As many of us prepare for the upcoming Super Bowl XLIV this Sunday, one question stands out: why are you watching?  Are you cheering for the Colts and Peyton Manning?  Are you routing for the Drew Brees and the Saints to win the first championship for New Orleans?  Those would be the obvious question… but it’s estimated that perhaps even more people will be watching for the commercials. Yes, that’s right… rather than grab a new beverage or use the bathroom, during the Super Bowl, it’s tradition to sit tight and enjoy the commercials.  After all, if companies are willing to pay $3 million dollars for a 30 second spot, they must have something worthwhile to say, right?

CBS sold out of all of their slots last week.  That is remarkable.  Typically there are available slots right up until a day or so before the event.  Advertising Age has a good run down of all the advertisers you can expect to see during the big game.  We’ve all heard and read about the ManCrunch, Pro Life, and iPad controversy.  Perhaps the most surprising name absent from the list is Pepsi.  Pepsi has been a longtime sponsor of the event, but has decided to focus their “Refresh” campaign efforts to online and social media marketing.  This will be an interesting experiment and we’ll be watching closely to see how this plays out for Pepsi.  It also could be a trend for other large corporations to follow suit.

While I’ll be cheering for the Saints, I’ll also be following along with all the commercials to see who can create the most memorable spot.  Maybe next year waveSpawn will be running an ad…

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