Superbowl-ads.com Article Archive

A single bettor placed nearly $1 million in wagers on the 49ers, part of a trend that has Vegas sportsbooks rooting hard for the Ravens to stay within the point spread.

Jay Rood, MGM Mirage Vice President of Race and Sports, told The Linemakers on Sporting News that 65 percent of the money has been bet on San Francisco.

William Hill oddsmaker Jimmy Vaccaro agreed, telling Covers.com, “We’ve been steamrolled by 49ers money.”

The flood of 49ers money prompted many sportsbooks to move the line from San Francisco -4 to -4.5.

The best outcome for books would be a 49ers win by 3 points or less, because many bettors took the underdog Ravens on the moneyline.

Bettors also have been pounding the over, pushing the total to 48.5.

Rood said the big 49ers bettor placed a series of bets totaling close to $1 million.

“He was all over the place, a little on the first half, first quarter,” Rood told The Linemakers. “But he’s the reason we’re a little long on the 49ers.”

Read More at: CBS Sports

http://tinyurl.com/yfxwlcp

By Richard N. Velotta (contact)

Executives with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and their contracted advertising agency, R&R Partners, will meet early next month to determine if the city’s popular “What happens here, stays here” television ads can be aired in the Super Bowl broadcast.

Other tourism companies say they’re working to capitalize on the National Football League’s modified ad policy that would lift a ban that prevented cities with legalized gambling to run TV spots during the NFL’s post-season.

This year’s Super Bowl, to be played in Miami, is Feb. 7 and the NFL post-season begins Jan. 9.

Under the old rules, destinations like Las Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe could not run their ads during the broadcast, one of the nation’s most-watched television events, because of the cities’ association with gambling.

The new rule allows Las Vegas to advertise, but it still prohibits ads featuring specific hotels and casinos or any gambling references or imagery.

While some of the “What happens here, stays here” ads are set in resorts, others don’t have any gambling or individual property references. LVCVA and R&R executives will meet to determine whether their ads would meet the NFL’s new standards and whether the high cost of Super Bowl ads would be worth the buy.

The LVCVA spends about $85 million a year to advertise Las Vegas. Last year, a 30-second ad during the Super Bowl cost an advertiser $3 million.

A spokesman for the LVCVA said the NFL would have the final say on whether any ad met its standard.

The Associated Press reported that under the policy modification, ads for Las Vegas tourism with pictures of golf, swimming pools and entertainers would be permitted. An ad with footage of slot machines, dice, cards or a wide shot of the Las Vegas Strip and casinos would not.

The highly lauded “What happens here, stays here” series includes ads that reference Las Vegas but never shows it. One ad depicts a couple returning home after a visit, asking their teenage son what he did while they were away. When he replies, “Nothing,” he asks the same question of the parents, who look at each other sheepishly and the man saying, “Nothing.”

R&R Partners, which has created the ads, has said that it has some new “What happens here” ads ready for release. Some have aired in target markets.

Las Vegas has not had the best relationship with the NFL on advertising over the years. In 2003, the NFL banned Las Vegas from advertising during the Super Bowl broadcast. R&R capitalized on the ban, generating interest with news stories and appearances on national morning shows that turned out to be more valuable exposure than the ads. Many of the ads were shown during those news stories giving the city hours of free publicity.

A year later, the LVCVA purchased ads from individual CBS affiliates instead of the network during the game, irritating NFL officials.

Some individual hotels have used the same strategy. In 2005, Steve Wynn appeared in a post-game ad about the opening of Wynn Las Vegas later that year.

VEGAS.com, a travel Web site and a sister company of the Las Vegas Sun, plans to advertise during the playoffs and possibly the Super Bowl.

“We’ve been trying to work this out with the NFL for a good number of years,” said Howard Lefkowitz, president of VEGAS.com.

VEGAS.com also has produced award-winning ads and Lefkowitz said the company is considering whether to use existing ads or develop new content. Like the LVCVA spots, VEGAS.com ads don’t show casinos or gambling images.

“Gaming is a significant part of our world-class destination and our resorts are part of our overall economy,” Lefkowitz said. “We’re looking at all the options because we haven’t been able to do anything in the past.

“While they (NFL) have sensitivities to gaming, we don’t have gaming in our ads. But we know the NFL and casinos have similar audiences and constituencies.”

Lefkowitz said advertising in January could provide a boost for Las Vegas in 2010 and provide new opportunities for next year’s football season.

More spots rated G; no longer a ‘beer-drinking event’

By William Spain, MarketWatch

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — When paying $2.5 million for 30 seconds of advertising time, you might think you could pretty much do anything with it.

No so when that half minute is airing during the Super Bowl, now in its 40th year.

Long known as an advertising showcase that can eclipse the on-field action, America’s Big Game remains a top venue of choice for marketers to roll out new campaigns or build on old ones. And the amount of time, money and talent they put behind those spots remains undiminished.

But as the event has evolved from a male-dominated sports program to a family affair — and following howls of outrage over alleged indecencies ranging from Janet Jackson’s exposed breast to a dot-com ad making fun of it — so has the scrutiny over what kind of commercial messages are appropriate.

Changing audience

“This has been a very top-of-mind subject for us,” said Mark Monteiro, executive creative director of DDB Los Angeles, an Omnicom Group (NYSE:OMC) company. He declined to discuss the content of the Super Bowl commercial his firm did this year for Ameriquest Mortgage Co., but said: “The Super Bowl audience has changed over the last few years from a guys’ beer-drinking event. Somewhere along the line, it truly turned into family entertainment, family viewing.”

Unlike virtually all other sports programming, in the Super Bowl, “it seems there really is 50% women and kids in the room,” which has had a significant impact on the content of the ads, Monteiro added.

And this year, he noted, the game will be on ABC rather than Fox, a part of News Corp. (NASDAQ:NWS) . ABC, owned by Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS) , “is considered the toughest censor of all the networks we deal with.”

Advertisers typically stay mum about details of their ads until they air, or a short time before that. A spot for Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F) by JWT Detroit, a unit of WPP Group (LSE:UK:WPP) remains cloaked in secrecy but it will be “super G-rated,” said an executive familiar with the ad.

In a preview by Advertising Age, it appears that humor — clean humor — is likely to be the order of the day.  Among them: Burger King has its “King” going up against football players while Careerbuilder.com will bring back its company-running monkeys, the trade magazine reported.

While all broadcasters set basic minimum standards and practices for both programming and ads, how far they’re willing to bend the guidelines depends on audience makeup and other factors.

