There were "no takers" yesterday for the 60-seconds of
Super Bowl ad time that Intel wants to sell, according to
USA TODAY's Melanie Wells. Wells reports that Philips
Electronics and NFLP are two "latecomers" among advertisers
for Sunday's game (USA TODAY, 1/27). The NFL will air a 60-
second spot, called "Thank You," featuring 20 players and
Vikings coach Dennis Green meeting fans in their
communities. The league also sent an e-mail to more than
200,000 fans from its database, which allows them to view
footage from the five shoots for the ad on NFL.com (NFL).
CHANGE IN THE AD MODEL: In DC, Eric Fisher wrote that
the "skyrocketing cost" of Super Bowl ads has forced
advertisers "to hone their selling messages like never
before." MD-based ad agency Eisner & Associates VP David
Blum: "There's simply more focus and awareness now on
getting a message out and leveraging the costs better, in
part because in a lot of cases last year, the creative
simply wasn't all that memorable." Fisher noted that Visa's
ads supporting its Check Card "will lessen its reliance on
celebrity endorsements and go to greater lengths to increase
card use" (WASHINGTON TIMES, 1/26). Visa's two new spots
are produced by BBDO (Visa). Cadillac's new 30-second spot
will support its SUV Escalade. The ad, which will air
during the second quarter, features the song "Bad to the
Bone," by George Thorogood (Cadillac). Frito-Lay will
feature two spots, one in support of Cracker Jack, marking
the brand's first Super Bowl ad. The other spot, featuring
former Miss USA Ali Landry, will introduce Frito Lay's new
Smokey Red Barbecue Doritos (Frito-Lay).
CAMPBELL'S SCORES WITH TD: In L.A., T.J. Simers devotes
his entire column to yesterday's corporate events with
Terrell Davis. First there was the "Terrell Davis Campbell
Soup's Million Can Throw," where Davis successfully threw a
football through a target seven yards away, which Simers
calls the "biggest story" to date during Super Bowl week.
Campbell's will donate a million cans of soup to food banks
nationwide. Afterward was the "Novartis Salutes Terrell
Davis Migraine Foundation." Davis' agent Neil Schwartz
would not disclose details of Davis' deals, saying, "His
endorsement earnings are in the seven figures" (L.A. TIMES,
1/27). USA TODAY's Larry Weisman writes that Davis may make
his acting debut in a film based on his autobiography, "TD:
Dreams in Motion." Schwartz: "We've had offers. We're
going to explore it after the Super Bowl." Davis: "I might
take a role, maybe a cameo" (USA TODAY, 1/27).
OTHER PERSONALITIES: Broncos DL Neil Smith introduced
his new book, authored with Brad Hamann, titled "Yes I
Can!," which details Smith's childhood struggles with
dyslexia (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 1/27)....Greg Norman, who
owns the FL-based sod farm that sold the GN1 turf to be used
for the game, inspected the turf yesterday (Mult., 1/27).
TICKET STUB IN YOUR HAND? The NFL will hold a news
conference in Miami Thursday "to describe what fake
merchandise and tickets look like." Also on Thursday, the
Broncos and Falcons will "seek a court order" in Miami-Dade
Circuit Court that would allow the NFL to "seize
unauthorized merchandise" being sold in Miami this week
(MIAMI HERALD, 1/27)....A study conducted by Dallas Federal
Reserve Bank chief economist Michael Cox concluded that "pro
sports events have become less affordable for ordinary
Americans -- while almost everything else has gotten
cheaper." The study compared the "number of hours the
average person today must work to earn the cost of a product
or service vs. the hours workers in the past needed to cover
the same purchase." The study found that the average
worker's salary has increased 333%, to $13 per hour, meaning
it would take "Joe Six-Pack 25 hours of work to afford one
of the cheap" Super Bowl tickets (ESPN MAGAZINE, 2/8 issue).
NEWS & NOTES: Sprint PCS will host the "Sprint PCS
Passion for Fashion," a celebrity fashion show on Saturday
at the Greater Ft. Lauderdale/Broward County Convention
Center, with some of the proceeds going to the Don Shula
Foundation supporting breast cancer research. Among those
participating: Rodney Peete, Irving Fryar, Jackie Joyner-
Kersee and Niki Taylor (Sprint PCS).....12-year-old Steven
Johnson of GA is the grand prize winner of Player Inc's "Get
Inside The Game" promo. He will attend the 989 Sports NFL
Players Party in Miami and be part of a photo shoot with
Jaguars QB Mark Brunell (Players Inc).
