• by Amy Corr , Staff Writer @MediaPostOTL, January 28, 2009

Day 3 of Super Bowl ads offer a snappy array: a heist, dancing lizards and a feel-good story. Let's launch!

Coca-Cola will launch two Coke ads during the third quarter. Ladybugs, grasshoppers, bees, dragonflies, butterflies and caterpillars unite for the common good, a waterfall of Coca-Cola, in "Heist." A young man relaxes at a park, with his bottle of Coke nearby. As he dozes off, the critters jump into action. Bees knock over the bottle, while a butterfly creates a disturbance so the napping man will move his arm and release the bottle. A lily pad glides the bottle downstream. It gets stuck in a tree and is propelled onto a grassy edge, until the bottle is opened and oozes Coke downhill. The spot ends with the man reaching for his Coke, only to find that the bottle is now a carefully shaped group of butterflies that flutter off. Watch the ad here. People hide behind online, animated versions of themselves in "Avatar." A young man walks through the crowded city streets, not knowing a soul - until he walks into an Internet café. He sits next to an ogre, and the two simultaneously reach for the same bottle of Coke. The ogre quickly transforms into human form, a young, attractive woman. Love is in the air. Watch the ad here. Wieden+Kennedy Portland created both ads.

There will be back-to-back 3D ads running at the end of the second quarter. The first comes from DreamWorks Animation SKG, promoting its upcoming 3D movie, "Monsters vs. Aliens," followed by SoBe Lifewater and its updated take on "Swan Lake." The 60-second SoBe spot is heavy on cross-pollination: The ad features the SoBe lizards, characters from "Monsters vs. Aliens" and NFL players. Changing "Swan Lake" to "Lizard Lake," the ad begins with a SoBe lizard, conducting a group of white tutu-wearing NFL players showcasing their ballet moves. The players lack rhythm until they drink the SoBe. Lizards and "Monsters vs. Aliens" characters appear, and the mostly plain white ad is injected with color, hip music and rhythmic movements. My favorite part of the ad was at the end, when an athlete morphed into a lizard. After watching a few times, it was also clear why wearing white after Labor Day is a serious offense. Watch the 2D version of the ad here, created by The Arnell Group.

Everyone's got a story, and the NFL collected more than 200 player stories and videos, posted them online, winnowed them down to 48 and let the fans choose which would become a 60-second spot in the third quarter. The winner is Usama Young, cornerback for the New Orleans Saints. Along with his father, Young tells about a previous job, selling snow cones at the Washington Redskins stadium. Young preferred mimicking the moves of NFLer Deion Sanders to selling snow cones. His antics got him fired, but Young's father got his job back. Until, of course, he made it to the NFL himself. "Now I'm in the Super Bowl," says Young. "It's just a commercial, son" replies his father. I love how the present-day father and son moments are shot in black and white and past events are colorized. Watch the ad here, created in-house by the NFL.