Super Bowl Ad

If you took your dad's new Audi S6 to the prom and then stole a kiss from the prom queen, how would you want your night to end? Such was the question posed to Audi fans over the weekend for its upcoming Super Bowl ad. The automaker posted to its YouTube page one spot with three different endings and asked viewers to vote on which ending they liked best. The winning spot was announced on Saturday. In all three versions, a young man goes to his prom without a date. Possibly out of pity, his father tosses him the keys to Audi's new S6 sedan.

At $3.8 million, a 30-second car commercial may have seemed expensive before Sunday's Super Bowl, but Monday morning quarterbacking shows it to be money well spent. The game between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers drew one of the largest audiences for any Super Bowl, with Nielsen reporting that 48% of households with a TV were tuned in. That means a record audience saw ads from automakers like Jeep saluting our armed forces , Ram trucks celebrating U.S. farmers , Lincoln using and not using Jimmy Fallon, and a young Audi driver getting punched in the face . But according to the number-crunchers at Edmunds.com, Mercedes-Benz got the biggest lift from its Super Bowl ad. The automaker used its spot (and Kate Upton, Usher and Willem Dafoe)

Another day closer to the Super Bowl brings us another automaker teasing the ads they've paid millions to air. This time it's Volkswagen, the company behind a number of memorable Super Bowl ads, including the adorable "The Force" spot from 2011 in which a mini Darth Vader breathes life into a Passat. For 2013, the message is "Get Happy. " The teaser ad doesn't show any VWs, just Rock and Roll Hall of Fame musician Jimmy Cliff singing "C'mon, Get Happy" in a field. Joining him are various YouTube celebrities known for their decidedly unhappy online tirades or breakdowns.

The ads that run during every Super Bowl are often just as much fun as the game itself. And if you're a 49ers fan, maybe even more fun. During Sunday night's Super Bowl 47, Doritos didn't disappoint and Oreo became a sensation in seven little words. Here are five Super Bowl ads worth another look. 1. Doritos found a winner with its goat for sale fan ad from the brand's Crash the Superbowl campaign. How or why a goat is obsessed with Doritos is beyond me, but the part where the goat is denied his favorite snack and starts screaming is priceless.

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.

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.

Fresh off rave reviews for her Golden Globes co-hosting duties, Amy Poehler is about to tackle a more daunting task - - the Super Bowl ad for the troubled Best Buy chain. The comedian and actress, who scored what was probably the most oft-repeated line of the Golden Globes fest (it's at about the 1-minute, 50-second mark of the opening), will be the star of a 30-second ad for the electronics chain during the first quarter of the game, according to the Associated Press. “Amy is this comedic everyperson who can make things simple," said Scott Durchslag, president of Best Buy's online and global e-commerce.

Nearly eight months after Melanie Amaro was crowned the inaugural winner of the U.S. version of “The X-Factor,” the powerhouse diva-in-training has issued her debut single, “Don't Fail Me Now.” Let's start with the good. Amaro's delivery -- much like her weekly performances on the competition under Simon Cowell's tutelage -- is flawless. The not so great? Well, everything else. The single, written by Livvi Franc (Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson) and produced by urban pop heavyweight Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, is a complete misfire for a debut -- especially when listeners haven't seen or heard Amaro since January and other finalists have already made splashes.

Though the final audience numbers for the 2013 Super Bowl have not been tallied, it's already setting ratings records, according to CBS. But while the commercials, from Budweiser's tear-jerking Clydesdales to Go Daddy's shocking kiss, were seen by a huge percentage of that total audience, there was one ad, starring Will Ferrell of all people, that got, by far, the smallest viewership of the night. Ferrell's ad for Old Milwaukee beer aired in just three markets: Sherman, Texas; Ardmore, Okla., and Glendive, Mont., making it one of the least-viewed major commercials during the Super Bowl.

One of Lincoln's two Super Bowl commercials airing on Sunday involves Jimmy Fallon, Rev. Run of Run-DMC, viewer-generated tweets, Emmitt Smith and Wil Wheaton. One does not. And that's the good one. The first ad is the result of a much-publicized campaign the automaker undertook in collaboration with comedian and late-night host Fallon. Dubbed SteerTheScript, Fallon's Twitter followers were asked to submit stories from their most memorable road trips. More than 6,000 tweets were submitted, Lincoln said.

Sometimes, The Times' website is like the old “Wide World of Sports” -- you know, “spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety” -- of news. Why, just perusing it on Wednesday, I stumbled onto these tidbits:   1: Jim Nabors -- forever known to those of us of a certain age as Gomer Pyle -- not only is gay but has married his male partner of 38 years. And the great thing is, most people's reaction (beyond the younger folks' “Who the heck is Jim Nabors?”)

It's rare for the people at the Center for Science in the Public Interest to praise a fast-food company, but Taco Bell came in for some this week - for pulling an ad that had been dinged by CSPI as an attack on vegetables. The ad called bringing veggies to a party on game day “like punting on fourth and one; it's a cop-out” that people will even “secretly hate you for.” The ad promoted the Taco Bell “variety 12-pack” of tacos. In the 15-second ad, interesting to note, the lettuce is very visible in the taco shells.

If you took your dad's new Audi S6 to the prom and then stole a kiss from the prom queen, how would you want your night to end? Such was the question posed to Audi fans over the weekend for its upcoming Super Bowl ad. The automaker posted to its YouTube page one spot with three different endings and asked viewers to vote on which ending they liked best. The winning spot was announced on Saturday. In all three versions, a young man goes to his prom without a date. Possibly out of pity, his father tosses him the keys to Audi's new S6 sedan.

Another day closer to the Super Bowl brings us another automaker teasing the ads they've paid millions to air. This time it's Volkswagen, the company behind a number of memorable Super Bowl ads, including the adorable "The Force" spot from 2011 in which a mini Darth Vader breathes life into a Passat. For 2013, the message is "Get Happy. " The teaser ad doesn't show any VWs, just Rock and Roll Hall of Fame musician Jimmy Cliff singing "C'mon, Get Happy" in a field. Joining him are various YouTube celebrities known for their decidedly unhappy online tirades or breakdowns.

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.

It's rare for the people at the Center for Science in the Public Interest to praise a fast-food company, but Taco Bell came in for some this week - for pulling an ad that had been dinged by CSPI as an attack on vegetables. The ad called bringing veggies to a party on game day “like punting on fourth and one; it's a cop-out” that people will even “secretly hate you for.” The ad promoted the Taco Bell “variety 12-pack” of tacos. In the 15-second ad, interesting to note, the lettuce is very visible in the taco shells.

Be careful what you wish for; TV star Kaley Cuoco in her Super Bowl commercials for Toyota seems intent on actually giving it to you. The star of the CBS sitcom "Big Bang Theory" is featured in a teaser ad released by Toyota ahead of the Feb. 3 championship game between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers. The spot promotes the all-new RAV4 crossover that the automaker recently put on sale. Set to Skee Lo's 1990's hit "I Wish," the video shows Cuoco walking down the street granting wishes to various passersby.

Fresh off rave reviews for her Golden Globes co-hosting duties, Amy Poehler is about to tackle a more daunting task - - the Super Bowl ad for the troubled Best Buy chain. The comedian and actress, who scored what was probably the most oft-repeated line of the Golden Globes fest (it's at about the 1-minute, 50-second mark of the opening), will be the star of a 30-second ad for the electronics chain during the first quarter of the game, according to the Associated Press. “Amy is this comedic everyperson who can make things simple," said Scott Durchslag, president of Best Buy's online and global e-commerce.