Early release of Bowl ads creates a buzz, sacrifices shocks

So much for surprises.

The majority of the 30-plus Super Bowl advertisers have been releasing their spots in the days leading up to the game. So it’s unlikely there’ll be a lot of action off the football field to make viewers drop their jaws Sunday.

Advertising fans already can catch a glimpse of “Spider-Man” actor Willem Dafoe in a Mercedes-Benz ad. They can watch a baby Clydesdale grow up in an Anheuser-Busch commercial. They even can spot old people partying in a Taco Bell ad.

Gone are the days when Super Bowl spots were closely guarded secrets. With the growth of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, it’s no surprise that more advertisers are releasing ads online up to a week or more before game day.

In recent years, more advertisers have been making their spots public before the game. This year, 26 of the 35 or so advertisers have released their spots, with more reveals expected, according to YouTube.com.

Companies have good reason for doing this. Last year, Super Bowl ads released early were watched 600 percent more times – with 9.1 million average views — than ones released after the game, according to YouTube.com, which hosts advertisers’ commercials on its site.

“The conversation has gone from Monday morning around the water cooler to social media. What that means is there’s no downside in showing your cards early and getting people to talk about it and starting up some buzz,” said Charlie Warzel, staff writer at Adweek Magazine.

Still, Warzel said not everyone likes seeing ads early. “There are a lot of people who want to be surprised and can’t help but see these things floating around the Internet or picked up by news agencies. So the element of surprise is taken away.”

To be sure, a few companies are betting there’s still cachet in making the “big reveal.” The few advertisers that are staying mum this year are hoping they can accomplish what Chrysler did last year — its two-minute halftime spot featuring Clint Eastwood was so unexpected that it was one of the most memorable ads of the game.

“Last year, Chrysler shocked everyone with a Clint Eastwood ad no one knew about,” said Barbara Lippert, a columnist at ediapost.com. “This year, no one knows what Chrysler is doing.”

Besides Chrysler, companies that haven’t revealed their spots yet include the makers of Oreo cookies and BlackBerry.

“Oreo has developed this ad for the Super Bowl and, as such, it’s only fitting that it debuts during the Super Bowl,” according to an Oreo statement.

Procter & Gamble’s Tide also hasn’t released its ad, but it has given some details. For instance, the company said the ad will include both teams in the Super Bowl — the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens — and discuss stains that might be worth keeping.

“We feel that the magic of the ad would be lost if we revealed it before its slot in the game,” said Chris Lillich, the company’s associate marketing director.

There might also be some surprises from advertisers that already have released ads.

Something to watch for, Lippert said: Whether Volkswagen changes its spot that features a Minnesota man with a Jamaican accent, which faced criticism in the days leading up to the Super Bowl from people who deemed it culturally insensitive.

“There might be some surprises and last-minute changes,” Lippert said.

INSIDE

Audi’s ad includes a bold kiss at the prom. See a list of 10 ads to look for during Super Sunday. Back page 10 spots to look for during Super Sunday

Celebrities, humor, babies and cute animals once again will rule the commercial breaks Sunday during Super Bowl XLVII. Here are 10 spots advertisers hope will make you skip the bathroom break or beer run during the game:

1. Samsung Mobile’s two-minute ad in the fourth quarter called “The Big Pitch” stars “Knocked Up” actors Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen and was directed by Jon Favreau (“Iron Man”). The company has not released details about the ad’s plot other than to say that it shows Rogen and Rudd on a “quest to become the next big thing.” A teaser ad shows Rogen and Rudd trying to talk about a Super Bowl ad without saying the words “Super Bowl.”

2. Best Buy’s 30-second ad in the first quarter features Amy Poehler, star of NBC’s “Parks and Rec,” asking a Best Buy employee “lots of questions.”

3. Kraft enlists Tracy Morgan from NBC’s “30 Rock” to introduce its new Mio Fit water-enhancing drops in a 30-second ad during the third quarter.

4. Hyundai Motor Group’s Kia invents a fanciful way that babies are made, blasting in from a baby planet in its “Space babies” ad for the 2014 Sorento crossover.

5. First-time advertiser Paramount Farms is touting its Wonderful Pistachios brand of nut in a 30-second ad in the third quarter as part of its “Get Crackin’ ” campaign.

6. First-time advertiser Axe’s 30-second ad in the third quarter of the game shows a woman in the ocean getting rescued by a sexy lifeguard, but going for an astronaut instead. It promotes Axe’s new cologne “Apollo” and its contest to send someone on the first suborbital space tour in 2014.

7. Audi’s 60-second ad in the first quarter, with an ending voted on by viewers, shows a boy gaining confidence from driving his father’s Audi to the prom, kissing the prom queen and getting decked by the prom king.

8. PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay’s Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl” ads are back for the seventh straight year. Two 30-second commercials made by consumers will make it on the air. Fans voted for one winner and Doritos chose the other.

9. Ford Motor Co. enlisted late-night talk show host Jimmy Fallon to choose road trip stories submitted by Twitter users to base its Super Bowl commercial for Lincoln. The story line for the 30-second ad was developed from 6,117 Tweets about road trips and features rapper Joseph “Rev Run” Simmons and Wil Wheaton, who acted in the series “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

10. The Milk Processor Education Program, known as MilkPep and popular for its “Got Milk?” print ads, is featuring actor and professional wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in a 30-second ad in the second quarter.