The protagonist for
this year's Planter's ad

Lou D'Ermilio of Fox reported the network sold out of Super Bowl spots sooner — and at a higher average cost — than in any previous Super Bowl Fox has hosted. The transaction for the last available :30 spot was finalized last week.

Spots averaged $2.7 million per 30 seconds, a marked climb from the $2.5 million record average in 2006.

Canwest News Service calls the Super Bowl ad market "recession-proof," even despite the writers strike. (Though 90 percent of spots were sold before the strike began, says Bloomberg.)

The question is whether the ad bacchanal truly pays off for advertisers.

Nielsen says the answer is yes — if they're counting conversions in buzz. To illustrate, it pointed to the success of last year's Nationwide ad with Kevin Federline.

CEO Bob Parsons of GoDaddy believes the dividends are more substantial. "When I ran my first [Super Bowl] commercial I had a 16-per-cent market share, and the week after Super Bowl, it was 25 per cent. When I ran my second commercial a year later, my market share was 32 per cent and it rose to 38. Now I'm at 42 per cent."

For other brands, trying to make $2.7 million back — plus production expenses — is a financial swan song. Mark Stevens, an author and marketing specialist, told Canwest News Service the bottom line is not the point.

"Advertising agencies make these commercials not to sell product but to showcase their agencies," said Stevens.

"They create commercials they hope will make them famous, without any regard at all whether they will sell product."

He said creatives establish agency cred not by pushing more product but by winning Cleos, something for which a prime Super Bowl ad is tasty bait.

"If you want to invest in a party without an expectation of result, then the Super Bowl is your guy," Stevens concluded.

The Super Bowl takes place tomorrow at 6pm Eastern.