Super Bowl's Super Ads

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By The Associated Press

NEW YORK - In a spoof of the right formula for a Super Bowl ad, FedEx Corp. called this year's battle of television commercials long before results came in for the actual championship football game.

Top advertisers on U.S. television's most watched, and expensive, event returned to tried and tested gimmicks during Sunday's broadcast after an indecency scandal during last year's game put marketers under greater scrutiny.

Watched by more than 144 million viewers in the United States last year, the Super Bowl is the nation's highest-rated TV program and the most-watched single-day sporting event.

It is the biggest stage for advertisers and their agencies, where they vie for the title of most memorable or entertaining commercial. This year, TV network Fox sold 30-second spots for up to $2.4 million each.

"This Super Bowl is about a return to tradition," said Mark DiMassimo of DiMassimo Carr Brand Advocates. "They went a little crazy with ads last year and now everyone is going back to the formulas."

FedEx made a self-conscious ad play, listing the necessary elements of a winning commercial: animals that talk or dance, celebrities big or small and a cute kicker at the end. To illustrate the point, Burt Reynolds chats up a dancing bear in a spot from Omnicom Group's BBDO agency.

Other ads employed "funny animals," but without the irony.

Online job site CareerBuilder.com debuted three commercials about a corporation run by monkeys to the frustration of its one very human employee, cellular provider Verizon Wireless parodied its "Can you hear me now?" slogan with a monkey talking into his "banana" phone while Bud Light showed a cockatoo berating a young man's pickup lines at a bar.

"There were so many animals and so many monkeys, but it wasn't as grotesque as last year," said Barbara Lippert, advertising critic for Adweek. "There were at least a couple you could be surprised by and enjoy."

Advertising experts and viewers singled out a pair of unusual commercials for mortgage company Ameriquest under the tagline "Don't judge too quickly." In one ad, a man tells a friend "you're getting robbed" over a deal as he shops at a convenience store, only to be mistaken by the cashier as a genuine thief who meets a painful end.

But few ventured into the unexpected to stand out from nearly 60 commercials during the contest in which the New England Patriots beat the Philadelphia Eagles 24-21 in Jacksonville, Florida.

Even top celebrities such as Brad Pitt, chased by paparazzi in a Heineken beer ad, failed to generate excitement.

"As an advertising person, I was really hoping for a lot more," said Ellis Verdi, president of DeVito/Verdi Advertising. "I want to see smart, intrusive advertising that gets to you. It was disappointing."

BUDWEISER UNSEATED?

The rivalry for surprise came to haunt advertisers last year, when an outcry over Janet Jackson's exposed breast during a half-time show performance spilled over to a critique of edgy ads throughout the game.

Brewer Anheuser-Busch, the biggest and most popular Super Bowl advertiser for years, toned down the humor after criticism for juvenile gags last year. But it won crowd-pleasing points for a patriotic spot showing ordinary Americans applauding soldiers returning from duty in Iraq.

"Budweiser did best with the patriotic sentimentality," said DiMassimo. "In theory, I don't like the idea but it was well done and somehow rang true."

In a bitter note, Anheuser-Busch's debut of its new Budweiser Select brew was upstaged by an ad knocking its taste from rival Miller Lite, apparently aired on local broadcasts.

Beverage maker PepsiCo may generate coveted morning-after buzz among consumers with a Diet Pepsi spot showing Carson Kressley from popular makeover show "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" eying a well-built male model, and a celebrity wannabe ad with hip-hop mogul Sean "P. Diddy" Combs.

Viewers were relatively silent on a McDonald's spot telling the story of a couple who find fame after discovering a french fry resembling Abraham Lincoln.

"McDonald's is probably one of the biggest misses," said Pete Snyder, CEO of New Media Strategies which monitored Internet blogs and viewer traffic to Super Bowl ad sites. "Often the test is not only what people are saying, but when they're not talking about it at all."

Created: 2/7/2005 5:30:51 PM

Updated: 2/7/2005 7:33:42 PM

Edited by Kevin Ronningen, Producer

ⓒ 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten, or redistributed.

Super Bowl Advertising

Year	Price	Price (2004 Dollars)	Viewers
1967	$42,000	$239,167	N/A
1968	$54,000	$298,293	N/A
1969	$67,500	$357,866	N/A
1970	$78,200	$393,131	44,270,000
1971	$72,000	$342,371	45,960,000
1972	$86,000	$391,778	56,640,000
1973	$103,500	$456,836	53,320,000
1974	$107,000	$444,628	51,700,000
1975	$110,000	$411,663	56,050,000
1976	$125,000	$428,671	57,710,000
1977	$162,000	$525,290	62,060,000
1978	$185,000	$563,243	78,940,000
1979	$222,000	$628,206	74,740,000
1980	$275,000	$698,864	76,240,000
1981	$324,300	$726,133	68,290,000
1982	$345,000	$700,248	85,230,000
1983	$400,000	$764,767	81,770,000
1984	$450,000	$833,584	77,620,000
1985	$500,000	$887,873	85,530,000
1986	$550,000	$943,076	92,570,000
1987	$575,000	$967,952	87,190,000
1988	$600,000	$974,472	80,140,000
1989	$675,000	$1,052,726	81,590,000
1990	$700,000	$1,041,532	73,852,000
1991	$800,000	$1,129,304	79,510,000
1992	$800,000	$1,083,700	79,590,000
1993	$850,000	$1,117,783	90,990,000
1994	$900,000	$1,149,135	90,000,000
1995	$1,000,000	$1,244.94	83,420,000
1996	$1,100,000	$1,331,693	94,080,000
1997	$1,200,000	$1,411,090	87,870,000
1998	$1,300,000	$1,494,393	90,000,000
1999	$1,600,000	$1,811,043	83,720,000
2000	$2,100,000	$2,325,630	88,465,000
2001	$2,050,000	$2,196,429	84,335,000
2002	$1,900,000	$1,979,390	86,801,000
2003	$2,100,000	$2,153,696	88,637,000
2004	$2,250,000	$2,250,000	89,795,000