• WSJ, Monday, February 6, 2006 11:46 AM

A quick, online poll by TheWall Street Journal showed that funny commercials carried the day in the advertising festival that is otherwise known as Super Bowl XL.  Respondents said their two favorites ads, in order,  were the spot for Federal Express in which a caveman is crushed by a dinosaur after failing to use FedEx, and the spot for Sprint Nextel that showed a man throwing his cell phone in his friend's face to demonstrate its "crime deterrent" capability. "I loved it. It was so unpredictable," said Tony Smith, a 29-year-old teacher in Denver, of the Sprint spot, crafted by Omnicom Group Inc.'s TBWAChiatDay.Anheuser-Busch also scored well with a commercial showing a group of guys bowing before a "secret" refrigerator they'd discovered that was full of Bud Light. That ad "broke through and was attention-grabbing," said Emily Raman, a 28-year-old ad student at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management in Evanston, Ill., who was watching the game with 35 other students. One serious spot also scored well in the survey: Unilever's Dove spot featuring young girls struggling with self-image issues. Heather Pflederer, a 34-year-old stay-at-home mom in Oak Park, Ill., said the spot "was very moving."

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