Super Bowl ads are known for generating buzz—and viewers—but not all creatives are created equal. Nielsen reveals America’s most liked commercials over the past five years, and the NFL itself tops the list.

National TV sports advertising generated $10.9 billion in revenue last year, compared to $10.3 billion one year prior, according to Nielsen’s State of the Media: Year in Sports

TV ads airing in last year’s Daytona 500 were 26% more likely to be recalled by viewers than those who saw the ad run elsewhere.

National broadcast and cable TV networks aired over 43,700 hours of sporting events in the U.S. last year, according to new statistics released in Nielsen’s report on “The Changing Face of Sports Media.” Nielsen also found that advertisers spent an estimated $7.6 billion on sports programming alone in 2009.

Anheuser-Busch’s acquisition by Belgian brewer InBev won’t halt the beer maker’s prodigious sports marketing efforts. 
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Friday that Anheuser-Busch executives sought to calm fears that its sports marketing would be curtailed by InBev.
The story noted that Anheuser-Busch, one of the biggest money machines in the U.S. sports industry, spent approximately $482 million last year on U.S. advertising, according to Nielsen.  About 60% of that — $285 million — paid for TV advertising on sports.