Best Buy To Feature Justin Bieber, Ozzy Osbourne In Super Bowl Ad

Best Buy today will announce plans to feature singers Justin Bieber and Ozzy Osbourne "in the first Super Bowl commercial" for the company, according to Bruce Horovitz of USA TODAY. The 30-second spot, "to air in the game's third quarter, was filmed earlier this month at Universal Studios." The ad for Best Buy marks a "strategic attempt to move beyond its big-box retailer stereotype." The company "wants to evolve into more of an Internet technology expert and service provider," and it "wants to skew younger." Meanwhile, for Bieber, the ad "marks a serious bid to move beyond the world of tween heartbreaker." Best Buy "will run more Bieber ads and Facebook updates through 2011" (USA TODAY, 1/26). Osbourne previously appeared in an '03 Super Bowl ad for Pepsi Twist (THE DAILY).

SNEAK PREVIEWS: In N.Y., Stuart Elliott writes many of the commercials scheduled to run during the Super Bowl "will offer previews of coming products and services." Volkswagen will air two ads that "will offer sneak peeks at two models that are to make their debuts in the fall, the 2012 Passat and a redesigned version of the New Beetle." The ad for the Passat is "humorous, centered on a child dressed in a Darth Vader costume who seeks to perform his dark arts on objects around the house that include his parents' new Passat." Meanwhile, the spot for the New Beetle is a "teaser," as the "entire car is never shown." The spot instead is centered on a beetle that "startles other bugs by racing through a forest at a pace fast enough to evoke car chases in movies and TV shows." It ends with the beetle "landing on a rock in silhouette and turning into the silhouette of the 2012 New Beetle." One of Volkswagen's spots "will run in the second quarter of the game and the other in the fourth quarter." Volkswagen and Deutsch, L.A., "are still deciding which will go in which slot." Elliott notes four '12 car models "will be featured in a commercial for Mercedes-Benz USA" during the Super Bowl, "including two that have not been previewed before." GoDaddy "will introduce its entry in the '.co' Web-domain derby," while Walt Disney, Paramount and Universal Pictures "are to run trailers for films they have scheduled for release later" in the year (N.Y. TIMES, 1/26).

LATE-GAME AD: AD AGE's Andrew Hampp noted Skechers' Shape-Ups brand is "going after a younger audience this year," and Kim Kardashian, who stars in the brand's Super Bowl ad, is "at the center of a strategy that includes social media and traditional PR." The Super Bowl spot "will direct viewers to Facebook for additional content and a call to action." Skechers Fitness Group President & CMO Leonard Armato: "Kim will be challenging people to get rid of your bad habits and get your friends on board." The Skechers spot "will air after the two-minute warning" in the fourth quarter, but Armato said, "People won't tune out if the game is lop-sided" (ADAGE.com, 1/25).