Sure, Super Bowl ads are a great way to generate a lot of buzz for your company or product. But how do you fare in the long term? Consumer Reports Home took a look at two stars of Super Ad Bowl 2009: Cash4Gold and General Electric.

Here at Consumerist, we can tell you a lot about Cash4Gold. But the smart grid technology advertised by GE has fared a lot better…due to federal stimulus money.

About $4.5 billion in federal stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is being doled out by the U.S. Department of Energy to help utilities turn the existing power grid into a smart network. This modernization is designed to enable two-way communication between utilities and consumers.provide safer, more-efficient management of the electric grid, and save you money.

One might call it Cash4Current. No?

A tale of two Super Bowl ads: GE’s smart grid and Cash4Gold

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