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Super Bowl advertisements can rank among the funniest things on television; they're certainly some of the best commercials.  But people are once again considering how much they accomplish, as there's word that troubled E*Trade plans to spend around $5 million on two ads.

E*Trade's executives and directors have brought the stock up to $4.55 by buying some shares, but compared to a 52-week high of $25.79, that's not impressive.  It wasn't too long ago that bankruptcy rumors were in the air, and E*Trade is still having serious credibility issues.

So could two commercials solve some problems?  Perhaps - Super Bowl ads are seen by a whole lot of people, and E*Trade's produced good ones in the past.  Dancing monkeys may not be enough to convince individuals to sign over their lifesavings, however.  Also, the act of spending so much money on advertising could, by itself, drive away a lot of would-be clients.

Overall market conditions will function as an additional negative influence.  E*Trade may feel a need to do something dramatic, though, and we can't argue with that inclination.

We'll now direct a hat tip to Susanne Craig and cross our fingers that something good, even if it's just a few laughs, comes out of E*Trade's past few months of problems.