Super Bowl ads scale back, line up with the economy

NBC sells last 2 Super Bowl slots on eve of game, netting record total of $206M in ad revenue.

Executives for NBC, the network that will carry the game, said Saturday that they had sold all the ad slots. But they also acknowledged that they have sold 30-second ads for as little as $2.4 million rather than the $3 million that has been widely cited as the base figure. Even with NBC’s sell-out of the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals, the economy has already changed the face of Super Bowl advertising in ways that will be impossible to miss. As much as the Super Bowl TV experience is a “national party,” in the words of Woody Kay, of the Arnold Worldwide advertising agency, none of the millions of partygoers will be likely to forget their troubles this year.