You’re watching your favorite show and suddenly your favorite character’s been shot. You gasp. You groan. Another commercial break. Usually, commercials are the bane of our existence — they make football games last longer, they’re loud, obnoxious and often ridiculously boring. The only day of the year when commercials are celebrated is Super Bowl Sunday – when the commercials are good.

Those fancy and expensive Super Bowl commercials shouldn’t get all of the attention though, because there are some fantastic commercials that play during regular programming. Every once in a while a commercial will be funny or entertaining enough that people will search for it on the Internet and send the link to their friends.

But advertising executives don’t set out to create commercials that will get people talking or create an Internet sensation, said advertising professor Fred Beard and author of “Humor in the Advertising Business: Theory, Practice, and Wit.”

“Talking about it or sharing it isn’t necessarily always good for the advertiser,” he said. “[The audience] will recognize the actor but won’t remember what the commercial’s for. ‘Buzz’ is an industry term for pass along value. It’s good if the advertiser’s message is included in the buzz.”

Beard pointed out a commercial from a few years ago in which a man is chopping up something for dinner when a white cat knocks over a pot of spaghetti sauce, covering itself and the floor with the red sauce. The man goes to pick up the cat, knife in hand, just as his date opens the door. It looks like he was caught murdering the cat, but what no one seems to remember is that the commercial is for Ameriquest Mortgage Company.

“[I like] commercials that have a little mystery that you don’t know what the hell they’re talking about and you watch it to see what it’s for,” said Noah Swanson, human relations senior.

Swanson also said he will often remember a commercial that had a mystery or surprise, but he won’t remember the product it advertises.

“[To get my attention] a commercial has to be funny I would think — kind of funny and fast paced,” Travis Thomsen, sociology and criminology senior said. “Not just some old guy just sitting there talking.”

Swanson said he was recently sent a “Guitar Hero: World Tour” commercial, in which sports superstars Alex Rodriguez, Kobe Brant, Michael Phelps and Tony Hawk are dressed as Tom Cruise from “Risky Business,” rocking out to “Old Time Rock and Roll” in white socks and boxers.

The TV spot for “Guitar Hero: World Tour” is an example of a funny commercial that is also good for the advertiser, because you come away with the name of the product, Beard said.

Beard said his favorite ad campaign is the “Holiday Inn Express Stay Smart” campaign. In commercials, a person says something or does something out of character or shows extreme intelligence. At the end of the ad they admit, “I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.”

“The punchline to the joke is the name of the advertiser,” Beard said. “It’s one of the few companies that can document that their sales have risen after the campaign.”

Beard said that advertising is both a business and a form of art.

“The best advertising creative geniuses never forget what the goal of the advertising should be,” Beard said. “The goal of an ad is never to entertain; that’s just a tactic.”