‘Highest standards’

ABC declined to go into specifics about how standards and practices may vary from say, Monday Night Football, to the Super Bowl. But in a written statement, an ABC spokeswoman said the network is aware the Super Bowl can draw the biggest television audience of the year, and “we routinely require the highest standards for all the material broadcast.”

That audience is indeed enormous: Last year, Fox drew the highest rating in its history as a network with an estimated 86.1 million viewers — down a bit from the 89.8 million pairs of eyeballs CBS (NYSE:CBS) pulled in 2004. By contrast, that is more than double what Fox drew for the NFC Championship on Sunday and better than triple the average for the highest-rated primetime program, “CSI.”

Among the advertisers looking to get in front of that crowd are Burger King, FedEx (NYSE:FDX) , Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) , Ameriquest, PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP) and General Motors (OTHER:MTLQQ) . Anheuser-Busch (NYSE:BUD) is the largest single buyer, with a total of 10 spots throughout the game, and all of the marketers are seeking mass reach in varying degrees.

However, almost as compelling as the number of people who watch is how they watch it, according to one top media buyer.

“The viewing dynamic is unlike anything else in media,” said Tim Spengler, director of national broadcast at Initiative, a media buying and planning arm of Interpublic Group (NYSE:IPG) . “The attention paid to the commercials is greater there than anywhere else in TV.”

Group viewing

Because the ads are watched in, and critiqued by, groups of viewers, they can generate a more intense audience response, he said.

“If you watch a sitcom at home alone, the chances of you laughing out loud at something are less than if you are watching it with five friends,” Spengler said.

That means Super Bowl ads also attract closer scrutiny from the broadcasters: “There is no greater spotlight. There is absolutely no ability to hide anything. Where they might look the other way, they won’t in this case.”

Neither will the media. The advertisements are endlessly written and talked about — even shown for free — in the days before and after the game, giving advertisers the biggest possible bangs for their very big bucks.

“The ads carry with them the potential to create an extended conversation around the copy,” said Peter Blackshaw, chief marketing officer of Intelliseek, a research firm. That means a “word-of-mouth multiplier” which can add significantly to a campaign’s return on investment, he said.

An ad that bores or offends, or one that is just tailored too narrowly for such a broad audience, can eat away at that added value, he said.

Even the best spots can be overshadowed by circumstances beyond the advertiser’s control, Blankenship pointed out. The Janet Jackson incident of two years ago “siphoned off the water-cooler conversation.”

Deliberately pushing the envelope can be its own reward in terms of getting extra attention.

Las Vegas always makes a fuss that it can’t promote the city during the game because of the NFL’s ban on any gambling-related commercials. Last year, GoDaddy.com, an Internet service company, parodied the Jackson brouhaha in a risqué ad, and Fox pulled it after one of two scheduled showings during the game.

This year, it has submitted, and resubmitted, another ad that it says ABC keeps rejecting.

In a written statement, GoDaddy.com founder Bob Parsons said, “It would be disappointing if the Super Bowl, which has long been known as the world’s stage for the most innovative and cutting-edge advertisements, lost its relevance for adventurous companies…”

Joe Mandese, editor of MediaPost, which covers the advertising and industry, said submitting ads that get rejected has generated barrels of free ink for GoDaddy, which will reap the benefits of Super Bowl hype — even if its spot never makes it onto the air.

“Remember,” he said, “when they get into a pissing match with ABC about buying an ad, they are also getting guys like us to write about it.”

via marketwatch.com

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=Q5KDMFHTMIRVCCRBAEOCFFA?type=industryNews&storyID=4181852&pageNumber=1

By Andrew Grossman

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) – The New England Patriots vs. the Carolina Panthers may seem far from the sexiest matchup ever seen in the Super Bowl, but even a team from Timbuktu could draw a 43 rating under the right circumstances, industry executives agree.

And speaking of sexy, the lineup of advertisers who ponied up an average of $2.3 million per 30-second spot will include for the first time as many as three erectile-dysfunction companies. Definitely in are Viagra’s generic rivals: Levitra from Bayer and GlaxoSmithKline as well as Cialis from Eli Lilly and Co. and Icos Corp. Media buyers said it was possible that Pfizer Inc.’s Viagra could join them.

Sources close to the matter reported that CBS had sold out more than 90% of its spots for the telecast and expected to close out its inventory by game time. That’s the usual practice for the Super Bowl as the networks typically try to wring the best deals out of the diminishing supply of commercial time.

With advertisers doling out $2 million-$2.4 million per 30-second spot for Super Bowl XXXVIII on Feb. 1 in Houston, it would be tempting to imagine sponsors gagging at the thought of their lavishly produced $500,000 ads being spent on a game with no big-name superstars, involving teams whose offenses score about as much as the “Average Joes” did last fall on NBC.

Sponsors, of course, buy their spots well in advance of the Super Bowl, and though buyers suggest that XXXVIII lacks the buzz of past games, a heartier-than-average rating remained possible.

The matchup in terms of geographical locations is overblown,” said Steven Sternberg, executive vp and director of audience analysis at Magna Global USA. “While it’s true Philadelphia-New England might have been the highest-rated because they were perceived as both being competitive and in very powerful markets, I think that Carolina and New England is also perceived as a fairly competitive game.”

This year’s advertisers are heavy on bigger traditional blue-chip companies, many in the Fortune 100, and even Procter & Gamble, an unusual presence in the game, has bought in.

“It’s the battle of the big brands,” said Tim Spengler, executive vp and director of national broadcast at media buyer Initiative. “People are focusing on ROI (return on investment). The midtier brands . . . do not want to take the risk.”

Advertisers signed so far also include American Legacy, Anheuser-Busch, America Online, Buena Vista Pictures, Chrysler, Walt Disney Pictures, Expedia, FedEx, Frito Lay, Gillette, General Motors, H&R Block, IBM, MasterCard, Mitsubishi, Monster.com, ONDCP, P&G, PepsiCo, Philip Morris, Reebok, Sony Pictures, Staples, Universal Pictures, Visa and Warner Bros.

Despite the huge price, Spengler said that advertising during the Super Bowl “has paid incredible dividends for a lot of brands over the last 10 years. . . . Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

While Spengler conceded that other teams would have elicited greater pregame hype, he said: “Fifty percent is how the game is going. I wouldn’t write it off as the lowest-rated Super Bowl yet.”

CBS Sports president Sean McManus, speaking on the network’s annual teleconference call with reporters Wednesday, said: “A dream matchup would be a game that went down to the final play of the fourth quarter and went into overtime.”

