Betty White plays football, babies talk about “milkaholics” and a house made of Bud Light cans falls slowly apart. It must be the Super Bowl — or at least the advertising showcase that entertains amid the gridiron action.

The commercials from such advertisers as Anheuser-Busch and Coca-Cola got off to a funny start Sunday night on CBS.

Villanova marketing Professor Charles R. Taylor said the light-hearted tone is working this year because the ads still manage to tell people what the brands stand for. That marks a turn from last year, when some ads took a more somber tone amid the still-deepening recession.

Not every commercial was strictly humorous. Automaker Toyota aired several ads before and after the game to reassure worried owners after its recalls connected with accelerator problems.

Taylor said he had been disappointed in at least the past five Super Bowls in terms of the effectiveness of ads in connecting with products, but this year he’s pleased. Advertisers pay dearly for the airtime — from $2.5 million to more than $3 million per 30 seconds — and marketers say ads work best when they focus on the product, as well as entertaining.

He cited a commercial by tiremaker Bridgestone featuring men carrying a whale in the back of their truck, and another by Dove launching its new men’s skin-care line. They were winners, he said, because they manage to entertain while telling people about the brands. The ad for Dove tells the story of boy growing into a man and the signal events in a man’s life.

“So far from what I’ve seen I’m quite positively impressed, more than I thought I would be,” he said.