WATCH: Best of the 2013 Super Bowl ads

(REUTERS)

Quirks of scheduling (or a nasty time difference) mean that every year thousands of British people make plans to watch the Super Bowl, then bail last minute, turn off their phone, and let down any American friends they may have by just going to bed. Surveys are scanty, but a straw poll of the IV desk suggests this holds true. Anyway, missing out on the game itself isn't such a problem. The real show is the half-time advertisements, and they can be watched anytime, anywhere, without the need to force-feed oneself hotdogs and Nachos in an effort to make them even passably enjoyable. Here are some of the best.

1. A paeon to the underdog, Volkswagen has rounded up a cast of the angriest internet memes and misfits, thrown in Jimmy Cliff, and turned them all "sunny side up". Inventive schmaltz.

2. OAPs still have plenty of spunk and spirit, or at least that's Taco Bell's premise, as a group of hell-raising pensioners prove there's life in old legs yet. Enlivened by the necking.

3. It's controversial. It's plain-old unreconstructed "sex sells". It's model Kate Upton model foaming up and wiping down a Mercedes Benz. Does it work? Your call...

4. Taking a gang drama and making the participants pubescent kids is mediocre-funny as a concept. This Hyundai ad hits a sweetspot by adding in outlandish get-together scenarios.