Last year’s game, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. the Oakland Raiders, seemed like a great matchup, but the Buccaneers thrashed the Raiders 48-21, which resulted in a good but not great 40.7 rating/61 share on Fox. The five-year peak came in 2000 on ABC when the St. Louis Rams’ last-second stop of the Tennessee Oilers at the 1-yard line kept viewers tuned to a 43.3/63 rating, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Las Vegas oddsmakers have installed the Patriots as 7-point favorites over the Panthers for the game, which begins at 6:25 p.m. EST after a 7-1/2-hour pregame show that includes, for the first time, one hour of related children’s programing on CBS’ sister cable networks.

Consultant and former CBS Sports president Neal Pilson pointed to the Super Bowl’s incredible consistency as an American “national holiday.”

“Looking at this year, most viewers are curious how good is New England’s defense and how strong is Carolina, having beaten a lot of good teams,” Pilson said. “I don’t think there’s a lot of passion for these teams the way there might be for Dallas, Chicago, Green Bay or Miami, teams that have been in the national eye for many years. But New England did win a Super Bowl a couple of years ago, and the ratings . . . were pretty good,” he said.

Charlotte, N.C., might be a small market, CBS’ McManus said, but the team draws from four areas in the state that add up to being the fourth-largest market in the United States. And Charlotte’s 50.2 rating for Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles shows the passion the area has for the team.

And CBS analyst Phil Simms predicted a close game during the network’s conference call, saying that “if you look at the scores of both teams during the year, it almost tells you the game has to be close.”

The lack of a big superstar doesn’t faze McManus either, who pointed to Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s appearance Tuesday night beside first lady Laura Bush during the State of the Union speech as evidence of his appeal. “The great thing is that you have two weeks,” McManus added. “Maybe a lot of people haven’t heard of (Panthers quarterback) Jake Delhomme today, but I guarantee you in two weeks everyone will have heard about Jake Delhomme.”

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=39541

Out-of-Bowl Placements Thumb Nose at NFL

By Rich Thomaselli

DETROIT (AdAge.com) — Rebuffed in its efforts to run ads in last year’s Super Bowl, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority this year is making an end run around the National Football League’s ad restrictions by airing two out-of-bowl spots centered on the big game.

The three-week, $1.5 million Super Bowl campaign features two 30-second spots, both using the tagline “If only it was this exciting at the game in Houston,” where Super Bowl XXVIII will be played Feb. 1. The ads encourage those not traveling to the big game to party instead in Las Vegas.

Promoting gambling

The two spots debuting today are a bit of a tweak of the National Football League, which last year denied a request from the tourism authority and its Vegas-based agency, R&R Partners, to advertise on the Super Bowl. The league said the ads would be promoting gambling and it restricts all advertising that does so.

One ad will run the next three weeks on national broadcast and cable networks portraying Las Vegas as the place to be for big events, such as the Super Bowl. The other ad will be a one-day only spot on Super Bowl Sunday, and will air on a competing national network and not Viacom’s CBS, which is televising the game.

Agency’s contract renewed

R&R Partners, which just received a second five-year extension of its contract with the tourism authority that begins in July, plans to develop similar campaigns in the future around other big events, such as the Oscars, college basketball championship tournament, National Basketball Association Finals and baseball’s World Series, among others.

Also later this month, the next phase of the tourism authority’s controversial $58 million “Vegas Stories” campaign debuts with six new spots. The ads, which began in January 2003, use the tagline “What Happens Here, Stays Here.” The spots created a huge buzz — in part because of the publicity of the NFL’s refusal to run the ads on last year’s Super Bowl, and also because of their controversial nature that renews the image of Las Vegas as a sexy, adult playground.

Turned-on limo passenger

One spot, for instance, showed a woman in the backseat of a limousine, dressed provocatively, telling the driver how much she enjoys the smell of the leather seats. When the driver arrives at the airport, the woman is now dressed in business attire and talking on her cell phone, although she seductively sidles up to the driver and breathes in deeply as if to take one last sniff of the car.

The latest batch of spots were shot in Las Vegas in late October. Though the content is unknown, they will continue the “Vegas Stories” theme and one is even said to feature a senior citizen couple enjoying the city.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/adtrack/2003-12-29-recap_x.htm

By Theresa Howard, USA TODAY

America’s taste in advertising got real — and racy — when it came to their favorite ads in 2003. A look back at the results for the year of Ad Track, USA TODAY’S weekly consumer survey, showed humor again at the top of the charts for likability, though with some new themes.

In Miller Lite’s popular ‘Catfight’ ad, two women face off over whether the beer tastes great or is less filling.

Of the 45 ad campaigns polled in 2003, those with humorous ads took three of the top four slots. Anheuser-Busch’s campaign that included a real zebra as a football referee and an amorous beach boy attacked by a conch shell landed at No. 1. ( Related chart: Complete 2003 ratings )

“Humor always works, and unexpected humor works particularly well,” says Anheuser-Busch’s Bob Lachky, vice president, brand management and global creative chief.

Reebok’s Terry Tate, the hard-hitting “office linebacker” who tackled employees who did not practice workplace etiquette, was No. 2 among the best-liked. In this case, however, the rank was driven by huge popularity among younger viewers. The ad, considered violent by some, was hugely unpopular with viewers age 50 and up.

Pepsi used humor to appeal to all age groups to introduce brands Sierra Mist and Pepsi Vanilla. Sierra Mist scored No. 4 for its laugh-out-loud ads illustrating the “shockingly refreshing” taste of the lemon-lime soft drink with baboons in a zoo and a pet dog taking extreme measures to cool off. Pepsi Vanilla was No. 12 with two ads that took funny but direct shots at rival Coke and its Vanilla Coke.

“It’s classic Pepsi tweaking of Coke that people expect and appreciate, especially when it’s in good spirit,” says Dave Burwick, Pepsi’s chief marketing officer.

Other humorous ads that worked were subtler. No. 3 Citibank looked at the serious topic of identity theft by putting the mismatched voices of the thieves into the bodies of their victims.

“We used humor to break through and have consumers pay attention to the advertising, but we haven’t scared them,” says Brad Jakeman, Citibank’s director of global advertising.

Ace tackled the issue of home maintenance with a wink in ads that placed No. 6. The ads showed the foibles of do-it-yourselfers who could have avoided their problems if they’d had better project advice from other home centers.

