Ferris Bueller and the death of the Super Bowl ad

Earlier this week, a Super Bowl ad for the Honda CRV featuring Matthew Broderick in a send up of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off appeared online. It’s quickly made the rounds on the Internet, garnering praise from places like the Los Angeles Times and Adweek. For those that haven’t seen it, it’s a brilliant send up of a modern-day Matthew Broderick acting like his character from the 1986 film, and it’s worth a watch.

They’re not alone in trying to get a jump on the competition in their Super Bowl spots. Early today, Honda was pushing another early superbowl ad, featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno fighting over the chance to be the first to own an Acura NSX . David Beckham shirtless for H&M is also floating around the internet, as are numerous teaser trailers for superbowl ads coming from companies like Volkswagen, Doritos, Priceline and Coca-Cola, whose polar bears have already taken to the internet to invite viewers to their party on Superbowl Sunday. The competition is fierce enough that they’re advertising their ads.

There’s no doubt about it: Super Bowl Sunday is the largest captive audience in the calendar, with over 111 million viewers tuning in in 2011, and it’s the one time in the year advertisers really get to shine as millions tune in to watch the ads as much as they do to watch the football. Right now, that’s translating into the priciest Super Bowl ads in history: the price for 30 seconds of airtime is estimated at $3.5 million for 30 seconds.