Intuit today is debuting a "contest that will award one small business with a 30-second Super Bowl XLVIII commercial" that will air in the third quarter, according to Rebecca Castagna of USA TODAY. Intuit, which makes products including TurboTax and QuickBooks, "recruited reality TV personality Bill Rancic" and Fox NFL analyst Jimmy Johnson "to promote the contest." Businesses "must have 50 or fewer employees to apply" and "can register at SmallBusinessBigGame.com." Leaders in the Intuit Small Business Group "will narrow the contenders to 20 semifinalists." Intuit's more than 8,000 employees worldwide "will then be asked to winnow the competition to four finalists." The company will "create videos describing each business and will post them" on the website. The public beginning Nov. 11 "will be asked to vote on which of the four small businesses they find most worthy" of winning the Super Bowl ad (USA TODAY, 7/31). The AP's Joyce Rosenberg noted the spot "will be created" by RPA, Santa Monica. The agency said that it "expects to create the same kind of high-quality production for the competition winner as it does for its big corporate clients." But unlike Super Bowl commercials that are "designed to make viewers laugh or feel intense emotions, this commercial will also have to be about the company and what it does" (AP, 7/30).
