Super Bowl XLII Ads Sell Well Despite Economy: Pepsi, CareerBuilder In, GM Out (VIDEO)

Marketers may be tightening their belts amid the economic downturn, but you'd never know it from the sale of Super Bowl ads.

The National Football League season is only a week old, but General Electric's NBC Universal says it has already sold about 85% of the available spots, up from the 60% that is standard this time of year. The robust sales pace comes despite an estimated 10% price increase from the last Super Bowl, and NBC says there are only about 10 spots left.

Returning advertisers include Anheuser-Busch, PepsiCo and CareerBuilder.com. But one long-time advertiser will sit this one out. General Motors won't be showing ads this year, according to a person familiar with the matter. The car maker has been in cost-savings mode because of a nose dive in car sales, but the main reason, this person says, is that it doesn't have a car launch scheduled for that time of year.

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Watch some ads from last year's Super Bowl below:

Doritos:

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Nationwide featuring Kevin Federline rapping:

And a GM ad -- they won't be buying this year -- featuring a production robot having suicidal nightmares:

Finally, some guy's top ten:

Comments

[HouseofMayhem]

Not gonna mean diddly if we're all eating out of dumpsters and standing around fires to get warm.

[RobinSeattle]

One thing I've always wondered is whether or not these hyper-expensive ad buys during the Super Bowl actually translate into added sales. Or is this just an excessive exercise in corporate vanity or machismo?

Is there a study that has been done on this question?