Super Bowl advertisers hope to stand out but not cross the line

Neither the outcry over the content of Super Bowl commercials last year nor the fallout from the episode involving Janet Jackson during the halftime show have deterred a lengthy list of blue-chip marketers from signing up as sponsors this year.

Still, the advertisers, which are paying record prices to appear during the game to be broadcast by Fox on Feb. 6, are paying close attention to the tone and tenor of their commercials. The marketers, which include Anheuser-Busch, Ford Motor, General Motors and McDonald's, are anxious to avoid a repeat of the vociferous complaints generated by last year's spots. Some were centered on erectile dysfunction, while others featured characters like a flatulent horse, a crotch-biting dog, a Scotsman who wore nothing under his kilt, a male monkey wooing a human female, an elderly couple fighting over a bag of potato chips and a man who mistakenly underwent a bikini-wax treatment.

"When you try to do something that stands out in a game full of advertisers trying to stand out, you have to walk a line," said David Lubars, chairman and chief creative officer at BBDO North America in New York. "And some people walked over it last year."

BBDO North America, part of the BBDO Worldwide division of the Omnicom Group, is creating campaigns for several sponsors of Super Bowl XXXIX next month, including FedEx and Visa. "I don't think anybody goes in saying, 'Let's do spots in bad taste that will offend everyone,' " Lubars said, adding: "Last year, people thought their spots would be funny like they were in past years. But they just didn't work out."

One reason could be that the controversy caused by Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" during the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXVIII last February seemed to have amplified the reaction against commercials deemed to be tasteless. They included spots for two prescription drugs, Cialis and Levitra, that treat erectile dysfunction, as well as for products like Bud Light beer, Lay's potato chips and Sierra Mist soda.

"You won't see some of the more 'out there' creative you saw last year," said Rick Dudley, president and chief executive at Octagon Worldwide in New York, a sports marketing agency owned by the Interpublic Group of Cos.

"This is going to be a big 'G for general rating' Super Bowl," he added. "Long term, people will loosen up a little, but short term, they'll pull in their reins."

That attitude is reflected in the approach being taken by several Super Bowl sponsors.