If consumers didn’t laugh out loud at ads, they identified with them, whether the ads were racy or real. Men appreciated the male fantasy of two women fighting, in their lingerie, of course, in the highly publicized — and criticized — “Catfight” ads that ranked No. 5. Not with women, however, who gave the ads a big thumbs down. Rival Coors Light took No. 8 for its take on scantily clad babes in its “Twins” ads.

But among the raciest were ads for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. They showed the risqué whims of people letting loose in Vegas. The message: “What happens here, stays here.” The ads, No. 7 for the year, stripped away any residue of Vegas’ former promotion as a family fun place.

While the Vegas ads pitched fantasies, Toyota and Coca-Cola got real.

Toyota Sienna ads, No. 10, were popular because moms and dads recognized in them the input that kids have in deciding automotive purchases. The ads, which scored well above average for auto ads, showed the Sienna redesigned with help from child engineers.

Coke’s whole message was simply “Real.” The campaign, the first ad hit for Coke in more than a decade, showed celebrities, but as real folks doing everyday things. In one ad, Courteney Cox loads up husband David Arquette’s glass with extra ice, leaving it with less Coke for him and more for her.

“The whole campaign was about authentic moments in life,” says Esther Lee, chief creative officer, Coca-Cola North America. “The ads could have been done without celebrities. We were just using celebrities to take a peek into their real lives.”

Other 2003 ad highlights:

•Super Bowl stars. The popularity of Anheuser-Busch, Pepsi and Reebok ads demonstrated that ads first shown during the Super Bowl might have staying power throughout the year.

“To amortize the incredible expense of Super Bowl, you really have to run it beyond that day,” Lachky says. “It’s not a very efficient approach if it’s here today and gone tomorrow.”

•McD’s lovin’ it . Targeted ads helped McDonald’s begin to turn around sales.

While the ads for Premium Salads, targeted at women, and “I’m lovin’ it” ads, aimed at youth, were not tops in popularity overall, they were a hit with key audiences. And they helped draw 1 million more customers daily into restaurants.

•Too much information . As real as ads got in 2003, too much realism about medical ailments did not sit well with consumers. Direct-to-consumer ads to promote Viagra for erectile dysfunction and Lamisil, for nail fungus, were the two lowest-scoring ads. But consumers did consider the ads effective for those consumers who might need the medications.

•Not-so-shining stars. Celine Dion for Chrysler, Sharon Stone for AOL, Laurence Fishburne for DirecTV and Jay Leno and Smash Mouth for Tostitos Gold were among celebrities whose star power did not shine in ads. With the exception of Coke’s ads and Madonna and Missy Elliott singing for Gap (No. 15), celebrities were not a hit this year. All but two celebrity ads scored in the bottom half of all ads.

•Unbelievable . The low-carb craze drove KFC to promote the protein in its Original Recipe Chicken as a good diet choice for those watching what they eat. Consumer group Center for Science in the Public Interest asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate KFC to determine if the ads, which went off air in November, were misleading.

http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/sports/0103/24commercials.html

Super Sunday of advertisements coming up

By MARY ANNE OSTROM

Knight Ridder Newspapers

You think it’s only football coming Sunday? When rival quarterbacks Rich Gannon and Brad Johnson aren’t pitching the ball in the Super Bowl, some of America’s best known athletes and entertainers will fill the TV screen in the annual advertising bonanza that’s expected to include some of the most expensive 30-second marketing pitches ever.

In spite of an uncertain economy, consumer product companies, movie studios, automakers, and a couple of dot-com survivors are among some two dozen advertisers reportedly spending between $1.9 million and $2.1 million for a 30-second spot in the year’s most watched televised event. Nearly all of the 61 spots have been sold, a sign that the advertising market is awakening from its extended slumber.

Super Bowl XXXVII, being played in San Diego, will be broadcast on ABC.

And here’s what you’ll likely see: Willie Nelson, of singing and tax trouble fame, selling H&R Block taxpayer services. Basketball legend Michael Jordan doing double duty in separate ads for Hanes underwear and sports drink Gatorade. Maybe (but maybe not) a peek from Universal Pictures at the computer-generated star of its upcoming summer flick “The Hulk”. Destiny Child’s Beyonce Knowles singing a pop tune in a Spike Lee-directed ad for PepsiCola — though, to build buzz, Pepsi isn’t confirming. For sure, songstress Celine Dion belting a pitch to the suburban crowd for DaimlerChrysler’s new Pacifica wagon.

And what’s a Super Bowl without beer ads? Giant suds maker Anheuser-Busch has bought a full five minutes of ad time. Or a contest to win a pair of jeans with a 2.5 carat diamond button and 112 rubies? San Francisco-based Levi Strauss is giving away a pair of new Type1 pants, valued at $150,000 including cash in the pockets, to mark its gold-rush era founding 150 years ago.

What you won’t see: The National Football League nixed an ad from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority because league rules ban ads that could encourage betting on sports.

Despite annual handwringing by advertisers over the astronomical cost and some high-profile departures from the lineup of past years, the Super Bowl remains, well, the Super Bowl of advertising.

“There is no such thing as a ‘must buy’ for advertisers. They are still minding their pennies,” said Ian Beavis, chief executive of San Francisco-based ad agency Foote, Cone and Belding. “But people with big budgets looking to build brand and buzz are here.” Only instead of dot-coms, which dominated advertising in 2000, movie studios and consumer product companies are back in “a return to a kind of new normal” for the Super Bowl, Beavis said.

A record 17 Internet companies guzzled 40 percent of the game’s commercial time in 2000. On Sunday, just two online businesses are buying 30 seconds each.

While last year’s slate of ads were heavy on patriotism and post-Sept. 11 reflection, humor and whimsy are making a comeback this year, even as the threat of a Middle East war looms.

H&R’s new 30-second Super Bowl spot shows Nelson learning he owes millions in unexpected taxes and acceptst a job pitching Mr. Smoothie shaving cream to pay the bill. H&R’s tongue-in-cheek message: The singer should have consulted one of its tax preparers.

In real life, Nelson paid $16.7 million to satisfy the IRS after a botched investment scheme.

In a nod to tough economic times, ads for rival job-hunting sites HotJobs (owned by Yahoo) and Monster — now in their fifth head-to-head Super Bowl match-up — are touting services for blue-collar workers since no one is currently hiring the white-collar variety. As if Silicon Valley can’t produce enough dispair, HotJobs had to go to the Czech republic to find a drill-bits factory with enough downcast ambience for the ad, which encourages workers to dream of a better job.

