Who in Dat Commercial? Our 10 Favorite Super Bowl Voiceovers

This Sunday, February 7, 2010, over 100 million viewers across the country will converge to watch Super Bowl XLIV (that's 44 to you) in South Florida (A.K.A. Miami). Both opponents have their own unique storylines that you'll no doubt hear again and again as we inch closer to the ultimate “human drama of athletic competition.” Can Peyton Manning lead the Indianapolis Colts to a second Lombardi Trophy in three years and solidify his status as the greatest quarterback of all time? Will Drew Brees take the New Orleans Saints — America's team, armed with their very own trademarked catchphrase — to their first Super Bowl victory and bring much needed inspiration to a city on the mend?

Of course, while millions watch the drama unfold on the gridiron, just as many — perhaps a few more — will tune-in for the commercials. Super Bowl ads have moved into a league of their own — complete with controversy, stats and legions of fans. And if once a year isn't enough, websites like SuperBowl Commercials and Adland are devoted to compiling and reviewing hundreds of Super spots.

In the spirit of 44, and the advertising explosion it brings with it, we culled through the last decade of Super Bowl commercials to look for notable voiceovers, and found a few that speak for themselves. Read on for our ten favorites. 

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Burt Reynolds Teaches Survival; Dexter Reads About Dinosaurs

We here at WViT appreciate the art of simple, lo-fi, storytelling — maybe that’s why we’re fascinated by nuances of the voice. In today’s digital age of eye-candy, the practice of no-frills narration without visual whizbangery seems to becoming a dying tradition. Perhaps we’re purists, but as the debate rages about the future of media, how it can be saved, and the dawn of the iPad, iTablet, iSlate or whatever it's destined to be crowned, we hope there will always be room for a quality story that lets the imagination fill in the blanks.

That's a reason why we love audio books and, specifically, Audible.com. (Here's our required FTC disclosure: We are no way affiliated, related, married, dating or even acquaintances with anyone from Audible.com, although we do follow them on Twitter — hope that’s O.K.)

Audible's over 140,000 hours of content includes an abundance of narrators — good and bad — and this includes a growing number of recognizable voices such as Johnny Cash, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon, Oprah Winfrey, Uma Thurman, Sean Penn, Hugh Jackman, Neil Patrick Harris, Samuel L. Jackson, and John Krasinski to name a small few. Surprisingly though, there isn't an easy way to find a thorough list of celebrity narrators — that's where we come in. We've pooled our global resources together to figure out who reads what and compiled a few notables in this post. For a comprehensive list, check out our new WViT Lists section. Tell your friends.

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