María Benito, a journalist

Super Bowl: The great festival of advertising in the U.S.

I do not know which of the advertisements issued before the Super Bowl, the football final, after or during the retransmission was more fun, although he says some regular Doritos and Monster managed to start the laughter. This is important. On the biggest night of the sporting year in the U.S. he had to prevail optimism, but also restraint. Containment and sacrifice, as Obama says, even though it paid about $ 100,000 per second (in some advertising the NBC had to discount because the rates were higher in times of crisis).

What interests me the matter is that despite the crisis that affects us all, has also caused some difficulty to major media event and sports (in that order) of the year in the U.S., the Super Bowl is the Super Bowl , as advertisers say, and again has taken the upper hand.

The football final held on Sunday February 1 in Tampa, Florida is a great showcase of advertising, an event that still about 90 million people, one third of the U.S. population So each year has set records in the prices of advertising space, everyone wants to be there, although it is more profitable in the long term (to create brand), that short, said Tim Calkins, marketing professor at Northwestern University .

This year NBC was selling 30-second spots at $ 3 million, representing 11% more than in 2008. According to Nielsen data, prices have been rising steadily since the first edition in 1967 when it paid $ 37,500 per half minute, not bad ...

So even though some classics of the event have been withdrawn by the economic and image problems that would cause them to pay that amount when they applied for government bailout or announced the layoff of thousands of people, the Super Bowl has been economically successful. Rightly was satisfied Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports & Olympics, who said he was "delighted" to have sold all the spaces. Specifically, NBC Sports has achieved $ 206 million of advertising revenue.

Of those who have been this year, I want to highlight the case of Pepsi, which has invested heavily. In addition to buying three and half minutes (it was the second poster behind Anheuser-Bush InBev) and make an announcement in 3D, the beverage company has signed an agreement this year to block its rival, Coca Cola, during the first half of the retransmission, the magazine Forbes .

So despite the recession in U.S. (The economy contracted by 3.8% last quarter) the Super Bowl is the Super Bowl and people needed a break, have already released too many negative messages in recent months, he needed football, entertainment, and beautiful ... the ads show must go on! Tell that Springsteen, who has brought tickets for its spring tour the day after the final act in football.