The $4 million advertisers spend for a 30-second Big Game ad actually buys a much bigger chance that their ads won’t work, according to the Tucson, Ariz.-based firm. In general, Communicus has found about 60% of ads it tests don’t increase purchase or purchase intent. But let’s be honest here, an ad on the Super Bowl is more about ego’s than driving brand objectives.

 Advertisers really dial up the entertainment quotient to pop to the top of the USA Today rankings so they can pat themselves on the back.

Super Bowl ads actually do better than average in ad awareness, with 44% of people remembering they’ve seen an average Super Bowl ad vs. 32% for other ads that get similar gross-rating-point exposure. But because the creative often focuses less on the brands, people not surprisingly remember the brands less often in Super Bowl ads.

If I had the money spent on a Super Bowl spot, $4 million, I could drive brand objectives with key metrics but the “business” of marketing is marketers with big ego’s patting themselves on the back while closet Hollywood ad creative people go to Cannes to collect awards while brands ask “what the hell happened to sales?”