Why do advertisers pay such premium prices, on top of production costs that easily reach $1 million? Because the Super Bowl, for many, is as much about ads as the game on the field. And for one day of the year, TiVo users give their ad-skipping recording devices a rest.

While, on average, regular programs lose between five and 15 percent of the audience during commercial breaks, the Super Bowl is a rare exception, a new survey by ad buying firm Initiative Media finds. Last year’s Super Bowl boasted nearly equivalent ratings between the program and commercial minutes, a feat unmatched by any other big-event show.

Still, over the years, big-name advertisers, including Coca-Cola and Nike, have sunk their advertising dollars elsewhere. Others, including McDonald’s and Charles Schwab, opt for cheaper time sold in pre- or-post game shows

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/5026508.htm

By JASON WHITLOCK

SAN DIEGO – When the Miller Lite catfight girls sashayed into the room, arm-in-arm, wearing curve-hugging dresses, boxing promoter Don King babbled at one table, William “The Refrigerator” Perry was holding court on another microphone, Cris Carter was making his way to a radio interview, Warren Moon was discussing his evening plans in the center of the room, and Emmitt Smith had just stumbled in.

The multitude of sportswriters and talk-show hosts lucky enough to witness this scene probably thought they had died and gone straight to the big buffet line in the sky.

Based on our reaction to Tanya “Taste Great” Ballinger and Kitawna “Less Filling” Baker’s entrance into the Super Bowl media center, none of my colleagues will ever break bread inside the pearly gates.

Jaws dropped, and so did any pretense of sophistication.

You’d have thought Abe Lincoln, Elvis Presley and Martin Luther King Jr. had stopped by to hype the Super Bowl. I’ve covered 10 Super Bowls and have spent countless hours hawking interviews along radio row, and I’ve never seen anything like the stir Ballinger and Baker caused.

Miller Lite’s marketing department won. And there’s absolutely no turning back now. TV beer ads will only get racier, more sexist and less tasteful.

Surely you’ve seen the commercial. Two guys are sitting in a bar fantasizing about the perfect beer commercial. Their fantasy is a clothes-stripping, mud-wrestling catfight between a gorgeous brunette (Baker) and a drop-dead blonde (Ballinger) arguing in public over the long-held Miller Lite debate: tastes great or less filling?

“It’s purposefully over the top,” Ballinger told a Detroit radio talk-show host. “It’s all in good fun, all in fun.”

That depends on whom you ask. The commercial has caused quite a fuss. Some of my mature, right-thinking brethren have questioned why the NFL would ban the Las Vegas tourism committee from airing commercials during NFL broadcasts — the league frowns on gambling — but doesn’t care about these sexist advertisements.

It’s an easy answer. The NFL has been in bed with beers and babes ever since football became America’s No. 1 TV show.

Another interesting question also has developed. Where’s Martha Burk? Why aren’t women’s groups pressuring the NFL to distance itself from such over-the-top ads? Don’t these ads do more damage to the women’s movement than Augusta National’s gender exclusion?

“We’ve heard nothing but positive things from women,” Baker said. “Everybody seems to love the commercial and realize that it’s supposed to be a joke, it’s supposed to be over the top.”

While Ballinger and Baker were working the room, CBS’s highly successful and highly credible sideline reporter, Bonnie Bernstein, was also conducting a series of radio interviews.

“I can’t believe Emmitt just came in here and no one cares,” Bernstein joked. “Why can’t there be Miller Lite guys? Women drink Miller Lite, too.”

This battle has been lost.

Look, there’s no question the Miller Lite commercial is sexist. It makes women and men look bad. No question the world would be a safer, more fair place if this type of exploitation was eliminated. And, yes, if there were a commercial that openly exploited a negative, black stereotype, I’d be outraged.

But unfortunately, using beautiful women — and these women are more beautiful in person than they are on the commercial — to sell a product has become an accepted guilty pleasure in this society.

I don’t know the solution. I guess I’m just thrilled I got the privilege of meeting and talking to these women. I’ll talk to Emmitt next Super Bowl.

http://www.tdn.com/articles/2003/01/21/biz/news02.txt

By Washington Post

In the three weeks after Quizno’s Corp.’s first Super Bowl ad last year, the submarine sandwich chain had double-digit sales increases at its 1,447 restaurants, a number that has since grown to 1,988.

For Quizno’s, like many companies that bought ad spots during the Super Bowl, the marketing strategy is mostly Hail Mary — it’s a risky one-shot deal with a potentially big payoff. Last year, few knew what Quizno’s was before the Super Bowl, said Brooksy Smith, the company’s vice president for operations and marketing. The ad was a way to get the Quizno’s name in front of 43 million households and to kick off the year’s ad campaign, which carried the slogan “Toasted tastes better.”

This year’s Super Bowl is being broadcast Sunday by ABC, a division of Walt Disney Co., which reports that fewer than six of the game’s 61 commercial spots remain to be sold. That’s ahead of last year’s pace, when a Fox-televised game struggled to fill its commercial slots nearly up to game time, as the depressed, post-9/11 advertising market was reluctant to pony up the $2.2 million asking price for a 30-second ad. Fox ended up discounting its commercial time, which ABC said it will not do.

The game will feature at least 30 advertisers, including the Warner Bros. motion picture studio, hyping its twin “Matrix” sequels; rival Internet job sites Monster and HotJobs.com; MyFico.com, a credit report company; Sara Lee Corp.-owned Hanes, which will team Michael Jordan and martial arts film star Jackie Chan; Pepsi, which is likely to roll out Destiny’s Child Beyonce Knowles as its new spokes-singer, bouncing Britney Spears; three ads from Sony Pictures and at least one from Sony Electronics; and AT&T Wireless Services Inc., which will follow last year’s baffling ads featuring belly buttons as a way to illustrate wireless connections. (Get it? Cut umbilical cords?)

The NFL rejected an ad from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, saying that league rules prohibit accepting any ad that refers to sports betting.

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/business/4976443.htm

30 seconds to impress more than 80 million

LISA SINGHANIA

Associated Press

With the Super Bowl just over a week away, TV host ABC still has a handful of commercial spots to sell for what has become the ad industry’s showcase.

More than 90 percent of the 61, half-minute long TV commercial slots had been purchased as of the end of this week — at an average selling price of between $2.1 and $2.2 million each, about 10 percent higher than a year ago.

Although it may seem late in the game, analysts say its not unusual for networks to struggle a bit once the prime first half and halftime slots are gone.

Super Bowl commercials are traditionally among the most coveted and prestigious in the advertising world. The reason: the game is the most widely watched event on TV, with an audience that averages more than 80 million people. It’s an opportunity for advertisers to show off their skills, and reach a wide, diverse group of people — some of whom tune in just for the ads.

