Super Bowl XXXVII

And now, a word about the sponsors

Are you one of the 14 percent of viewers who will sit through the Super Bowl solely for the ads? Here's the buzz on the buzz.

By ERIC DEGGANS, Times TV Critic

© St. Petersburg Times
published January 25, 2003

Its official debut comes during Sunday's Super Bowl, but you've probably seen it already: the ad for Pepsi Twist in which rocker Ozzy Osbourne, addled star of the MTV reality series The Osbournes, sees his two children transformed into Donnie and Marie Osmond.

The kicker: when Osbourne wakes up from the dream, wife Sharon is played by Brady Bunch mom Florence Henderson.

The reason you've likely seen it is that PepsiCo Inc. has spent big bucks to ensure that you have. The company shipped advance copies to hundreds of media outlets, allowing programs from the Today show to WFLA-Ch. 8's Daytime to air the commercial as part of their news coverage.

Getting Super Bowl ads out early is "absolutely critical -- it gives you an entire week of exposure ahead of the game, you're part of all the broadcast news stories (and) it exposes your brand to millions of consumers," said Bart Casabona, a spokesman for PepsiCo North America. The company -- which makes a habit of circulating its big-ticket commercials a week before the big game -- was the most-covered advertiser from last year's Super Bowl, with more than 300 stories aired about its commercials, according to one study.

Now more than ever, Super Bowl advertisers are getting their messages out to the public early -- taking some of the surprise out of what is a big attraction of the game for many viewers.

An ABC representative would not say whether the network has sold all 61 advertising slots for Sunday's game, now priced at an average $2.2-million per 30 seconds (a 15 percent boost from last year's depressed prices, but about even with 2000's average). At those prices, a Super Bowl commercial is a hefty investment for any company.

Besides Pepsi's Osbournes ad, Super Bowl TV stories have aired clips from commercials featuring Willie Nelson for H&R Block, a runaway semitrailer truck demolishing the road for Monster.com, and a monkey catapulted into a pool for Pepsi's Sierra Mist drink.

Other ads generating press buzz: a Gatorade spot featuring Michael Jordan playing basketball with past versions of himself; a trailer for the new Hulk movie revealing the computer-generated character's look; and a Trident ad in which a squirrel attacks the one dentist in five who doesn't recommend the sugarfree gum.

The coverage is so extensive, companies such as Etrade and EDS get press because they're not advertising in the Super Bowl anymore.

"Advertisers are getting smart about picking up the buzz . . . (creating) a marketing event around the marketing," said Brent Bamberger, vice president of marketing for Multivision Inc., a California company that studied nearly 500 TV news stories on Super Bowl advertising from last year's game. "This year, I expect to see about 50 percent more coverage . . . at least 700 stories."

Bamberger theorizes that Super Bowl advertisers who have spent millions to make, market and air their commercials -- some spots cost as much as a small feature film -- may want to see them treated like movies, with advance advertising and notice when they might air.

But what does this mean for those who like being surprised by Super Bowl ads?

For people who aren't big sports fans, the advertisements could be their Super Bowl -- a pop culture feast in which Madison Avenue's best moments are unveiled for 140-million people. (A study by Eisner & Associates, a Baltimore communications firm, predicts 14 percent of Sunday's viewers will tune in solely for the advertising; digital video recorder manufacturer TiVosaid the most replayed 2002 Super Bowl moment on its customers' machines wasn't a touchdown, but Britney Spears' Pepsi commercial.)

By the time the Osbournes spot actually airs in a paid commercial time slot Sunday, you may be sick of it.

Indeed, one industry observer believes some businesses might be smart to withhold their Super Bowl ads so they'll have a bigger impact on game viewers (some, such as beermaker Anheuser Busch, release parts of their ads, saving the full version for the game day).

"Ten years ago, I used to tell people, 'You're crazy not to leverage your ad with additional publicity,' " said David Blum, a vice president at Eisner & Associates. "But now the pendulum's swinging to where it may work for you not to publicize it too much."

Blum feared the process may have spread to the playoff games, noting that Nike's buzzed-about advertisement featuring a streaker at a soccer game debuted Sunday during the NFL conference championship games on CBS and Fox.

But a spokeswoman for Nike said the company did nothing to publicize the commercial for its $100 Shox NZ sneakers -- which will not air in Sunday's Super Bowl -- before it debuted last week (though they did field lots of calls from reporters and football fans wondering if the faked ad featured footage of a real game; it didn't).

James Twitchell, a professor of English and advertising at the University of Florida, doubts the very premise that Super Bowl commercials help to sell products.

"Historically, a Pepsi ad would hold up the product and tell you about it and urge you to buy it," said Twitchell, author of Twenty Ads That Shook the World. "Modern advertising . . . has given up on making sales. I mean, what the hell do those lizards have to do with beer (in Budweiser's famous iguana ads)?"

Twitchell compared the rush to buy Super Bowl advertising to a phenomenon called potlatch -- in which cultures show off their status by performing an act of public waste. "Now (advertising) tells you a story and hopes you'll carry that story to the marketplace," he added. "But chances are you won't."

Still, many Super Bowl advertisers can cite specific benefits from their ads -- companies such as employment Web site Hotjobs.com and sandwichmaker Quizno's saw their businesses gain immediate status and customers after their ads aired.

Which means the pre-Super Bowl public relations whirlwind is likely to grow in years to come.

"There's probably a natural law of supply and demand beyond which people will say they've had enough of hearing about these ads," said Marc Karasu, vice president of advertising for Hotjobs.com, which set its Super Bowl commercial to the tune of the Muppets' song Rainbow Connection. "But I've seen, year in and year out, that it just becomes a bigger marketing machine."