From the Houston Chronicle (do NOT credit)As we approach this Super Bowl Sunday, the recession has taken our jobs, our 401(k) cushions, our college funds, our Starbucks and, for some, our optimism. But, at least on this day, it can\'t take our mental comfort food. For four hours on Sunday night - or maybe 10 or 11, depending on how much of the pre-game show you ingest - we can indulge in the antics of the Budweiser Clydesdales, gangsters dining at Denny\'s, U2 singing for the NFL, E-Trade\'s talking baby, a pet ostrich and Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. If nothing else, we still have our Super Bowl ads - 45 minutes, give or take, during the Steelers-Cardinals game of the best that Madison Avenue has to offer, at NBC\'s price tag of $2.4 million to $3 million for each 30 seconds. And the best part: Most of it will be pure escapism. "Once an advertiser has committed to buying the time, I don\'t think anybody wants to hear him talk about the economy. Everybody knows about the economy," said Mark Richwine, who operates the Web site Spotbowl.com. "There\'s no need to waste time telling people how bad it is. You want to see ads that are as funny as they always have been." Some big names absent There are exceptions. Hyundai will announce an incentive plan that forgives auto loans for buyers who lose their jobs within a year. A-B InBev, the former Anheuser-Busch, reportedly may run an ad that refers indirectly to hard times, with businessmen deciding whether to cut their marketing budget, eliminate bonuses or stop buying Bud Light for every meeting. "Viewers will still expect high quality," said Tara Walpert Levy, president of Visible World, which helps advertisers and agencies customize and target ad campaigns. "But part of having high quality is being relevant. So I think people would expect this year\'s ads to be slightly different." Still, when it comes to viewer favorites, bet on the Budweiser Clydesdales. "The Super Bowl is a wonderful distraction for a country that has had to absorb a lot of discouraging news," said Marty Moe of AOL, which annually conducts a widely used Super Bowl ad survey. "Good entertainment is helpful no matter what condition you\'re in. But you\'re hungrier for it when you\'d rather not pay attention to the other stuff going on." Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Sports and Olympics, said the network had sold 85 percent of its in-game inventory as of mid-September, which helped it avoid a last-minute fire sale of unsold ads as the economy tanked during the fourth quarter. "Considering the state of the economy, we couldn\'t be more thrilled," Ebersol said. Several traditional advertisers, most notably FedEx and General Motors, opted out of the Super Bowl. Those slots have been taken over by first-time advertisers such as TeleFlora, Denny\'s (with a Sopranos-styled breakfast meeting featuring three wiseguys) and Pedigree (whose "Crazy Pets" spot featuring rhinos and ostriches on the loose aims to promote the adoption of more traditional pets like shelties and setters). Northwestern University professor Derek Rucker, who oversees an annual Super Bowl advertising review conducted by students at the university\'s Kellogg School of Management, said that while viewers want to get their jollies from Super Sunday ads, they also expect good judgment by advertisers. "The tricky thing for some brands is that consumers may be thinking about the ($3 million) price tag," he said. "If they\'re thinking about that, you\'d better deliver. Consumers usually give these ads a lot of scrutiny, and I expect there will be more of that this year." Accordingly, Rucker said, he expects advertisers to take fewer risks - certainly nothing along the line of the groundbreaking "1984" commercial from Apple a quarter-century ago - and to focus on campaigns that promote long-term value. That concept, in fact, may explain why a company like E-Trade stays in the Super Bowl at a time when the stock market is floundering. "If you\'ve got a long-term perspective, you\'re thinking about what can happen when the economy gets better. You\'re steering the boat," Rucker said. "The Super Bowl is a dangerous proposition for a brand that needs everything to hit now. If you\'re building equity in a brand, money invested now can be a big payoff down the line." Look for H-E-B, Gallery Locally, KPRC (Channel 2) general manager Larry Blackerby said the station had sold all but one of its local spots as of midweek. Local advertisers include H-E-B and Gallery Furniture, whose owner, Jim McIngvale, remains convinced that the Super Bowl is a good buy for the money. "It\'s such a fragmented media world these days that you can\'t get much of a better platform than the Super Bowl, whether it\'s nationally or locally," he said. H-E-B last year placed a local Super Bowl ad featuring Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria Parker, who grew up in Corpus Christi. This year\'s ad, however, will focus on product value and customer service, a company spokeswoman said. Other elements to watch include user-generated content, with contributions that some advertisers solicited through YouTube, MySpace or Facebook, and the introduction of 3-D advertising by Dreamworks for its upcoming film Monsters vs. Aliens.
