The Darkness saved Samsung's ad from spiraling down into forgettable territory.

​Let's be blunt. This year's Super Bowl was dismal for Midwesterners.

Sure, there were exceptions. Transplants from Boston, New York City or New Jersey may have enjoyed the game. Some may have had a rooting interest in Chad Ochocinco's David Carr's quest for a pity Super Bowl ring. And who knows? Maybe some people just watched to see the artist who made this video dress up in a cheerleader uniform and flick off America.

In any case, this year's slate of commercials attempted to fill a void. And like every year, many of the ads incorporated popular music to snag the attention of the masses.

Which spots succeeded? And which fell flatter than Rex Grossman's performance in Super Bowl XLI? Here's an unscientific take on some of Sunday's most memorable advertisements:

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​The early 2000s were Nelly's salad days, a time period where the University City rapper was known more for slinging out hits than his efforts to take over Branson or for dealing with burglars at his Wildwood home.

An example: Nelly had the number one song in the country nine years ago today with "Dilemma," a finger-snapping slow jam duet with Destiny's Child alum Kelly Rowland. While "Hot in Herre" was arguably the Nellyville's signature track, "Dilemma" was actually the more successful song in terms of Billboard charting. "Dilemma" managed to stay at number one the Billboard Hot 100 charts for 10 weeks in 2002, as opposed to seven weeks for "Hot in Herre" during that same year.

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Our beloved local cuddle-thug has been all over the national scene in advance of his appearance on this year's Blizzard Music Tour. During the Grammys, a commercial aired in which he pimped out a Sony Audio system in the new Ford Explorer. The humorous clip features his duet with Kelly Rowland, "Gone," and scenes of Nelly objecting to over-the-top instances of pyrotechnics and dancers. While the line "I'm firing my agent now" has drawn some snorts of derision -- rocker Jason Isbell even tweeted, "Nelly, you probably should've fired your agent a long time ago" -- it's actually refreshing to see a musician knowingly acting ridiculous. View it below.

Speaking of ridiculous: Nelly's appearance on the new Beverly Hills 90210 also premiered this week.

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Image via

Dreaming of warmer weather, no doubt...

​Even the city's cuddle-thug is being swept up in the snowmageddon, it seems: Nelly is part of the Blizzard Music Tour, which kicks off March 1 in South Dakota. The lineup for the trek is interesting and very diverse: Besides Nelly, the show features Denver hip-pop duo 3OH!3, Aussie rockers Sick Puppies and Cali Swag District, the group behind "Teach Me How to Dougie." You know this song. Video below.) Big Reeno and Dextrious are also along for the ride. Now, the tour isn't coming to St. Louis; it's sticking to cold-weather climes such as Iowa, Wyoming and Montana.

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​Nelly's workout DVD, Celebrity Sweat, was released late last year. Although the smash single "Just a Dream" somewhat overshadowed Nelly's fitness kick, the latter didn't go unnoticed by two important people: President Obama and his wife, Michelle. According to stlhiphop.com and STL Today, Sweat is now an advocate for the President's Challenge, which is a program of the President's Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition. The DVD is also associated with Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" program, whose goal is to fight childhood obesity. (In other words, the collaboration is all about promoting a healthy, active lifestyle.) It's unclear exactly how this came about, although the President's Challenge website has a section devoted to applying to become an advocate. It also and spells out the benefits of the partnership:

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The lovely folks over at Vevo finally got around to putting together an excellent Go Show from Nelly's surprise performance with the St. Lunatics at Blueberry Hill last month. "Move That Body" is the third single and maybe our favorite earworm off Nelly's forthcoming album, 5.0, which will be released stateside November 16. The single "Just a Dream" just rose to No. 1 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart, as of today. Congrats!

Short n' sweet: Here's a video with some highlights from Nelly's performance at Blueberry Hill on Friday. The overwhelming bass is there, but you'll have to imagine the 200 screaming, sweaty fans. Note: The lights you see are not actually from the stage, but rather the blinding reflection from Nelly's baller timepiece.

A close-up:

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Diana Benanti

Fans lined up outside Blueberry Hill.

​Nelly treated 200 lucky fans to a free show at Blueberry Hill's Duck Room on Friday, in conjunction with a ceremony celebrating his star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. The hip-hop superstar is the youngest person to have his own star, and though it's been there for years, there was never an official induction ceremony .

The surprise performance and press conference wasn't announced until several hours before it was scheduled to begin. Fans lined up outside Blueberry Hill, trading stories about how they found out about the show. "We were going to go to the zoo. What if we had been at the zoo and missed this?! " remarked one particularly ecstatic Nelly enthusiast. "I'm never going to the zoo again, I'm not going anywhere near Forest Park ever again!"

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This just in! Hot off the email presses! See below:

Today, Nelly and the St. Lunatics will surprise lucky fans with an impromptu performance in the Delmar Loop. Nelly is announcing the concert this afternoon on Magic 104.1 and Z107.7. The performance is presented by VEVO as part of the music video website's 'Go Shows' series. Big name artists from around the world have been wowing fans with surprise 'Go Shows' for several months.

At 4:30 p.m., Blueberry Hill owner Joe Edwards will present Nelly with a star on the Walk of Fame. Then at 5 p.m., Nelly and the St. Lunatics will do the special "Go" Performance. The event is open to the public.

[Update, 3:45 p.m.: What's that you say? Nelly already has a star on the Walk of Fame? Yes, that's true. But! -- ]

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It seemed like an eternity we went without a peep from the Band-Aided one and his posse, but the past few months St. Louis has felt like Nellyville again. There was that awesomely sweaty show with Chuck Berry at Kiener Plaza, he's been gracing the airwaves during drivetime, co-hosting on Hot 104.1, and tonight he's kicking off the second season of The Mo'Nique Show on BET at 10pm.

Of course, all this glorious Nellytime is leading up to the release of his fifth album, 5.0 on November 16 and the impending release of City's Free, the new St. Lunatics album. But we'll take all the Nelly we can get.

And now for a gratuitous shirtless Nelly shot:

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