Superbowl-ads.com Article Archive

Focus on the Family will broadcast the first Super Bowl ad in its history Feb. 7 during CBS Sports’ coverage of the game at Dolphin Stadium in South Florida.

The 30-second spot from the international family-help organization will feature college football star Tim Tebow and his mother, Pam. They will share a personal story centered on the theme of “Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life.”

“Tim and Pam share our respect for life and our passion for helping families thrive,” said Jim Daly, president and CEO of Focus on the Family, “They live what we see every day – that the desire for family closeness is written on the hearts of every generation. Focus on the Family is about nurturing that desire and strengthening families by empowering them with the tools they need to live lives rooted in morals and values.”

The Tebows said they agreed to appear in the commercial because the issue of life is one they feel very strongly about.

Daly chuckled at some of the “will-they-or-won’t-they?” speculation in the media about whether Focus would indeed create a Super Bowl ad. Daly added that all the funds to air the ad came from a handful of “very generous and committed friends” who donated specifically to support the project. No money from the ministry’s general fund was used.

“Now that the ad has been shot, we’re excited to tell people it’s coming, because the Tebows’ story is such an important one for our culture to hear,” he said. “You won’t want to miss it.”

Despite decline, ads remain the most expensive on television

msnbc.msn.com

The economic slump has prices for Super Bowl commercial time falling for only the second time in its history, but they are still the most expensive on television.

TNS Media Intelligence said Monday that 30-second commercials during next month’s Super Bowl on CBS are selling for between $2.5 million and $2.8 million. That’s a drop from last year, when ads averaged $3 million on NBC.

Some big players like Pepsi and General Motors are staying on the sidelines. This leaves holes for smaller companies like Diamond Foods and Dr Pepper Snapple to use the Super Bowl to get their wares in front of 100 million viewers who are practically guaranteed to watch their ads.

The hype. The title. The glory. It all came down to one game. This year, it was the battle between the “un-beatens” and the underdogs. In one of the biggest upsets in NFL history, the Giants outplayed the Patriots 17-14 in Super Bowl XLII. Whether you are a Patriots or Giants fan, viewers could find common ground in one aspect of the big game: the commercials.

Super Bowl commercials have always provided entertainment and an avenue of humor for viewers. Companies spent an average of $2.7 million for a 30 second spot, according to The Associated Press.

The New York Giants’ victory over the New England Patriots Sunday night was one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history, but the advertising effort during the big game was not quite as inspiring.

“We had a mixed bag of commercials this year. Some were really strong and some hard to follow,” said Tim Calkins, a clinical professor of marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

The 1973 Super Bowl has become a frequent point of reference this year because Super Bowl VII, played Jan. 14 at Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, was the game in which the Miami Dolphins became the first team in modern pro football history to finish a season undefeated.

Their 14-7 win over the Washington Redskins, despite placekicker Garo Yepremian throwing the worst pass in Super Bowl History, gave them a 17-0 record – the record being challenged Sunday by the New England Patriots, who would with a victory over the Giants finish 19-0.

But the 1973 Super Bowl also marked another historic milestone: the commercial that many feel planted the seed for what Super Bowl ads have become today.

If you look at the Super Bowl advertisement hype, which seems to triple each year, it almost makes the 30-second spots seem worth the 40 bajillion dollars that companies such as Anheuser-Busch and Pepsi will be paying for them in 2008.

And with so many iconic moments in the past 3 1/2 decades, it’s becoming more socially acceptable to admit you prefer the commercials to the game – especially the 52-10 blowout between the New England Patriots and New York Giants that we’re about to watch on Sunday afternoon. Have we reached the point where popular culture has become part of American history? And if so, should Super Bowl ads be taught in every classroom?

When it comes to Super Bowl advertisements, sleaze sells. This Sunday will likely feature sexual innuendos, bodily functions, crotch injuries, erectile dysfunction talk and various combinations of the four.
Tawdry commercials have been around from the beginning — the first memorable Super Bowl ad featured Farrah Fawcett making love to Joe Namath’s face with Noxzema shaving cream — but the risk-taking definitely increased beginning in the mid-1990s. The sleaziest Super Bowl by far was in 2004, which was also the year that Janet Jackson’s right breast made an unfortunate halftime appearance.

The Super Bowl battle of beverages between PepsiCo (PEP) and Coca-Cola (KO) will feature ads for their growing non-carbonated drinks.

Coke will make its biggest appearance in recent years with three minutes of ad time that includes one with NBA star Shaquille O’Neal for Vitaminwater. Pepsi’s lineup will include promotion for a low-calorie Gatorade called G2, featuring New York Yankee Derek Jeter. Pepsi also is expected to run ads for energy drink Amp and SoBe LifeWater.

Strong economic times can result in a bounty of good Super Bowl ads. Janet Jackson’s exposed breast is a Super Bowl commercial killer. And venture capitalist money equals offbeat and funny — at least when it comes to the memorable dot-com advertisements of the late 1990s and 2000.

That was arguably the best era for Super Bowl ads, but there were other boom times as well — which, coincidence or not, often seem to come when confidence in the economy is rising. The landmark Apple “1984” commercial highlighted one of the best Super Bowls for ad-watchers, and the Reaganomics-fueled years that followed were stocked with plenty of clever spots as well.

By Phil Rosenthal and Tribune Media Columnist

The chief executive of Chicago’s Cramer-Krasselt wasn’t monkeying around.

CEO Peter Krivkovich didn’t just drop the CareerBuilder.com advertising account in response to the job Web site putting the account up for review. Incensed at learning the review was spurred by the performance of CareerBuilder’s Super Bowl commercials in USA Today’s annual poll, Krivkovichtook the unusual step of writing an internal memo that tore apart the client his agency had spent the last five years building up.