My wife, Christine, is a wonderful person but she has no interest whatsoever in sports. She tagged along with me for years because I am a sports addict.

So when my friend and attorney, the late Craig Kelly invited me to join him at a Super Bowl in Miami on January 29, 1995, she told me to run along as she had no interest in a drive to south Florida.

Craig represented scores of professional players and almost as many NFL and college coaches, so getting tickets was easy. Super Bowl XXIX at Joe Robbie Stadium was a 49-26 blowout of the 49er’s over San Diego, which is pretty typical for most Super Bowls.

While Christine is not much on what happens on the field, she is a big fan of the Super Bowl ads that appear on television.

There are so many memorable ads that have been aired on the Super Bowl over the years. Take the “Mean Joe Greene” ad that Coke ran where Greene meets a kid in a stadium tunnel and offers Mean Joe a coke. Greene tosses the kid a jersey. You balling your eyes out thinking about it, are you not? That ad ran in 1979… over 30 years ago! Talking about staying power!

One of the most sentimental ads was Budweiser’s “Respect” ad that ran in 2002. I occasionally speak on the topic of “branding” and both Bud and Coke have done it well. Bud’s branding is focused on the famous Clydesdales, easily the most recognizable icon in all Super Bowl ads. The 2002 ad has the Clydesdale’s walking across a snowy field and the Brooklyn Bridge before taking a knee in front of the New York skyline where the World Trade Center towers used to be. Powerful and timely.

Another Budweiser ad back in 1995 featured three frogs sitting on a log and croaking the words “buuuuuud,” “wiiiiies” and “errrrrrr.” You fell in love with the ad which included a lizard and ferret-themed spinoff.

Budweiser’s “Sleigh Ride” from 2004 was also memorable, borrowing from a “Seinfeld” episode, a flatulent cab horde turns a candle into a flamethrower and torches the guy’s date. He escaped danger by reaching for a Bud Light. Distasteful? Yes, but guys like jokes about passing gas.

Just as memorable was McDonald’s 1993 “Showdown” ad featuring Michael Jordan and Larry Bird, easily the most popular athletes in the world at the time. They engaged in an increasingly logic-defying shooting contest for a Big Mac. The commercial ends with players throwing the ball off the John Hancock Tower in Chicago. This is one of those ads that you profoundly remember, but if you gave a quiz on what company sponsors the ad, you would be hard-pressed to name McDonalds.

Ditto for the latest Nike ads with Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. People just do not associate it with Nike. The repetitiveness of the ads is where you finally tune into who they are pitching.

Budweiser has also had some losers over the years. In 1994, the fake football game between bottles of Bud and Bud Light had too much goofiness. The same could be said for their 2003 “Upside Down Clown” ad where a clown with an upside-down suit walks into a bar to order a Bud Light. He pours the drink into his mouth through the opening in the suit’s legs. Yeah, it is best you do not recall that one.

Frito-Lay dropped a bomb with their Dan Quayle ad in 1993. The much criticized former VP makes a cameo with a joke about his inability to spell “potato.” Quayle was not exactly the politician of the decade in the nineties. That contributed to the failure.

One of the biggest branding busts in advertising history was Burger King’s “Find Herb the Nerd” ad in 1986. Aside from the fact that Herb was played by an annoying actor, the ad did nothing for BK and it costs them tens of millions.

Perhaps the most revolting of all Super Bowl ads was Holiday Inn’s “Sex Change Ad” in 1977 wherein a woman teacher is revealed to be a man. It was followed with a cheesy segue that equated her sex change with Holiday Inn’s recent renovations. Everybody from gays and transgender activist groups pounced on this one and even the straights were deeply offended.

So when you sit down February 7 to watch the Super Bowl, make a mental note of why you did or did not like this year’s pitches.