“If you want to reach a mass audience, there are fewer and fewer ways to do that,” said Paul Ostasiewski, an assistant professor of marketing and management at Wheeling Jesuit University. “With cable TV and all the other choices out there, the viewing audience is much more fragmented and it’s rare to get such a big audience.”

With so much money and such a large audience at stake, Super Bowl advertisers tend to pull out all the stops, spending millions on entertaining, original ads they hope will be memorable. In some cases, the ads represent elaborate finales to months-long ad campaigns. Other companies use the forum to unveil new products or new campaigns.

As a result, the ads are just as likely to be discussed around the water cooler Monday morning as the game.

Many advertisers are coy about their plans, but here are a few of the expected highlights of the Jan. 26 game:

-Levi Strauss will tout a gold, diamond and ruby-laden pair of jeans, appraised at $85,000.

-Hanes will feature Michael Jordan and Jackie Chan.

-Tax preparation firm H&R Block will showcase musician Willie Nelson, whose tax troubles are well-known.

Other advertisers include HotJobs.com, Philip Morris and Disney. Anheuser-Busch has bought 11 spots, making it the biggest advertiser in this year’s game.

While Super Bowl ads at times have tested the line of good taste, the National Football League has its standards. The NFL rejected a commercial from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, citing a “long-standing policy that prohibits the acceptance of any message that makes reference to or in mention of sports betting.”

http://foxsports.lycos.com/content/view?contentId=860398

BY LISA SINGHANIA

Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) – With the Super Bowl just over a week away, TV host ABC still has a handful of commercial spots to sell for what has become the ad industry’s showcase.

More than 90 percent of the 61, half-minute long TV commercial slots had been purchased as of the end of this week – at an average selling price of between $2.1 million and $2.2 million each, about 10 percent higher than a year ago.

Although it may seem late, analysts say its not unusual for networks to struggle a bit once the prime first-half and halftime slots are gone.

“At this point in time, just about every network usually has some ads left,” said Carolyn Bivens, president and chief operating officer of Initiative Media. “Most of those are going to be late in the fourth quarter. Those are always the ones that go last. But any of the ad positions in the first or second quarter and following halftime are long gone.”

Super Bowl commercials are traditionally among the most coveted and prestigious in the advertising world. The game is the most widely watched event on TV with an audience that averages more than 80 million people. It’s an opportunity for advertisers to show off their skills, and reach a wide, diverse group of people – some of whom tune in just for the ads.

“If you want to reach a mass audience, there are fewer and fewer ways to do that,” said Paul Ostasiewski, an assistant professor of marketing and management at Wheeling Jesuit University. “With cable TV and all the other choices out there, the viewing audience is much more fragmented and it’s rare to get such a big audience.”

With so much money and such a large audience at stake, Super Bowl advertisers tend to pull out all the stops, spending millions on entertaining, original ads they hope will be memorable. In some cases, the ads represent elaborate finales to months-long ad campaigns. Other companies use the forum to unveil new products or new campaigns.

As a result, the ads are just as likely to be discussed around the watercooler Monday morning as the game.

“You see higher-quality, relatively creative commercials that are longer, more together. Several are really good, whereas the rest of the year you might see one or two that are that good,” said Allyson Algeo, 31, of Portland, Maine, who watches more for the ads than the game.

Many advertisers are coy about their plans, but here are a few of the expected highlights:

- Levi Strauss will tout a gold, diamond and ruby-laden pair of jeans, appraised at $85,000.

- Hanes will feature Michael Jordan and Jackie Chan.

- Tax preparation firm H&R Block will showcase musician Willie Nelson, who has had tax troubles.

Other advertisers include HotJobs.com, Philip Morris and Disney. Anheuser Busch has bought 11 spots, making it the biggest advertiser in this year’s game.

While Super Bowl ads have sometimes tested the line of good taste, the NFL has its standards. It rejected a commercial from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, citing a “long-standing policy that prohibits the acceptance of any message that makes reference to or in mention of sports betting.”

Ostasiewski said most of the advertisers in this year’s game are established companies because of the cost and limitations of a Super Bowl ad. Research, he said, shows that a consumer typically has to see an ad at least seven times to even remember it. So companies that lack name-recognition may be less likely to see a payoff.

“Dot-coms were very heavy Super Bowl buyers a few years ago, and now many of them are gone,” he said. “The game helped them reach a lot of people, but in the end it wasn’t enough.”

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2003/Jan-15-Wed-2003/news/20474594.html

Las Vegas Review-Journal

By CHRIS JONES

Las Vegas’ ability to advertise on National Football League broadcasts could soon be headed to court, while the NFL on Tuesday accused local tourism officials of drumming up a controversy to attract attention to their new marketing campaign.

If only most playoff games could be this entertaining.

Despite the NFL’s refusal, local convention authority officials aren’t backing away from their desire to someday air television advertisements touting Las Vegas during football broadcasts including the Super Bowl.

Last month, the NFL denied a request from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and its contracted advertising agency, Las Vegas-based R & R Partners, to buy time slots during the Jan. 26 Super Bowl. The league rejected the authority’s bid because of its long-standing policy to distance itself from gaming-related ads, NFL sources said.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and other convention authority board members now want to challenge the NFL’s perceived anti-Las Vegas stance in court. At two separate points during Tuesday’s meeting, a visibly angry Goodman asked the convention authority’s legal staff to look into filing a lawsuit against the NFL.

A longtime defense attorney, Goodman believes a judge or jury might decide the league has interfered with the authority’s rights to free commercial speech, as well as R & R’s contractual obligations that require the company to promote Las Vegas on a national stage.

“This is commercial speech we’re talking about, and they’re interfering with it, and I don’t like it,” Goodman said in reference to the NFL. “I really want somebody to seriously research this because I think we’d win this case.”

Poking fun at recent controversies involving questionable calls in NFL playoff games, Goodman also said the league needs to “get its referees to make a call correctly” before it worries about potential damage associated with airing ads promoting Las Vegas.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy had no comment on the potential lawsuit Tuesday. However, McCarthy suggested the ads were pitched to the NFL in hopes that the league’s anticipated rejection would generate free publicity for the city.

“Someone came up with a strategic plan which has worked quite well,” McCarthy said. “They made a calculated risk to come up with a spot or series of spots knowing that the NFL would turn it down, and then turned around and publicized their efforts (to gain) more exposure for the city of Las Vegas than if the spot had actually run in the game.

