Super Bowl advertising can chew up a sizable portion of any company’s marketing budget, but the end justifies the means. If you can make your commercial stand out above the rest, chances are good that many millions of viewers will take note and, potentially, remember your product when shopping.

Automakers have a long history of advertising during the Super Bowl, and sometimes it pays massive dividends. Remember Volkswagen’s ad with the pint-sized Darth Vader? It was the sensation of the 2011 Super Bowl, and it was getting hits long after the game was a memory. On the other hand, does anyone remember Suzuki’s Kizashi ad from last year, with a car full of sled dogs?

This year, Mercedes is hoping that swimsuit model Kate Upton will be a hit, while Lincoln and Audi are letting fans direct the ad’s message. Volkswagen is going for a more down-home approach, with owners relating VW stories, while Hyundai will try to show that your car is your buddy.

Toyota, on the other hand, is borrowing a page from Kia’s 2012 Super Bowl playbook, and going for the weird factor. In the teaser video above, Kaley Cuoco from CBS’ The Big Bang Theory strolls the streets of an anonymous city, bedecked in purple, granting wishes to the people she passes. We’d caution you to be careful what you wish for, since who really wants to wander around in the form of a giant ogre? Would you throw the flag for “excessive use of purple” as quickly as we would?

What’s your take on this? Will weird sell, or is Mercedes taking the right approach by showing as much skin as it can? Will VW’s feel good ads be memorable, or are they off-target this year?