Super Bowl Ads: Volkswagen: The Force, Pepsi, Doritos Lead on Hulu

Super Bowl XLV is half way done. The game itself is a blow out but the online video game is all about the live voting for the best ads on Hulu. We’ve been usually obsessed with this, as Hulu’s audience is now big enough to be a reasonable proxy for fan nation.

With the return of Hulu’s Ad Zone this year, fans are voting live, thumbs up or thumbs down, whether they like the ads.

Snickers kind of dialed it in with a slight remake of their 2010 Betty White winner. This time it was Richard Lewis and Rosanne. But Doritos once again is has multiple leaders on the top of the list. The #1 so far is Pepsi: Love Hurts. Geico, which isn’t on the leaderboard itself, stepped in at the last minute to be the overall sponsor of the Ad Zone this year. Nice move.

Pepsi: Love Hurts

Doritos: Pug Attack

Doritos: House Sitting

The Leaderboard on Hulu:

Our favorite so far:

Volkswagen: The Force

Now, technically this Volkswagen Passat ad came out early and has already scored over 13 million views on YouTube. This is the trend this year, getting your Super Bowl ads out early in hope of driving some well-timed viral buzz.

As Michael Kadin, creative director at Deutsch LA, told NPR, “These days, it’s all about getting the content ahead of the Super Bowl so you create a buzz before you get to the game.”

There’s also BrandBowl2011, which Boston.com is running again this year tracking fan response on Twitter. Lipton Brisk, with its Eminem spot, is winning this one so far with Doritos and Volkswagen close behind.

The auto-updating widget of the ads: