any brand make similar claims? An S.U.V. hybrid is a fairly unconventional proposition. I wish the insight and the concept had reflected that.

The Budweiser Clydesdale "Rocky" commercial was charming but their funniest spot of the game was Will Ferrell in character from his upcoming Jackie Moon movie, extolling the benefits of Bud Light. If it doesn't top out USA Today's Super Bowl Ad Meter, it will surely be the game's most quoted spot, with Ferrell riffing lines like "Bud Light: it refreshes the palate, and the loins." Strange how the best beer commercial of the game -- and in a long time -- is one that makes fun of beer spots.

In the weeks leading up to the game, the makers of Sunsilk hair products went out of their way to tout their groundbreaking Super Bowl execution, created not by an agency, but by the Parisian design firm Desgrippes Gobe. But the animated piece that was broadcast, featuring the likenesses of Marilyn Monroe, Shakira, and Madonna, looked more like a Request for Credentials for a real, future agency than an actual ad.

And speaking of France, I really wanted to like Garmin's "Napolean" GPS ad. but something seemed terribly off when he got out of his little 21st century car in front of his 18th century troops. That kind of modernity intruding on history worked in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" but in this instance it just made me scratch my head.

From the scratching of one's head we move on to the clamping of jumper cables upon one's nipples. I laughed when I saw this ad for yet another wonder drink, AMP. The people in the room with me last night laughed, too. And what was there not to like? It was crude, it was gratuitously unsettling, it featured gratuitously retro Salt n' Pepa music and it made a simple point: AMP gives you crazy energy.

But then a strange thing happened. I was ashamed of the fact that I laughed. Like so many other Super Bowl commercials it was a one off, another quick hitter from the school of shock. It didn't build meaningful brand equity, or make me feel smarter, or better about the world. And it certainly didn't tap into or even hint at whatever the zeitgeist may be these days.

But Charlie Brown did. Charlie Brown beat Stewey and Underdog and he won. And unless a giant Lucy is lurking around the next corner, waiting for the sequel, Coke won, too.

by James P. Othmer

James P. Othmer is the author of the novel The Futurist, and is writing an advertising memoir.