“The Wall Street Journal ran it front page today … and USA Today and the New York Times will be writing about it, so we’re sure they’re pleased out your way.”

Goodman’s calls to investigate a court case against the NFL were supported by fellow board members Mary Kincaid-Chauncey, a Clark County commissioner, and Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson.

An attorney, Gibson said this “probably won’t be the last time we’re rebuffed,” but he questioned the NFL’s anti-gaming policy. He said betting lines that originate in Las Vegas are commonly discussed in workplaces throughout the United States and have likely increased the league’s overall popularity.

Following Tuesday’s board meeting, Luke Puschnig, who serves as legal counsel for the convention authority, said it’s still too soon to comment on potential legal avenues the organization might pursue against the NFL.

“(Goodman) is my boss and since he’s suggested this, I’ll look into it,” Puschnig said, adding it’s almost impossible to expect a court action would alter the NFL’s position in time to air the Las Vegas ads during this year’s Super Bowl.

“But who knows? This may be something that creates a change a year or five years down the road,” Puschnig said.

McCarthy repeatedly defended the league’s anti-gaming stance Tuesday.

“The ads don’t mention gambling, but Las Vegas is synonymous to the public with sports betting and casino gambling; it’s the only place where sports betting is legal,” McCarthy said. “That’s the basis for rejecting that type of ad, which we’ve done for decades.”

An Aug. 8 letter from Dennis Lewin, an NFL senior vice president of broadcasting and network television, to John Wildhack, senior vice president of programming for ESPN, a sister network of ABC, said ads for Las Vegas fall under the league’s “stringent restrictions on gambling-related advertising in NFL programming,” which exist because of the NFL’s “concern that an association between the NFL and gambling — even in an advertising context — could have a uniquely negative effect on the public’s perception of our sport.”

Despite the NFL’s efforts to sidestep gaming, R & R head Billy Vassiliadis said he believes more football fans will watch the Super Bowl in Las Vegas sports books than will view the contest in host city San Diego.

“And the way I feel about the NFL these days, I hope that happens,” Vassiliadis said.

http://www.klastv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1083681&nav=168XDMSC

Mayor May File a Lawsuit Against the NFL For Banning Vegas Ads During Super Bowl

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman may file a lawsuit against the National Football League. Las Vegas had planned to kick off its new $58-million ad campaign during the big game but the commissioner of the NFL says ads for Las Vegas cannot be run during the Super Bowl.

Now Goodman said today NFL is preventing the The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authorityfrom doing its job. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman says, “They got more dysfunctional people associated with that league, murders, rapes, robberies all sorts of nonsense if my city was run like his league we’d be in real trouble here.”

According to Brian McCarthy with the NFL, “We prohibit our network partners from accepting any message that includes any reference to or mention of gambling or sports betting.”

http://inq.philly.com/content/inquirer/2001/01/29/city/ADBOWL29.htm

By Brendan January and Elisa Ung INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

COLLINGSWOOD – Around the country, Super Bowl partyers cheered. They groaned. They clutched footballs, crammed down wings, and guzzled beer.

And in a cavernous Collingswood theater, they jotted notes.

This Super Bowl party had nothing to do with football, for these partyers were from the advertising firms Green Eggz no ham Inc., of Collingswood, and NDW, of Horsham – and they had priorities.

Forget the football game. In the minds of ad execs, the Super Bowl is not about the Ravens vs. the Giants – it is a birthplace for pop culture and a showcase for the $250 billion advertising industry. Last night, the two firms were gathering to rank the commercials.

Thus, the mini-egg rolls at their party held more interest than the Giants’ first pass, and the Budweiser ad of a guy spurting beer all over his girlfriend was more riveting than the first touchdown.

“The classic Super Bowl commercial,” crowed Tommy Dispenza from Green Eggz. “You get a big laugh out of it.”

Amid bites of sliced turkey and pigs in blankets, the ad agency representatives talked about the night’s real drama.

A successful Super Bowl ad can launch a business, they said excitedly. A failure can plunge a company fatally into debt.

Now that, they said, is pressure.

Watching pop culture unfold – the phrases, songs, attitudes that might be repeated in countless conversations in cafeterias and locker rooms, over water coolers and cups of coffee: That’s excitement.

It makes the Super Bowl look like, well, a mere game.

Which it was at yesterday’s shindig, dubbed the “Arbitron Bowl.”

These people ran to the rest room during plays so they didn’t miss the next commercial.

Watching the action projected on a wall, the representatives gave rankings ranging from “steak and eggs” – the big winners – to “rotten eggs,” for the losers.

Steak and eggs and raves went to everything Bud (“What are you doing?” “What are you doing?”) and to the woeful sock puppet, last year’s star in a pets.com commercial, lampooned last night in an E-Trade ad making fun of pets.com’s downfall. “Invest wisely,” advises the commercial.

The ad was, the execs said, indicative of the dot-com shakeout – many of the dot-coms that paid millions to advertise in last year’s Super Bowl are now out of business or on cheaper spending plans.

“With all the dot-com fiascoes,” said David Bregler of Green Eggz, “E-Trade has survived and has done well. And they patted themselves on the back there.”

The rotten eggs last night? Anything serious – it’s the Super Bowl, after all! Accenture’s virtual-reality surgery ad drew boos.

“Yuck,” sneered Arion Rochman of Green Eggz.

“They’re missing the mark,” agreed coworker Gina Lydic.

CBS, host channel of the Super Bowl, sold 60 30-second time slots for about $2.3 million each, according to the Wall Street Journal, to advertisers desperate to hold on to the attention of an estimated 80 million viewers long after the game ends.

While football players are locked in competition on the field, those in advertising engage in another contest – one of wits – to show the industry who’s best. There was Bob Dole, crediting Pepsi with everything a certain sex-enhancement drug did for him. There were ballet-dancing football players, multiplying bunnies, even the running of the squirrels in Spain.

During the Super Bowl, “an entire industry is watching each other,” Rochman said.

“Everyone in advertising wants to reach that level,” added Mike Santaspirt, creative director at Green Eggz no ham.

For the ad execs gathered in Collingswood, treasured Super Bowl memories are not graceful catches or devastating hits.

They joyfully remember a trio of frogs croaking “Bud”-”weis”-”er.”

They describe in awed tones the grainy 1984 Macintosh commercial in which a woman hurls a hammer at a giant television screen of Big Brother. The spot revolutionized the ad industry and catapulted the Super Bowl into an advertising mecca, Santaspirt said.

