- Retegui hat-trick fires five-star Atalanta to hammering of Genoa
- Heavyweights Australia, England off to World Cup winning starts
- Visiting UN refugee agency chief decries 'terrible crisis' in Lebanon
- Spinners come to party as England defeat Bangladesh at T20 World Cup
- Search continues for missing in deadly Bosnia floods
- Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- France's Auradou whistled on Pau return in Perpignan loss amid ongoing rape case
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
- Arsenal hit back in style after Southampton scare
- Hezbollah heir apparent Safieddine out of contact after strikes
- Liverpool stay top of Premier League as Arsenal, Man City win
- In dank Tour of Emilia, Pogacar shines in rainbow jersey
- DR Congo launches mpox vaccination drive, hoping to curb outbreak
- Trump returns to site of failed assassination
- Careless Leverkusen held to Bundesliga draw
- O'Brien's 'superstar' Kyprios posts landmark win on Arc weekend
- Liverpool suffer Alisson injury blow
- Habosi helps Racing beat Vannes before Auradou's playing return
- Thousands march in London in support of Palestinians, 1 year after Oct 7
- Israel readying response to Iran missile attack
- Schutt, Mooney help Australia beat Sri Lanka in Women's T20 World Cup
- Liverpool extend Premier League lead with win at Palace
- Djokovic 'shakes rust off' to make third round of Shanghai Masters
- 'Imperfect' PSG fighting on all fronts - Luis Enrique
- Struggling Pakistan look to thwart adaptable England
- Child 'trampled to death' in asylum seekers' Channel crossing: minister
- Gauff fights back to set up Beijing final against Muchova
- Guardiola claims Premier League won't delay season for Man City
- Israel to mark October 7 attack as Gaza war spreads
- Gauff fights back to reach China Open final
- Recovering Stokes ruled out of first Pakistan Test
- Hezbollah battles troops on border as Israel pounds Lebanon
- Alcaraz, Sinner breeze into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Bagnaia wins Japan MotoGP sprint to cut Martin's lead
- Alcaraz breezes into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Gaza cultural heritage brought to light in Geneva
- 'Bullet for democracy': Trump returns to site of rally shooting
- Italy targets climate activists in 'anti-Gandhi' demo clampdown
- South Korean cult-horror series 'Hellbound' returns at BIFF
- Nepalis fear more floods as climate change melts glaciers
- Honduras arrests environmentalist's alleged murderer
- Padres pitcher Musgrove needs elbow surgery
- Supreme Court lets stand rules to curb mercury, methane emissions
- Boston beat Denver in NBA exhibition season opener, but Jokic says omens are good
- Chagos diaspora angry at lack of input on islands' fate
- Biden says 'not confident' of peaceful US election
- US trade chief defends tariff hikes when paired with investment
- Lukaku stars as Napoli beat Como to hold Serie A top spot
- Ohtani set for MLB playoff debut as Dodgers face Padres
- Pogba's drug ban cut to 18 months from four years
Zeus and free bitcoin: Super Bowl ad frenzy is back
Big brands who in recent years have sat out the TV advertising frenzy around the biggest US sporting event -- the Super Bowl -- are returning in force Sunday and forking out millions for prime spots.
After the bruising politics and pandemic grief that had clouded the American football championship, this year viewers are primed for a good time and offer advertisers a nearly unequalled mass audience.
Budweiser's clydesdale horses, Arnold Schwarzenegger flogging BMWs as Zeus and a Lay's potato chips trip down memory lane with comedian Seth Rogan and actor Paul Rudd will all be there.
"The Super Bowl is a completely unique advertising property in that it can reach still 100 million consumers," said Charles Taylor, professor of marketing at Villanova University.
The game and probably more importantly its ads, which have spawned widely-used catch phrases and cultural symbols in the United States, are an American phenomenon.
"It's such a pop culture event in the US that people pay heightened attention to it," Taylor added.
This year's crop is thick with jokey, celebrity-heavy pitches for everything from beer to bitcoin, and will include some notable returns.
It's only been a year off for Budweiser and the clydesdale horses synonymous with the brand that chose to stay away from the festive event as America crossed its darkest pandemic days.
This year's spot, directed by Nomadland's Chloe Zhao, is a patriotic tale that features one of the draft horses making a post-injury comeback.
But Lay's and fellow Super Bowl ad returnee Gillette razors have been away for over 15 years each, while it's been seven years for BMW.
That said, Hyundai wasn't present last year and won't be on Sunday, nor reportedly will Coca Cola -- a not entirely unprecedented decision as broadcaster NBC said about 40 percent of advertisers this year will be new.
- Bitcoin giveaway -
Super Bowl airtime has always been costly, but the price was $7 million for some 30-second spots this year and NBC called that a record for the US football championship.
The sky-high prices come even after the Super Bowl notched last year its lowest number of viewers -- 96.4 million -- since 2007.
That total includes some 5.7 million watching via streaming and reflects how audiences' habits are changing, as streaming platforms eat away at cable and network dominance.
Yet, the Super Bowl remains an intense draw for audiences.
By comparison, the most-watched non-sports TV program in the United States in 2021, the Harry and Meghan interview, only had 21 million viewers.
After the bruising 2020 US presidential contest, which crept into the game with spots from Donald Trump and Michael Bloomberg and then 2021's somber pandemic mood -- 2022 has viewers looking for a break.
"We will not see people wearing masks, we won't see discussion of the virus, we won't see discussion of politics," said Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University.
"You're going to see people leveraging, just broadly acceptable things -- celebrities, but only celebrities that everybody likes -- and humor, but only humor that is very safe and inoffensive," he added.
In addition to the regulars, start-ups are looking to capture some of the limelight of this big event between the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals.
Crypto currency is a theme, and the exchange FTX has tied a bitcoin giveaway to its Super Bowl ad.
To make things interesting, the amount of the freebie will depend on the East Coast time the ad runs -- if it airs at 8:50 pm, the exchange said it will give away 8.50 bitcoins which was about $373,300 as of Tuesday.
The exposure that kind of ad generates -- and an accompanying promotion -- is hard to match elsewhere.
Advertising has massively migrated to the internet, with its data-heavy targeting of specific consumer profiles and exactly how many click.
"That's really not what Super Bowl advertising is about," Calkins said. "The Super Bowl is about building brands."
L.E.Campos--PC