The big winner of the Super Bowl has extended from just the last football team standing, and now includes the company with the most memorable advertisement. In fact (and especially during blowouts or otherwise uninteresting games), the funniest or most controversial ads can generate water-cooler talk long after the game itself.

Audi is hoping to take advantage of that fact with a commercial whose tone and delivery go decidedly against the brand's image of refined luxury.

The "Green Police" spot is meant to shill for the Audi A3 TDI, the diesel that won the Green Car of the Year award at the recent Los Angeles Auto Show. Audi of America President Johan de Nysschen said that Audi decided to promote the car after it won the award and that the company "decided the usual Audi style of subtle and understated would not be appropriate here. We knew that it needed to be a bit bolder and that humor is a very effective way to make an impression during the Super Bowl.”

The ad's script follows the antics of the Green Police as they stop grocery shoppers from using plastic bags, hassle a hot-tub user for overheating the water and arrest a homeowner for failing to use fluorescent bulbs. We haven't seen the actual ad yet, but you can check out the flavor of the spots by heading over to YouTube and searching for "Audi Green Police," where some early marketing efforts have already sprung up. As you'll see, the tone -- dead straight dry with a calculated, knowing air of ineptitude -- is straight out of Reno 911.

Which of course raises the question: Even if humor is the most effective way to be remembered during the Super Bowl, can it still be considered a positive effect if the result is in stark contrast to the brand values you've spent decades reinforcing? Could Audi actually be doing damage to its image, or is it nice to see the company not taking itself too seriously, a la Lexus (in my mind, the saccharine De Beers of auto commercials)?