Super Bowl Ad

Karl Rove claims Clint Eastwood's Super Bowl ad for Chrysler was a devious pitch to promote the Obama reelection campaign. Apparently the bulb-headed Pillsbury Doughboy of the political right thinks he's man enough to pick a fight with America's most virile octogenarian. Go ahead, Karl, make his day. In the sweepstakes for most memorable advertisement from Sunday's Super Bowl game, the Eastwood halftime ad was the clear winner. Gritty, moody, yet uplifting, the ad interspersed images of beleaguered but resilient Americans with shots of Eastwood walking toward the camera along a shadowy passageway.

Karl Rove claims Clint Eastwood's Super Bowl ad for Chrysler was a devious pitch to promote the Obama reelection campaign. Apparently the bulb-headed Pillsbury Doughboy of the political right thinks he's man enough to pick a fight with America's most virile octogenarian. Go ahead, Karl, make his day. In the sweepstakes for most memorable advertisement from Sunday's Super Bowl game, the Eastwood halftime ad was the clear winner. Gritty, moody, yet uplifting, the ad interspersed images of beleaguered but resilient Americans with shots of Eastwood walking toward the camera along a shadowy passageway.

Today, there are few corners of our communal life untouched by rancorous political division. CBS guaranteed that there will be one less when it broke with long-standing tradition and sold an evangelical Christian group time in which to air an antiabortion ad during this year's Super Bowl. If this were a football game rather than life -- or, at least, commerce -- it's the kind of ruling you'd want to send up to the box for a review of the call on the field. The Super Bowl, which is this country's most-watched television event, also has evolved into the world's premier showcase for video advertising.

Clint Eastwood has never been known as a man who had trouble making his meaning clear. So for many of those who were watching Sunday, the crusty, no-guff actor's Super Bowl ad delivered a plain message: America is staging a comeback, just like one of its big carmakers, Chrysler. It's anyone's guess whether the ad's soaring rhetoric and American-grit imagery will sell more Chrysler 300s or Town & Country minivans. But the two-minute spot immediately accomplished another, unintended goal — again forcing into high relief the nation's sharp political divide.

Tourism officials are throwing a tantrum over the National Football League's refusal to run a provocative Las Vegas commercial during the Super Bowl. But they admit that the brouhaha over the ad has generated more publicity for Las Vegas -- for free -- than a pricey Super Bowl ad might otherwise have garnered. The NFL, which decides which ads can appear during the globally broadcast event, declined to run the Las Vegas promotion because of the city's connection to gambling.

New York-based Arnell Group, which created a Super Bowl ad for Progressive Insurance Co. using the "E.T." film character, sued the No. 4 personal auto insurer for firing it after allegedly promising it more business. Arnell said Progressive persuaded it to accept reduced fees because the agency eventually would get Progressive's $100-million to $150-million account. Progressive dropped Arnell last March because the E.T. Super Bowl ad didn't produce much new business.

Two Super Bowl advertisers are using contests to help their commercials stand out during the broadcast that typically draws television's largest audience. Volvo Trucks of North America will use the Jan. 25 broadcast on NBC to name 25 semifinalists for a $120,000 truck. Mail Boxes Etc. will showcase a small-business owner chosen from thousands who have entered its contest.

Advertiser: Reebok Agency: Berlin, Cameron & Partners, New York Challenge: Portray Reebok's DMX running shoes as a breakthrough in athletic footwear, a market Nike dominates. The Ads: Two companion spots, now airing in movie theaters in Los Angeles and elsewhere, portray Nike as Big Brother and Reebok as the wellspring of individuality. In the first ad, an army of clones runs through otherwise empty city streets, past a building that displays 97005--the ZIP Code for Beaverton, Ore.

Clint Eastwood has never been known as a man who had trouble making his meaning clear. So for many of those who were watching Sunday, the crusty, no-guff actor's Super Bowl ad delivered a plain message: America is staging a comeback, just like one of its big carmakers, Chrysler. It's anyone's guess whether the ad's soaring rhetoric and American-grit imagery will sell more Chrysler 300s or Town & Country minivans. But the two-minute spot immediately accomplished another, unintended goal — again forcing into high relief the nation's sharp political divide.

The TV listings say San Diego versus San Francisco, but we know who the real Super Bowl contestants are. It's Pepsi against Coke, Miller against Bud, No Fear against the world. Some of America's biggest brands are competing in what has become the world's most extravagant marketing spectacle. During today's game in Miami, an M&M candy will come alive, beer bottles will duel, and, oh yes, a speeding bullet will pierce a padlock--again.

