Will Smith of the New Orleans SaintsJed Jacobsohn
CBS Corp. has sold all the advertising spots for the television broadcast of the National Football League's Super Bowl championship game this coming Sunday, the television network said Monday.
CBS has come under fire in recent weeks from various groups for allowing a conservative Christian group to air an anti-abortion ad, and barring a commercial from a dating site for gay men as inappropriate for prime time.
In early December, CBS had sold about 90 per cent of the available commercial time for the Super Bowl, with prices for a 30-second spot running close to $3-million (U.S.). The game typically includes 50 to 60 spots.
The Super Bowl is the biggest advertising event of the year. Commercial rates run far above what other TV events command, partly because the game draws around 95 million U.S. viewers.
More Americans enjoy the ads than the action on the field, a recent Nielsen study found. A study by ad agency Venables Bell & Partners showed that 66 per cent of viewers remember their favourite advertiser from the 2009 Super Bowl, compared with 39 per cent recall of which team won.
Among the top advertisers for this year's game in Miami between the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints on Feb. 7 are Anheuser-Busch InBev's Budweiser and Bud Light beers.
A year ago, with the recession in full swing, companies sharply scaled back budgets and sales slowed in the final weeks before the game. FedEx and General Motors skipped advertising on last year's game.
Still, General Electric Co.'s NBC eventually sold out all the spots for a record $206-million.
Not everything has been smooth for CBS. U.S. women's groups urged the network not to air an ad by Focus on the Family, claiming it has a strident anti-abortion rights message. CBS has approved the ad.
Last week, CBS rejected an ad from Mancrunch.com as inappropriate, leading a spokesman for the gay male dating website to call the network anti-gay. CBS also questioned the company's credit history.