Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

This screenshot provided by Kraft shows the Super Bowl teaser advertisement for Volkswagen. (AP Photo/Volkswagen)

Super Bowl ads this year morphed into mini soap operas.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson shrugged off aliens so he could get more milk for his kids in a Super Bowl spot for the Milk Processor Education Program. Anheuser-Busch's commercial told the story of a baby Clydesdale growing up and returning to his owner for a heartfelt hug years later. And a Jeep ad portrayed the trials and triumphs of families waiting for their return of family members.

The reason for all the drama off the field? With 30-second spots going for as much as US$4 million this year and more than 111 million viewers expected to tune in, marketers are constantly looking for ways to make their ads stand out. And it's increasingly difficult to captivate viewers with the cliche plots of babies, celebrities, sex and humour that they've become almost immune to, unless there's a story attached.

"A lot of advertisers are running long commercials to tell these stories that engage people often in a very emotional way," said Tim Calkins, clinical professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. "These spots that tell stories really stand out in the clutter."