Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012
Like any other Super Bowl, Super Bowl XLIII was full of surprises. Not just on the field, but on air as well.
?Through the first three quarters, the commercials appeared pretty much as they were expected based on pregame lineups compiled by reporters,? writes Stuart Elliot of the New York Times. ?But in the second commercial break of the fourth quarter, along came a spot for the Vizio brand of TV sets, which had not been on radar screens before Sunday.?
One of the biggest changes came from PepsiCo, who dropped a 15-second spot for SoBe Lifewater and added a 60-second spot for Pepsi-Cola. The new advertisement featured characters from the SNL series MacGruber, which had a Pepsi Product Placement during the weekend show.
In addition to that, PepsiCo also dropped spots for Pepsi Max and Gatorade. Both of these products were originally set for two placements each, but the company settled for one spot product.
Another last minute change came from General Electric. The company aired two spots instead of one.
According to critics, the best ads during the game came from Budweiser, CareerBuilder.com, Bud Light, Coke Zero, Hulu.com, and Coca-Cola.
