"advertisment" news and stories

Super Bowl is the most-watched television program of the year. Last year alone, over 141 million viewers tuned in. The top ten most watched TV programs in history are all Super Bowl games. As a result, advertisers go all-out for their game-day spots, making the commercial breaks nearly as entertaining as the game.

There is a lot of competition to stand out from the crowd and grab the viewer's attention, so even though Pepsi is one of the biggest sponsors of the game, they will be giving away a one-of-a-kind Pepsi can that is sure to make people sit up and take notice. It is worth $100,000.

The can is encrusted with diamonds and is made of sterling silver. Anyone interested in entering the sweepstakes for a chance to win it can get a code online and wait to see if it is announced during the halftime show.

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Giving junk food the same status as the TV programs that are deemed to be unsuitable for young audiences, the UK Food Standards Agency said that a ban on televised junk food ads before 9pm might be the most effective way to combat the childhood obesity epidemic. This was proposed as being a more feasible alternative than potential junk food ad regulations proposed by the television watchdog group Ofcom.

Ofcom offered three proposals. One was to ban all food and drink ads from children's programming and one only applied to ads for foods high in fat, sugar and salt. Their final suggestion called for limits on the number of ads that could be shown. FSA felt that these would be difficult to enforce or, as in the case of the first suggestion, did not allow for ads featuring healthy foods to be shown.

The FSA's proposal seems more likely to have an effect, due to its rather drastic nature, and consumer health groups have already given it a lot of support. Whether it comes to pass remains to be seen, but it doesn't seem like they considered the most obvious way to combat childhood obesity: get kids away from the TV and encourage them to be more active.

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In the world of food advertising, it sometimes seems like the ads go from bad to worse, though there will be the occasional good one thrown in to keep the audience - that would be us - on our toes. I heard about this billboard at AdJab and when I first saw it, I had to do a double take: it is a giant, fake Cadbury bar being ripped apart by fake people. The giant-sized candy may be fake, but it looks absolutely delicious and the enthusiasm of the little, artificial people is quite funny. The ad is definitely more compelling than a simply picture of the chocolate bar would be. The billboard is in Canada, but if I have to look at billboards while I'm driving, I don't think that I'd mind seeing one of these once in a while.

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With people being ever more likely to check the nutritional information on a product before they eat it, these ads mentioned at AdJab, are meant to point out that not everyone has access to the nutritional information of what they're eating. In this case, the ads refer to the homeless. The idea behind the sticker is that it contains the nutritional information for one "can" of food, with a message at the bottom to "help the homeless." The url that it gives does not actually exist, but it's an interesting way to present the message.

I would say something snarky about how that nutrition label would have to be revamped if it appeared on a bin outside of, say, a fast food joint, but feeding the hungry and/or homeless is nothing to joke about.

[Image AdArena]

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Nika, of Nika's Culinaria, was at the international Boston Seafood Show last month and managed to grab a few shots of the enormous variety of fishy displays that were on display there, including one of the weirdest cars I've ever seen: a catfish car. The car is either the mascot for or an ad for American Pride Seafood's farm-raised catfish. The company has a strong dedication to raising high-quality catfish, but to want to drive it around? There's just a little something fishy about that. Check out the full post for more photos of the car, including a few shots of its tail and fins.

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