Ad Age: P&G HOLDS OWN SUPER BOWL ADVERTISING SUPER BOWL

Advertisers generally agree that the cost of Superbowl television spots make the purchases extremely inefficient for most purposes. But last three seasons have seen perennial debates on whether or not the sheer PR value of having had a Superbowl spot may actually make up for this quantitative deficit. Proctor & Gamble, never one to go for glamour ads, has shifted course and has managed to create a long and tortured process to have 24 of its brands vie against one another to be able to put one of their ads on the football championship.

Caught up in the irrational glamour, P&G has created a competitive ad creation system that will wind up affecting the marketing of a large swathe of their business, as even those 23 brands that fail to make the cut will be left with creative product geared to the bombast of a Superbowl rather than the typical home of a P&G spot: the unglamorous, yet thrifty, re-runs of daytime sitcoms.