Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 30, 1994 TAG: 9401300022
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
No, this isn't about whether the Dallas Cowboys can beat the Buffalo Bills for the second consecutive year in the NFL's championship game.
This is about whether more than a dozen advertisers, including sneaker marketers, soft drink purveyors, fast food peddlers and automakers made the right move in plunking down a record $900,000 for each 30-second commercial slot on the NBC broadcast of television's most widely watched show.
Unlike the game, there won't be instant, undisputed winners and losers in the ad battle. Advertising's value is ultimately decided at the cash register or in the showroom.
But here are a few prospects that might be hot topics at work or in your lane of the electronic information highway Monday morning:
\ DOUBLE DUTY: Retired NBA star Michael Jordan again will play key roles in commercials for at least two Super Bowl sponsors, Nike sneakers and McDonald's fast-food restaurants.
Nike showed Jordan in outer space with Bugs Bunny and Marvin the Martian in a commercial in last year's Super Bowl telecast.
It hasn't previewed its ads for this year, but Nike says they show Jordan in wigs, beards and other disguises for two fanciful commercials that suggest he might still be playing pro basketball.
McDonald's reunites Jordan with fellow NBA retiree Larry Bird for another commercial in which they take outrageous shots at the basket. They were atop a skyscraper when last year's Super Bowl ad ended. This year, the shots become more outlandish and Phoenix Suns star Charles Barkley wants in on the game.
Shaquille O'Neal, the center for the NBA's Orlando Magic, also does double duty in the Super Bowl telecast - performing a rap song in an ad for Reebok sneakers and coming up thirsty on the playground without a Pepsi.
\ CREATIVE FRENZY: Reebok's admakers will be pushing the production envelope during the game itself as they plan to film Dallas and Buffalo players pumping up their inflatable shoes on the sidelines in the first half for an ad that will run in the fourth quarter.
\ BIG SPENDERS: Pepsi, which has bought the second-largest block of ad time on the Super Bowl with four minutes, has Michael Richards, who plays Kramer on "Seinfeld," leading model Cindy Crawford into a Pepsi deprivation tank in one ad. After a month, the door is opened and Cindy has mutated into comic Rodney Dangerfield.
In another ad, Woodstock vets Country Joe McDonald and John Sebastian join a middle-aged crowd returning to the fabled fest site to the amusement of some young Pepsi drinkers observing nearby.
Anheuser-Busch Inc., the game's biggest sponsor with 4 1/2 minutes of commercial time, pits Bud and Bud Light bottles against each other in its sixth Bud Bowl. Ex-NFL coaches Mike Ditka and Bum Phillips guide the teams.
\ EXPENSIVE RIDE: Alamo Rent A Car Inc., in its first Super Bowl ad, will follow a young couple who age as they test the 20-year-old company's slogan that there are 4 million miles in Alamo territory and "all the miles are free."
Alamo adman Donald Moonjian said he justifies the $2.7 million cost of running the 90-second ad on the Super Bowl by arguing it puts the agency in blue-chip company.
\ FOILED AGAIN: Frito-Lay Inc. has coaxed Chevy Chase out of his recent forced retirement as a talk show host for a sequel to the "Steamroller" ad in which he rescued a bag of Doritos Tortilla Thins but not its elderly owner. Midway through the taping of the new ad, Chase learns his commercial has been axed for low ratings.
by CNB