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Super Bowl advertisers mix serious, sentimental messages amid humorous ones

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Posted 7:50AM on Monday 4th February 2002 ( 23 years ago )
NEW YORK - It was a rare Super Bowl where the game may have been more entertaining than the commercials. <br> <br> Super Bowl advertisers appealed to a range of emotions -- from grief, gratitude and nostalgia to humor and a lust for mayhem -- in pitches Sunday that Fox said were sold at an average of just under $2 million per 30-second ad. <br> <br> It&#39;s typically the most expensive show of the year on TV, and advertisers usually try create blockbusters to catch the attention of an audience that averages more than 80 million people. <br> <br> But the sponsors were hard-pressed to keep pace with the suspense of a game that saw the underdog New England Patriots kick a field goal as time ran out for a 20-17 upset win over the St. Louis Rams for the NFL championship. <br> <br> Brewer Anheuser-Busch was the biggest sponsor with five minutes of ads. <br> <br> In a commercial for Budweiser, its Clydesdale horses pull a beer wagon from a snowy farm across the bridge into New York&#39;s Manhattan where they appear to pause, bend a knee and bow their heads near ground zero. <br> <br> Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani expressed New York&#39;s appreciation for America&#39;s help after Sept. 11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center in another commercial courtesy of job site Monster.com. <br> <br> Pepsi-Cola ran two nostalgic ads with pop singer Britney Spears reprising past Pepsi jingles dating to 1958. <br> <br> General Motors&#39; Cadillac used a classic 1959 Eldorado to pass the baton to its three latest models, accompanied by Led Zeppelin&#39;s 30-year-old song &#34;Rock and Roll.&#34; <br> <br> But before viewers could conclude Madison Avenue had gone squishy, sandwich shop Quizno&#39;s turned up with an ad showing a rival fast-food chain using a dart to get a consumer to &#34;dive&#34; into its untoasted sandwich in a taste test. <br> <br> Lipton Brisk executives fire the puppets from their ads after discovering its new tea formulation sells itself. The puppets stage a noisy, messy protest. <br> <br> In a Bud Light ad, the roly-poly ladies man Cedric returns to advise a friend at a bar about how to get an attractive woman&#39;s attention. But she slugs the friend when he parrots a line Cedric meant for the bartender. <br> <br> In another Bud Light ad spoofing cable TV&#39;s &#34;BattleBots&#34; battles, a robotic refrigerator pummels an opponent who tries to take the beer inside. <br> <br> The movie companies evidently feel the country is ready for some shoot-em-up action -- mayhem abounded in ads for new films like &#34;Collateral Damage,&#34; &#34;The Scorpion King,&#34; &#34;Bad Company&#34; and &#34;Blade II.&#34; <br> <br> A mystery was solved in the Super Bowl -- AT&T Wireless is the company behind those ads that have been asking if you have an &#34;M-Life.&#34; It&#39;s a term the phone company evidently hopes will catch on for mobile phone services. <br> <br> Some advertisers tried mighty hard to be funny -- maybe too hard. <br> <br> E-Trade Group signalled its expansion into financial advice and banking as well as handling trades with an ad that showed its chimp sporting a green tux in a musical-style commercial. But the ad says critics panned the approach, and the CEO steers the chimp to a new job -- on a space flight. <br> <br> Levi Strauss & Co. ran an ad for its Dockers pants that showed three burly men in black dresses at a party. It wasn&#39;t clear why they dressed that way. <br> <br> Blockuster Video appeared bent on creating its version of the popular Bud frogs and lizards. Its ad featured a rabbit and guinea pig who live in a pet shop across from a Blockbuster and spend their days imitating movie scenes. <br> <br> There were some serious messages as well aimed at discouraging consumers from buying drugs and cigarettes. <br> <br> The White House Office of National Drug Control ran two ads that warned those who buy drugs may be helping finance terrorists. <br> <br> Marlboro maker Philip Morris ran two ads that encouraged parents to warn their children against smoking. The American Legacy Foundation, which is financed by part of the tobacco industry&#39;s $206 billion legal settlement with the states, also ran two ads trumpeting dangerous chemicals in cigarette smoke. <br> <br> <br>

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