And then there’s Anheuser-Busch. “Who doesn’t remember the Bud Bowl?” said Dennis Levy, vice president of marketing at Green Eggz. “It’s often more exciting than the real game. They were betting on it in Las Vegas.”

The upshot from last night’s advertisers? A great football game, but a low-risk advertising year, one that was low on techies, low on special effects, big on the normal guy stuff. “It’s just beer and pretzels,” said NDW’s Bob Wolf.

Levy added: “Humor, animals and sex are the three main things that sell products, and we’ve seen mainly humor and animals. There were very few spots with sex appeal. It was very conservative.”

Brendan January’s e-mail address is bjanuary@phillynews.com

http://dailynews.philly.com/content/daily_news/2001/01/26/features/FJOE26.htm

In the ice-bucket chill of an Arctic winter, the fearsome foes meet upon the frozen tundra, in a cruel rite of manhood that will determine the champion of the world.

The battles are heroic, the warriors are legend.

Joe Montana. . .Franco Harris. . .John Elway. . .Iggy.

You remember Iggy. He was the guy stranded on a desert island who in 1995 astonishingly appeared on the field in the final seconds to pull down an 80-yard TD pass and lead Budweiser to a come-from-behind victory in Bud Bowl VII.

It was, perhaps, the last, great moment in what Anheuser-Busch unabashedly claims is “the most successful beer promotion in history.”

Never mind that advertising critics and viewers long ago lost their enthusiasm for the campaign. The game itself is no longer even played on TV; it’s mostly a promotional gimmick and Internet contest. Yet the battling bottles of Bud and Bud Light are firmly entrenched in the subconscious of every beer-drinking football fan.

Who can forget the goofy animations, the controversial trick plays, the pun-filled play-by-plays? Once, Las Vegas bookmakers actually set odds on the outcome, and some bartenders took bets on the under/over. Meanwhile, newspapers earnestly reported the final score.

Even Joe Sixpack, who loathes Budweiser, has to admit: Bud Bowl is an American advertising icon.

Sadly, the details of these heroic battles are mostly lost. There is no Bud Bowl Encyclopedia; there are no John Facenda-narrated highlights. Even A-B’s Web site – budbowl.sportsline.com – offers little historical insight.

And so, I’ve spent the last 10 days compiling the first-ever Joe Sixpack Guide to the Bud Bowl. Most of the info comes from a comprehensive search of the Internet and the nation’s newspapers, but thanks go to Rick Oleshak of A-B’s marketing communications department for filling in the holes.

Call it a public service, call it a complete waste of time. Here goes:

1989 – Bud Bowl I

Budski, a nonreturnable twist-off bottle and the smallest man on Budweiser’s team, kicks a 42-yard field goal to send Bud Light to defeat, 27-24.

Announcers: Bob Costas and Paul Maguire.

1990 – Bud Bowl II

Bud defends its title, winning 36-34, on an illegal, game-ending fumble.

One Bud player loses the ball in the end zone during a freak blizzard, and a second recovers for the TD. However, under NFL rules, the offensive team cannot advance a fumble in the final two minutes of a game unless the ball is recovered by the same player who lost it.

In a press release issued a few days later, A-B ends the controversy by announcing that “no such rule exists in the Budweiser Football League.”

Announcers: Brent Musburger and Terry Bradshaw.

1991 – Bud Bowl III

Bud Dry, debuting as quarterback for Bud Light, uses the hidden-ball-beneath-the-beer-label to help overcome “highly flavored” Budweiser, 23-21. The play of the game, according to a post-game report in the Durham, N.C. Herald-Sun, is the last-second runback by kick returner Ralph, who chugs his way through the Bud Marching Band’s sousaphone section.

1992 – Bud Bowl IV

Bud wins, 27-24.

Announcers: Corbin Bernsen and Ahmad Rashad.

1993 – Bud Bowl V

Illuminator, the delivery truck that turns into a running back, is removed from the game by a giant claw mounted to the Bud blimp. Bud continues its mastery of Bud Light, 35-31.

1994 – Bud Bowl VI

Houston Oilers Head Coach Bum Phillips leads his Bud Light squad to a 20-14 victory over Mike Ditka’s Bud team. Marv Albert calls play-by-play in yet another contest decided on the final play of the game.

Here’s the line score, as reported by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

Budweiser..7..7..0..0 – 14

Bud Light…7..0..7..6 – 20

1995 – Bud Bowl VII

The infamous Iggy game. At 5’8″, the stranded island guy is eight times the height of the average Bud Light opponent and has no problem dancing into the end zone while leading Bud to a 26-24 victory.

Game announcer Chris Berman asks: “Where you gonna go now?”

“Sea World,” says Iggy, who is transformed back to the beach and is last seen hugging a palm tree.

1996 – Bud Bowl 8

The first Bud Bowl to abandon the traditional Roman numeral, it is also the first that is not played on TV. A-B merely announces the winning play: a naked reverse.

Sadly, statistical records are gone. Not a single newspaper listed on the Nexis database, nor anyone else on the Web, reported the score.

Oleshak says Bud Light won, 14-7.

After this game, only the scores were announced.

1997 – Bud Bowl IX

Bud wins, 27-24.

1998 – Bud Bowl X

Bud wins 21-7, the only game decided by more than one TD.

1999 – Bud Bowl ’99

Bud wins 14-10. The first game played on the Internet, in Bud Bowl Cyber Stadium.

Announcer: Sportscaster Jim Rome.

2000 – Bud Bowl 2000

Bud wins, 50-45.

Announcer: ESPN’s Stuart Scott.

Other Bud Bowl Trivia:

A-B is the exclusive beer advertiser during the Super Bowl. It will spend between $15 million and $20 million on eight spots this year. The ads will feature those annoying-but-entertaining Whassup guys (including creator Charles Stone III, son of ex-People Paper columnist Chuck).

Budweiser used to hand out cheesy Bud Bowl T-shirts. Now you can buy an official commemorative Bud Ball in an acrylic case, for $119.99.

USA Today once reported the score of a Bud Bowl on Page 1.

In 1990, readers of USA Today voted the Bud Bowl II commercial as the worst of the Super Bowl.

First Bud Light coach: Spuds McKenzie.

Joe Sixpack, by Staff Writer Don Russell, was written this week with a glass of Wild Goose Oatmeal Stout. He appears every other week in Big Fat Friday. Contact him at the Daily News, Box 7788, Philadelphia, Pa. 19101, or via e-mail: joesixpack@phillynews.com © 2000 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.