This year's Super Bowl commercials featured rambunctious geriatrics, cross-dressing husbands and Jamaicans from Minnesota. But brand mascots, once a staple of the advertising world, were almost completely absent.
SodaStream's proposed Super Bowl ad was rejected for denigrating competitors Coke and Pepsi. But its brash advertising isn't the only controversial thing about the Israeli-based maker of soft drink machines.
When it comes to marketing muscle, craft brewers can't compete with the likes of Anheuser-Busch. But while you won't see craft beer commercials during the Super Bowl, those small brewers are still making big marketing plays.
Like many of us, savvy investors will be watching the Super Bowl with an eye on the ads. Those commercials are about more than brand building: Companies often use the Big Game stage to tout new, innovative products and ideas that you want to know about.
This week's interesting tidbits from the business world include a plucky upstart cashing in on a banned Super Bowl ad, and a misguided analyst's too-clever case for upgrading a faltering retailer. Here are our five favorite winners and losers.
A lot of people will be tuning in to the Super Bowl just for the commercials, which are primarily bought by corporate giants. But a few smaller businesses are in the ad mix this year. Let's go over four in particular that investors may want to keep an eye on.
Every year, America gets treated to a Super Bowl side show of TV commercial controversies. Sometimes the ads air, sometimes they don't, but this year, Volkswagen, GoDaddy and PornHub are all getting pre-game publicity out of their Super Bowl commercial offerings.
Ford unveiled a surprise this week: It's relaunching the Lincoln brand, and committing more than $1 billion to the effort. The renewal of the luxury brand is about more than just prestige. It's about big profits, and a push by Ford into one very big foreign market.
Call it the "second-screen" Super Bowl. About two-thirds of smartphone and tablet owners use their gadgets to do things like text or post on Twitter while watching TV, according to research firm Nielsen. So, for Sunday's game, companies from Coke to Chevy are trying to reach fans on all the "second screens" they have.
The Patriots and Giants will interrupt the entertainment to run some football plays, but everyone knows the Super Bowl is all about the commercials, and at $3.5 million for 30 seconds, sponsors must think they'll get their money's worth. But will their shareholders feel the same way?
While watching the Super Bowl this coming February, some viewers may notice a conspicuous absence: PepsiCo, which has advertised during the past 23 Super Bowl shows, won't be running any commercials for its bubbly drinks.
