Ads display creativity and humor / What to watch for Super Bowl Sunday

George Raine

Super Bowl XL will feature a mix of longtime advertisers, such as beer giant Anheuser-Busch, and others making their debut, including American Home Health, marketer of industrial-strength cleaning products.

Anheuser-Busch, brewer of Budweiser, won’t select the final choices for its 10 slots until the eve of the game, but it’s hard to imagine they’ll pass on one, described in the New York Times, that features a young Clydesdale getting the attention of his parents. The ad agency is DDB Worldwide.

The popular chimpanzee stars of CareerBuilder.com’s Super Bowl ads by Cramer Krasselt are returning in two humorous tales of a human employee working in an office populated entirely by apes.

Leonard Nimoy — Mr. Spock on “Star Trek” — takes a turn for Bayer’s Aleve pain reliever in an ad by Energy BBDO, part of the BBDO Worldwide unit of Omnicom. He’s having a bit of pain, but Aleve helps him do what he has to do.

The Super Bowl is always a popular venue for motion picture studios to promote upcoming feature films. AdAge reports that Buena Vista Pictures will be airing an ad for a remake of “Shaggy Dog” starring Tim Allen.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros. will have ads for “Poseidon,” the remake of “Poseidon Adventure” starring Josh Lucas and Kurt Russell; “V for Vendetta” with Natalie Portman; and “16 Blocks” starring Bruce Willis and Mos Def.

Sprint is the sponsor of the half-time show featuring the Rolling Stones, and will air ads by TBWA/Chiat Day about its new technology.

McDonald’s, which typically advertises during the Super Bowl, will have only one pregame slot this year as it concentrates its marketing on the Olympic Winter Games.

That leaves the Super Bowl to Burger King, with a prime spot right after kickoff, featuring the King versus NFL players, done by Crispin Porter & Bogusky.

General Motors’ Cadillac, for the fifth consecutive year the official vehicle of the Super Bowl, will be promoting its 2007 Escalade sport utility vehicle, one of which will awarded to the game’s most valuable player. The advertising, by Leo Burnett Detroit, associates the Escalade with fashion and luxury.

via sfgate.com