• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, February 6, 2017

For once the ads didn’t overshadow the football, but they were still pretty good.

With many people calling Super Bowl LI the most exciting contest in years – possibly the best ever – the second-half comeback by the Patriots to best the Falcons in overtime was a mixed blessing for brands.

A bunch of ads that were originally relegated to post-game analysis got a boost, but with everyone probably talking about the game, was anyone actually watching them?

This year’s advertising offerings to the football gods were a mixed bag, as usual, judging by their varying fortunes online.

Using YouTube views as a rough index of popularity (or at least publicity), Anheuser Busch’s “Born the Hard Way” ad for Budweiser, retelling the immigration story of founder Adolphus Busch to the United States, was the clear winner with 20.2 million views on YouTube at the time of writing.

It’s worth noting that the ad, which many interpreted as having political overtones because it deals with immigration, may have attracted some “hate” views.

After that, the activity drops off pretty sharply.

T-Mobile’s ad “Unlimited Moves,” featuring spokesmanchild Justin Bieber, attracted a respectable 8.93 million views by press time, while Skittles’ “Romance,” a rather silly spot about catching candy in your mouth, had 8.1 million.

Audi’s rather soppy attack on sexism, “Drive Progress,” had 7.7 million, and Kia’s “Hero’s Journey,” starring Melissa McCarthy as an ill-starred environmental activist, had 6.64 million.

Further down the totem pole, Buick’s ad featuring Cam Newton and Miranda Kerr, banking on the joy of seeing a grown man push little kids down, had 4.1 million views. Michelob Ultra’s “Our Bar,” which would have us believe that Crossfit can somehow be combined with genial pub-crawling, had 3.42 million views on YouTube by Monday morning.

Lexus’ “Man and Machine” ad, featuring robot dancing, tutting and generally remarkable contortion, had 2.68 million views, tied with Honda’s CRV ad, “Yearbooks,” showing famous people’s unenviable high-school photos.

Netflix had 2.2 million YouTube views for its ad teasing the next season of “Stranger Things,” while 84 Lumber had around 2 million views for both parts of its ad about immigrants trying to get to America. (Viewers were encouraged to view the second part online, after 84 Lumber was forced to drop it because of controversy surrounding its political message.)

Finally, Lady Gaga’s over-the-top halftime show, sponsored by Pepsi, had 3.9 million views on the NFL’s official YouTube channel.