People like to throw around superlatives in discussing Super Bowl ads -- best, worst, funniest, most moving. But what about most important?

How can a Super Bowl ad be important? The six listed below helped change how advertisers, brands and Americans everywhere conceived of what an ad during the Super Bowl could be used to do.

Apple -- "1984" (1984) It was a big year for Apple. 1984 was the year the company launched the Macintosh personal computer, and it was the moment when the company decided to make the most expensive ad in its history. That spot is really what launched the Super Bowl of advertising, said Keith Quesenberry, a former creative director and current lecturer at Johns Hopkins University. Before that, there was a Super Bowl going on, and just regular ads ran during the Super Bowl.

Because of the sizable audience, he added, Apple decided to turn it into a special moment. The decision was not unanimous. Members of Apples board were very hesitant to spend so much money -- the ad had a $900,000 budget -- which included a hefty fee for Ridley Scott, the director behind "Alien" and "Blade Runner."

And, like so many Super Bowl ads, even though 1984 attracted a mountain of attention, it may not have helped move many units.

Chrysler -- "Imported From Detroit" (2010) Brands are not in the habit of buying Super Bowl airtime in the midst of historically bad years. But after being rescued from bankruptcy in 2008 and well on the way to its worst sales year since 1962, Chrysler needed to make a big bet. Thats why it laid out nearly $9 million for the 2-minute spot that was supposed to redefine not just the automakers brand, but the once-noble principle of buying American.

It took the perception of cars and flipped it on its head, Quesenberry said. This really had this big turning point.

A year later, the bet looked like it paid dividends: Chryslers sales rebounded 17 percent.

E*Trade -- We just wasted 2 million bucks This may sound crazy, but there was once an era when the streets of Silicon Valley were flush with venture capitalists cash, teeming with companies built on questionable business models throwing said cash around. On the one hand, this 1999 spot is emblematic of that time -- It goes back to the excess of the dot-com period, Qusenberry said -- but on the other, it was the first Super Bowl ad to explicitly acknowledge both its stakes and the place Super Bowl ads occupy in the American cultural imagination.

Plus, the ad gets bonus points for taking the Super Bowl ads chief talking point and turning it into a punchline.

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Six Ads That Redefined The Super Bowl Ad