USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter

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The USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter is an annual survey taken of television commercials by the USA Today newspaper in a live poll during the telecast in the United States of the annual professional American football championship game of the National Football League. The survey, began in 1989 uses live response on a zero-to-ten scale (zero being the worst, ten the best) of focus groups based in McLean, Virginia, the newspaper headquarters and one (or more) sites around the country.

[edit] Background

Main article: Super Bowl advertising

The Super Bowl became the must-see for advertisers during the third quarter of the telecast of Super Bowl XVIII on CBS, when Apple Computer debuted a one-time-only advertisement for their Macintosh computer titled 1984, directed by Ridley Scott. As the Los Angeles Raiders routed the Washington Redskins, 38-9, the Apple commercial, not the game, was the most-talked about item around watercoolers the very next day. Since then, major advertisers have used the game, paying as much as seven figures (averaging $3 million for one 30-second slot as of 2009, not including production costs) to showcase their work and generate buzz that many people tune into television's biggest event of the year just to watch the commercials, not just the actual game. For those reasons, USA Today started the Ad Meter, a poll that gives live responses per second of each commercial. According to the newspaper, ads by rule are limited are those shown during the game - from opening kickoff to the end of the game, excluding those shown at halftime or local commercials - are officially qualified for consideration in the Ad Meter survey.

[edit] Past Winners

1989: American Express - Actors Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey (both starring at the time on Saturday Night Live) go to the big game with credit cards - Lovitz with Visa, Carvey with American Express.
1990: Nike - Various announcers (Harry Caray among others) call a multisport event with the likes of Wayne Gretzky and Bo Jackson.
1991: Diet Pepsi: When Coca-Cola pulled a humorous ad in light of the First Iraqi war, Diet Pepsi scored big with Ray Charles and others singing their "You've Got The Right One, Baby" jingle.
1992: Nike - Bugs Bunny joins Michael Jordan as "Hare Jordan", which served as the inspiration for the movie Space Jam.
1993: McDonald's - Michael Jordan and Larry Bird play an outrageous game of H-O-R-S-E throughout Chicago for a Big Mac.
1994: Pepsi-Cola - A lab chimp turns into a party animal at the beach after drinking soda.
1995: Pepsi-Cola - A boy sucks himself into a bottle as his sister cries out "Mom, he's done it again!"
1996: Pepsi-Cola - A fictional Coke driver takes a can of Pepsi and the whole shelf of cans tumbles onto the floor in a simulated security camera footage. This commercial was chosen as the best ever ad in the twenty year history in a special survey of the previous poll winners in 2008.
1997: Pepsi-Cola - Computer animated grizzly bears do their Pepsi-inspired version of the Village People's 1970's disco classic YMCA.
1998: Pepsi-Cola - A skysurfer does aerial tricks with a goose, and they share a Pepsi afterwards.
1999: Budweiser - Two dalmatian puppies are separated at birth, and one becomes the mascot of the Clydesdale-driven beer wagon.
2000: Budweiser - Rex the Wonder Dog imagines chasing a Budweiser truck, only to blindly leap headfirst onto a mini-van.
2001: Bud Light - Cedric the Entertainer's dream date is ruined when he accidentally shakes a pair of Bud Light bottles which explode all over his girlfriend.
2002: Bud Light - When a wife lures her spouse into "making whoopie" with beer as a reward, he slides off the satin sheets of their bed and out the window.
2003: Budweiser - Spoofing the instant replay challenge rule, a real zebra reviews a disputed call holding up a football game between Clydesdale horses
2004: Bud Light - Two dog trainers outdo one another, until one dog bites the other trainer in the groin. This came in the midst of the aftermath of the controversial halftime show that year.
2005: Bud Light - A frightened skydiver making his first jump is enticed with a six-pack of beer.
2006: Bud Light - Two friends in an adjoining apartment with a refrigerator on a turntable find it to be magical when their icebox is filled by their next-door neighbor with beer.
2007: Budweiser - Computer-generated crabs idolize a cooler filled with Bud.
2008: Budweiser - Paying tribute to the 1976 Academy Award Best Picture Rocky, a Clydesdale is inspired by a rather unusual personal trainer to become a member of the hitch team for the iconic horse-drawn wagon: its' dalmatian mascot