Peyton Manning’s legacy – up for debate. Super Bowl XLVIII’s ads capturing our imagination – not even close.

Peyton Manning and the advertising world let us all down as we gathered our friends and family to watch an epic game with epic ads. Cue the #epicfail hashtag. Gone from the ad rotation were original ads that inspired us. No Apple 1984 like spot. I liked the Chrysler commercial when I saw it the first time three years ago – featuring Eminem.

Weeks ahead of the game advertisers released who was advertising for the big game and included in the list were several yawners. Included this year were brands from days gone by including Cheerios, RadioShack and Maserati. Of those three, only RadioShack took the opportunity to make us laugh if not capture our 80s nostalgia. The Budweiser spots were expected and the Bud Light teaser campaign fell short and tried too hard to make us laugh.

Maybe clients are killing the concepts before we see them. Maybe agencies are mailing it in. If clients are going to drop millions of dollars to capture our imagination, make us happy. Not all of us are football fans, but all of like to laugh and smile. Fail to entertain us and you’ll hear about it via Twitter or Facebook. I’m happy for the city of Seattle and the Seahawks. As for advertisers, you put us all to sleep.

Pepsi’s brand did well with the halftime show featuring the diminutive Bruno Mars.