Honestly, this Wrap-Up is going to be so huge you might want to print it out and take it to the bathroom with you. Though that might make clicking the links a bit harder. You could take your lap-top with you, but that's not going to work if you're on a PC. You could take your PC with you, but that's going to need a long extension cord. Aww heck, just read it now. If you have time. Otherwise save it for later. I might be rambling.
First off, print out your Super Bowl advertising scorecard here at TV Week.
Over on my personal Movie Marketing Madness site I opine on why so few movie studios have opted out of advertising during this year's game.
All the talk about Kevin Federline's commercial for Nationwide Insurance, including the displeasure of the National Restaurant Association over the portrayal of fast-food jobs as undesirable, means the insurance company is already happy with its decision to but a Super Bowl ad.
Speaking of Federline's ad for Nationwide, you can view a teaser of the spot here.
Get ready for your "Meta Moment" for the day. Marketers are exploring various options for sponsoring the online streaming of the Super Bowl ads. That's right: Ad sponsorship. Some days there's just not enough scotch.
A North Carolina wine company named Cheerwine took advantage of the lower prices available by buying ads through local affiliates to run their first Super Bowl commercial. That spot is teaser to a full campaign that will launch in April.
Quick update on J.P., the guy trying to raise the money to buy a Super Bowl commercial he can use to propose to his girlfriend. Apparently he's actually shot a number of attempts but it sounds like we're going to have to wait to see the finished product.
I'm talking about that commercial for Pepto-Bismol, the one where the advertising icons come to life and start attacking the city. They're crushing buildings with their feet and generally causing havoc everywhere. And then they get upset stomach and diarrhea. Maybe from all of the people they've been eating or something. Now, this seems like great news for the world. The giants will get sick and stop attacking the world, maybe even die, never hurting the world again. It would at least give the city some time to figure out what to do with the giants, blow them up or drug them or tie them up or something.
So why do they send in a helicopter with a giant bottle of Pepto? Why do they want to help the giants, make them feel better? The giants take the medicine, and the commercial ends with the monsters continuing to attack the city.
???
I guess the prospect of giants having diarrhea all over the city was worse than him stepping on people and crushing buildings.
Procter & Gamble has made the decision to not buy any advertising time during this year's Academy Awards telecast. Commercial time for this year's telecast is running at about $1.7 for a 30-second spot, a far cry from the Super Bowl's $2.6 million. P&G had used last year's Oscar broadcast to promote its Olay Regenerist skin-care product. Procter & Gamble is still advertising on Oscar.com, the awards show website. The discrepency between TV and online attitudes is emblematic of a thought-shift at P&G that emphasizes interactive ads over the traditional model.
With P&G now out of the running for the Oscars, Unilever has stepped in and will advertise for the Dove brand. The Oscars are seen as sort of a Super Bowl for women since it, like the big football game, is one of the few mass-viewed TV shows still around. It attracts a much more female-weighted audience, though.
What I love about this old Fritos Corn Chips commercial is that it actually portrays Mexicans accurately. Every single Mexican I've ever worked with, dated or befriended would never dare to go outside without their giant sombrero, guns and bullets.
I kid, of course. Still, the Frito Bandito was a cool little ad character, and not unlike the Trix Rabbit, he wasn't against stealing to get the food he craved. The character was designed by animation legend Tex Avery (creator of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, among others) and voiced by Mel Blanc. The Bandito stuck around for awhile, but protests from groups angry over the stereotype eventually drove the character into obscurity.
The video below actually contains nine minutes of old commercials, but I think the very first one for Band-Aids is my favorite. Did you know that Band-Aid's adhesive is so strong you can lift an egg with it, and even boil the egg? Did you know that's a really odd way to show how sticky your adhesive bandage is? Did you know that if it's really that sticky it probably hurts like hell when you rip it off?
Even better, Band-Aids are "flesh colored," which is great if you exist in a commercial where everyone is white. So go ahead and scrape your knees, cut yourself shaving, and boil yourself. It's all good.
