Superbowl and marketing. Does it work?

I was really intrigued to your beginning to differentiating marketing and advertising and promotions in class. I have found myself thinking about these terms more and more and am interested in learning more about how each of them apply to business and ways I can use them to (hopefully) someday increase the number of customers/patients and sales/prescriptions after kicking off my pharmacy business.

After the Steelers won the AFC championship, ubiquitous talk about the Superbowl began. Who can discuss the most-watched event of the year without mentioning the commercials? The short blurbs promoting companies, brands, and products have become almost as famous and anticipated as the game itself. But are these million-dollar minutes really doing anything for the bottom line? Are there studies to show that Superbowl commercials create a marginal profit over those items/businesses that are not shown during the game or change the way consumers think or act when it comes to purchasing? This leads back to my main question. . . what types of marketing strategies are worthwhile?