Big Gamble on Super Bowl XLVI Ads

Three weeks to Super Bowl XLVI, and the publicity surrounding the closely watched commercials is starting to amp up.

NBC, which is broadcasting the Feb. 5 game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, announced that it sold out the telecast’s 35 minutes of national advertising in November, with 30-second spots fetching a record $3.5 million on average and some hitting $4 million.

Returnees include the big car makers (Audi of America, General Motors, Hyundai, Toyota and Volkswagen), M&Ms, Anheuser-Busch InBev, CareerBuilder, Cars.com, Go Daddy and Doritos, which has released the five consumer-created finalist commercials for its sixth annual “Crash The Super Bowl” contest.

Century 21 and Yogurt maker Dannon are among the newbies.

HomeAway and Groupon are skipping Super Bowl XLVI. Both got negative backlash on advertising during the Super Bowl and ended up issuing apologies about their ads.

Bob Horowitz, executive producer of CBS’ annual “Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials”, sat in on the filming of a Budweiser spot and a Go Daddy commercial that features his show’s co-host, fitness expert Jillian Michaels.

“Budweiser’s is like a mini movie, and Go Daddy is a clever, funny spot,” Horowitz said.

Anheuser-Busch treats its road to the Super Bowl like training camp, according to Horowitz. It produces about 60 percent more spots than needed and conducts market research.

“Beginning this weekend — and they’re very secretive about it — they send out market researchers almost like spies,” Horowitz said.