DVR subscription company wants to get into the TV metrics reporting business. It will begin offering data on both the programming and commercial viewing habits of its subscribtion base, data that would cover both live and time-shifted viewing. The new service, dubbed StopWatch, would provide second-by-second viewing data, something Nielsen has refused to do, likely because it hasn't figured out how to. Starcom has signed on as the first subscriber to TiVo's data.
One final note to the ad executive who wonders about whether or not information such as this is "projectable." It's 2007. Nothing is really projectable because new things are vying every 15 minutes for the attention of your consumer. And with the proliferation of choice your audience is fragmenting. The problem, though, is that TV ad buying is still done mostly on guesses and instincts, before the shows actually hit airwaves. If the system were reversed, and advertisers were charged based on the actual performance of the show containing their ad and the ad itself, the world would be a very different place.
I'm always amazed at the simplicity of certain old toys, and how so many of those toys have outlived the more complex toys that came along decades later. Toys with lots of flashing lights and animatronic whatnots come and go, but you can still find yo-yos, Silly Putty, Slinkys and the like in pretty much any toy store. Something like this...
...is fun and exciting at first, but it doesn't ignite the imagination. It seems to offer more than say, a toy plastic car, but the Roboraptor, if anything, limits the child's imagination. You can't take it out in the sandbox, you can't spray it with a garden hose, and you certainly can't toss it on the roof and watch it crash into the sidewalk, virtually unharmed.
One of the best spoofs of these simple yet entertaining toys was the "Log" commercial from Ren and Stimpy, but younger folks might not know that it was actually a parody of a popular Slinky commercial. Take note, toy makers and toy advertisers: simplicity is good.
There's about to be an advertising show down between K-Y and Zestra, both of which make products to help with female sexual arousal. Zestra is a small brand but it's hoping that the wealth of clinical research it has done will help it compete.
A bunch of middle-aged or outright old and rich white guys, all of whom preside over professional sports leagues, talk branding and other issues.
I don't think "prepare" is the right word. I actually think TV stations are salivating over the estimated $1 billion that's about to be dropped on the upcoming Presidential campaign. One way they could handle the overflow of candidates looking for ad time is to divert some of them to the web.
This is a really old Rocky and Bullwinkle opening clip complete with a General Mills product placement. I love how products were made a part of these old shows rather than today's method of sneaking in product placements. Hell, we know you can't have a show without advertisements, you might as well make it blatant. I'd love to turn on the TV and watch Colgate presents: Lost. Or something like that. Both Rocky and Bullwinkle also appeared in television and print ads for General Mills cereals, including Cheerios.
I was just watching a commercial for Colgate Total, and the woman in the ad is going on and on about how much she likes it, that her doctor recommended that she use it, etc, etc, and then she uses this line:
"It's the only toothpaste I use."
Well, so what? I'm sure the product is fine, but who switches toothpastes regularly? I think most people find a toothpaste that they like and they stick with it forever. They might switch to a different flavor or something, but I would be that very few people completely switch their toothpaste.
Not that they couldn't, of course, because there are approximately 3000 different types of toothpastes now. It takes me about 10 minutes just to find the one that I always use (Crest gel) because it's lost in all the other flavors and styles. Gah. Sometimes I think choice is a really bad thing.
Microsoft is on the cusp of launching a $500 million campaign for the debut of its Vista operating system. That buys a lot of TV spots and banner ads but, ironically, only about a dozen copies of the software itself.
With all the stories that have been printed lately about how Crispin Porter & Bogusky and how its work hasn't actually helped its clients, it's not that surprising to see a story like this that reminds us how wonderful and creative they are.
Marketers are questioning just who the glamorous productions that are the upfront presentations are actually meant for. Networks could start to rein in how extravagant their shows are in the future under pressure that these are more shows than they are business meetings.
Just one more week to go before the Bears win the Super Bowl.
