Super Bowl commercials

I read an interesting article about the Super Bowl ads from Monday's New York Times by Stuart Elliot.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/05/business/media/05adcol.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin

Although it seems like I have heard a lot of news circling around Super Bowl commercials this year, I thought this one was interesting because it tried to find an underlying theme for the #1 most expensive advertising timeslot of the year. Something that I liked about the article was that it broke down who made commercials (the parent and advertising company) for what. Elliot draws the conclusion that the undertone of the commercials was related to the war in Iraq. While I'm not really sure of this, I think the advertisers were trying hard to be funny and relate to their audience. With the popularity of online video sharing (YouTube, etc.) and the often off-beat content, advertisers were trying to use the style of random humor to catch viewers' attention. I liked the comparison to older ads. And as far as the story idea goes, it was something that A LOT of people are interested in (I know many who watch the game for the commercials), and few reporters brave their own interpretations of commercials.

Something different that I would have been interested in seeing with this article was how much each of the commercials cost to air during the Super Bowl. I think that is public information, and it would be interesting to see what company spent the most money on Super Bowl advertisements (to create and air them). Compare this to how much commercial spots during the Super Bowl used to run, and figures of how many people watch the Super Bowl (approximate numbers that are used to bill for spots would be fine). This would take it from a straight commentary about the ad content to a more comprehensive business story that a more general audience would be interested in.