• by February 2, 2004

The New England Patriots may have pulled out a victory last night in Super Bowl XXXVIII, but so far, Bud Light's "Sleigh Ride" ad is the early favorite among voters in America Online's Super Bowl ad poll.

The online poll invited Super Bowl viewers to select and cast votes for five of their favorite ads. At AOL.com, fans could view all 48 commercials in the big game. With more than 100,000 votes cast since the close of last night's game, AOL says votes continue to roll in and results of the ad bowl will be announced later today. Preliminary results as of 11:30 p.m. last night show:

America Online Super Bowl Ad Poll

1. Bud Light - Sleigh Ride:  11% 
2. Budweiser - Donkey:       10% 
3. Bud Light - Dogs Fetching: 9% 
4. Bud
Light - Chimpanzee:    6% 
5. Budweiser - Referee:       6% 

Source: America Online's Super Bowl Ad Poll. Base = More than 100,000 online respondents.

A final tally will be announced at 2 p.m. EST today but the ads will be available for viewing on AOL and AOL.com through Feb. 4. Last year, AOL says its Super Bowl ad showcase was viewed more than 5.6 million times in 36 hours. Last year's Pepsi Twist ad featuring the Osbournes topped the poll.

According to USA Today's and USAToday.com's Super Bowl "Ad Meter," Anheuser-Busch's "dogs fetching" spot for Bud Light scored the highest rating, a 9.04 with a possible high of a 10.00. Pepsi's "Bears" spot ranked second (8.88), followed by Anheuser-Busch's "Donkey" (8.83) and "Sleigh" (8.62) spots and Frito-Lay's "Grandma/Grandpa" spot (8.50).

Budweiser had the most popular commercials in each of the past six Super Bowl Ad Meters, USA Today said.