Here's a by-the-numbers roundup of what went down off the gridiron during Sunday's Super Bowl, from beer to Twitter to all the TV ads. 47.8 : Percentage of households that tuned in to the Super Bowl in the top 56 U.S. television markets, making it the third-most-watched big game ever, behind last year's matchup between the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers and the 1987 championship between the Giants and the Denver Broncos....

Perhaps the most attention-getting Super Bowl ad - other than that dog blackmailing his owner with tortilla chips to keep quiet over a felinicide, of course - was Clint Eastwood's paean to a resurgent auto industry in Detroit. The ad featured Eastwood leveraging his cinematic persona to the hilt, emerging from the shadows while praising and challenging Americans at the same time. “It's halftime in America too,” Eastwood rasped during halftime at the Super Bowl in a manner reminiscent of the Detroiter he played in “Gran Torino.”  “Seems that we've lost our heart at times.

Many of the best-received commercials during Sunday's Super Bowl referenced movies — they just weren't for movies heading to the local cineplex any time soon. Several car ads that sparked some of the biggest interest on Twitter and other social-media platforms during the big game alluded to classic older films. Meanwhile, studio spots for major upcoming releases — including Marvel's "Avengers," Universal's "Battleship," Disney's "John Carter" and Paramount's "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" — passed without any great excitement or anticipation from a large number of online commenters.

  With Super Bowl XLVI just days away, advertisers are in an all-out blitz, pitching everything from pizzas to TVs in conjunction with the biggest sporting event of the year. The ads often feature "super" savings and football themes, but one thing is conspicuously absent from nearly all of them: the name of the game itself. Trademarked and tenaciously defended by the NFL, the phrase "Super Bowl" is available to just a handful of official sponsors that pay significant amounts for the right to include the name in their marketing efforts.

The Big Game might be more than two weeks away, but marketers already are shifting their Super Bowl ad campaigns into overdrive. To get more bang for their bucks, major advertisers and their advertising agencies are giving previews, running teaser spots and even releasing their ads early to generate chatter on social media platforms. Deutsch LA, which does the creative work for Volkswagen, let the dogs out this week. The Marina del Rey firm released a "teaser" ad Wednesday for its upcoming Super Bowl spot.

Squeezed between the Doritos and Budweiser ads during last weekend's Super Bowl was a spot paid for with California tax dollars. Airtime for the most expensive television event of the year is probably not the first item on which deficit-plagued California might be expected to spend money. The ad, exhorting people to quit smoking, came as Gov. Jerry Brown had proposed gutting many state healthcare services to help balance the budget. The commercial was a part of a $14.5-million television campaign funded this year partly by a 25-cent-per-pack tax on cigarettes.

Can Nike top Bo? Just about everyone knows the "Bo Knows Baseball" TV commercial for Nike. It features dual sports star Bo Jackson testing his skills at everything from playing hockey with Wayne Gretzky to strumming guitar with Bo Diddley. On Tuesday, production crews were in Los Angeles filming Nike's follow-up ad that will premiere Jan. 28, during the Super Bowl telecast on CBS. Jackson is in this commercial too. But the ad is not Bo II.

Every advertiser would love to know what runs through a viewer's head when he watches a television commercial -- and on Super Bowl Sunday, a group of UCLA researchers had the answer. Their study measured the emotional response of a human brain as it was bombarded by some of the most creative and expensive ads Madison Avenue has to offer. Advertisers paid about $2.5 million to air a 30-second spot during Sunday's broadcast. If preliminary results from an experiment conducted by Dr.

Groupon's Super Bowl ads have been seen by many as a fumble on the part of the increasingly influential website. So, on Friday, Groupon Chief Executive Andrew Mason called an audible and ditched the controversial advertising campaign. Groupon's Super Bowl ads have been seen by many as a fumble on the part of the increasingly influential website. So, on Friday, Groupon Chief Executive Andrew Mason called an audible and ditched the controversial advertising campaign. "Five days have passed since the Super Bowl, and one thing is clear ?

AOL has purchased the Huffington Post. ( Los Angeles Times ) If we had to choose between watching Christina Aguilera mangle the national anthem or watching "Burlesque," we'd ... ( Los Angeles Times ) Not all the movie sneaks aired during the Super Bowl went over well, but people sure are stoked about "Super 8. " ( Los Angeles Times ) Some people are questioning whether Groupon's Tibet-themed ad went too far. ( Los Angeles Times ) Kim Kardashian pushed the envelope with her sexy Skechers Super Bowl ad. How long before she starts publicly regretting this move?