"There’s relatively little going over the top. And in a quirky Doritos ad, a foetus in a sonogram appears to rocket out of the womb to chase a bag of chips the mother angrily tossed away.On advertising’s biggest night, Chrysler celebrated Jeep with an ad featuring black-and-white portraits of veterans, kids and pop icons. Two pharmaceutical ads highlighted unappealing digestive conditions.There were a couple of misfires. One promoted an anti-diarrhoea medication Xifaxan with a small-intestines mascot taking a seat at the Super Bowl.In general, advertisers played it safe with universally liked celebrities such as Anthony Hopkins (TurboTax) and Ryan Reynolds (Hyundai), cute animals and pro-America themes.

With ads costing a record $5 million for 30 seconds this year, the stakes are high to stand out from the 40-plus advertisers and be remembered. "It’s been a pretty safe night," said David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer at advertising agency MRY."Offbeat humour reigned with a creature called "Puppymonkeybaby" — pretty much exactly what it sounds like — in an ad for Mountain Dew’s Kickstart. The ad sought to show that three great things go together, since Kickstart combines Mou-ntain Dew, juice and caffeine. When the mother throws away a bag of Doritos, the foetus seems to zoom after it, to the consternation of all present. The spot showed a couple during a sonogram. In Audi’s spot, a depressed ageing astronaut remembers his joy for life by driving an Audi sports car with his son. "It’s on my list of the weirdest ad of the night, but it’s very catchy and people will be talking about it," said Kelly O’Keefe, a marketing professor at Virginia Commo-nwealth University.The goal for advertisers: to stand out and win over the 114 million-plus people watching the big game on Super Bowl Sunday, much the way the Denver Broncos triumphed over the Carolina Panthers. SunTrust’s ad urged people to take a breath and feel better about their financial health.

"Most ads managed to avoid the sombre tone struck last year, when an ad for Nationwide about preventable household accidents bummed out many in the audience.From a strange creature called "Puppy-monkeybaby" to a tear-inducing Audi ad, Super Bowl ads ran the gamut this year from offbeat humour to heartfelt messages.""This just isn’t a topic that people want to hear about during a Super Bowl," said Villanova University marketing professor Charles Taylor. China Windproof lighters Factory Another sought to raise awareness about "opioid-induced constipation.Heartfelt messages were in abundance too..Mountain Dew’s ad might have been the weir-dest ad of the night, but Doritos’ ad also seemed likely to divide viewers. BMW’s Mini urged people to "defy labels.