CBS will partner with TiVo to promote a couple of its shows in the time leading up to the Super Bowl. That includes sneak peaks in the TiVo Showcase and one-click recording of the game itself.
More chatter, this time from the New York Times, about how to maximize the return on the $2.6 million it cost to get a TV spot during the game.
Snapple is buying its first ever Super Bowl ad to promote the health benefits of its Green, Red, White and Black teas.
Steve Hall reminds us all that SpotBowl will be tallying up viewer ratings of the game's commercials. Remember to vote early and often and abuse the system as much as possible to favor spots you personally worked on.
AdFreak points to a pair of best/worst of all time lists. It's amazing how these stories get published every year.
Is this a real commercial? It's from the 1980s, and it's an ad for something called "Synth coke," which seems to be like real cocaine, only not as expensive (but who knows if the effects were the same, better, or worse). The ad, which has all of the charm and production values of 80s porn movies, says that it's the way to a girl's heart (and other things) and that it can be found in "adult bookstores and boutiques throughout Manhattan."
I don't remember seeing this on VH-1's I Love The 80s.
Wilford Brimley is actually a fine actor, but unfortunately a generation will mostly remember him for his commercial work for Quaker Oats and Liberty Mutual. Unlike other celebrity spokespersons, Wilford always seemed very serious about the product he was pitching. After watching him pitch oatmeal or medical supplies I felt like a damn fool if I didn't go out and purchase those products, despite not being hungry or stricken by diabetes. I would watch his commercials in awe, waiting for him to finally go completely off the script:
Wilford:Okay, seriously, just eat some damn oatmeal. You're not foolin' anybody so just cut the crap and eat it. It's good for you, and you know it's good for you, so don't give me any damn lip. I've been around the block a few times, I know these things. When you're in your 80s you can tell other people what to eat for breakfast, you got it?
I think Wilford's commercials are fine the way they are, but someone found a way to jazz them up:
All of the Super Bowl commercials that Budweiser will run have been posted to YouTube. You can see snippets of all 8 of them on this page, or you can check out the video below. It condenses all the ads into 3 minutes and 9 seconds. The ads this year feature crabs, Clydesdales, a space station, and a hitchhiker with an axe.
One of them, "Rock, Paper, Scissors," has already run on television (at least I think it has, or did I see it online?), so it's not new or special for this Super Bowl. As for the other ads, again I say...eh. I've never been a fan of the Budweiser commercials, and I can never understand why they seem to win ad critic and viewer polls for best ads every year.
I like the one with the dog though. Dogs are cool.
Honestly, this Wrap-Up is going to be so huge you might want to print it out and take it to the bathroom with you. Though that might make clicking the links a bit harder. You could take your lap-top with you, but that's not going to work if you're on a PC. You could take your PC with you, but that's going to need a long extension cord. Aww heck, just read it now. If you have time. Otherwise save it for later. I might be rambling. 
Wow, there's a sentence I never thought I'd say.
Procter & Gamble has made the decision to not buy any advertising time during this year's Academy Awards telecast. Commercial time for this year's telecast is running at about $1.7 for a 30-second spot, a far cry from the Super Bowl's $2.6 million. P&G had used last year's Oscar broadcast to promote its Olay Regenerist skin-care product. Procter & Gamble is still advertising on Oscar.com, the awards show website. The discrepency between TV and online attitudes is emblematic of a thought-shift at P&G that emphasizes interactive ads over the traditional model. 
DVR subscription company wants to get into the TV metrics reporting business. It will begin offering data on both the programming and commercial viewing habits of its subscribtion base, data that would cover both live and time-shifted viewing. The new service, dubbed StopWatch, would provide second-by-second viewing data, something Nielsen has refused to do, likely because it hasn't figured out how to. Starcom has signed on as the first subscriber to TiVo's data. 
There's about to be an advertising 
I was just watching a commercial for 
Microsoft is on the 
