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Emphasis on male drugs during Super Bowl commercials
January 29, 2004
NEW YORK - Some 130 million viewers will be
riveted by the big battle on Sunday - the war
of the impotency drugs.
Forget about the Panthers vs. the Patriots
and get ready for erectile dysfunction pills
Levitra, Cialis
and possibly even Viagra
to duke it out for the first time on Super Bowl
Sunday.
The game on CBS may be the main event but it's
the commercials that will keep viewers buzzing
the day after as advertisers pull out all the
stops to dazzle, shock and entertain.
Super Bowl ads have become so big that 40 percent
of the audience watching the game tunes in just
for the ads. And at a record-breaking price
of $2.3 million per 30-second spot, the 60 spots
scheduled to run had better be good.
This year more than ever, they are all about
humor, special effects and celebs.
"We're talking about big entertainment
spectacle," said Scott Donaton, editor
of Advertising Age. "It's going to be big,
bang and in your face."
That means stars like ditzy MTV diva Jessica
Simpson, who will make her Super Bowl debut
this year. The blond newlywed will be paired
with the Muppets in a spot for Pizza Hut's 4forALL
Pizza. Kermit will fall for Simpson - and Miss
Piggy will freak out.
For the second year in a row, Willie Nelson
will appear in a spot for tax preparer H&R
Block. And once again, he'll give out lousy
tax advice in a mock infomercial in which he
will be hawking a Willie Nelson doll.
Levitra's also going for star power. Its spot
will feature the drug's spokesman, NFL Hall
of Famer Mike Ditka, pitching the pill.
But rival Cialis will skip celebs in favor
of scenes of lovers canoodling in a kitchen
and a hot tub. Viagra has not revealed yet whether
it will be in the game.
More so than ever this year, comedy will rule.
That's a big switch from the mood of recent
years, when the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and
Iraq war concerns made for more solemn ads.
"People want to be entertained on this
national holiday," said Bernice Kanner,
the author of "The Super Bowl of Advertising:
How the Commercials Won the Game."
Frito-Lay is going for belly laughs, even if
it might offend old folks. Its Super Bowl spots
show an elderly man who trips his wife so she
can't get to the chips. The wife zaps him back:
She has his teeth.
source:-http://www.mercurynews.com
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