Tuning In

Big ads for the big game

For sports junkies the world over, commercial breaks mean it’s time to make a beeline to the fridge or channel surf for alternative programming on other networks.

But not this Sunday, notes Agence France-Presse, when Super Bowl XL ushers in its annual pageant of patriotism and commercialism canonizing athletes and corporations.

Big ads are as eagerly anticipated as the big game itself, with companies kicking off multimillion-dollar product pitches that will titillate some and irritate others.

Burping frogs, assorted jocks, cavorting Spice Girls and Britney Spears, tear-jerking parables and even that international man of mystery, Austin Powers, have all had 30 seconds of Super Bowl fame since 1999.

“Audiences for Super Bowls have become as interested in the 30 minutes of ads as they are in the NFL championship game,” says John Antil, professor of business administration at the University of Delaware.

Although an endless stream of ads is annoying, a recent survey found that 58 percent of viewers would rather miss part of the Super Bowl than the commercial breaks.

Sunday’s quest for gridiron glory, this year pitting the Seattle Seahawks against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Detroit, is not only the holy grail of football. It’s also the time for such top-selling brands as Budweiser, Gillette, Ford, Pizza Hut and Sprint to entice consumers.

Hip-hop and fashion mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs and martial arts idol Jackie Chan will star for Pepsi, while Leonard Nimoy boldly goes where no man has gone before — with the first Super Bowl spot for the over-the-counter painkiller Aleve.

Also on tap, according to the Detroit Free Press: a Pizza Hut ad featuring pop star Jessica Simpson and the Muppets’ Miss Piggy wearing matching outfits, a Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. ad with male model Fabio and Kermit the Frog hawking the Ford Escape — a 30-second spot designed to draw a connection between the familiar green puppet and the automaker’s “greener” hybrid sport utility vehicle.

While taste and content are debatable, each ad’s ability to reach the public is not. Official figures put Super Bowl viewership at close to 90 million — but since many fans watch at parties and in bars, the true figure could touch 130 million — or nearly one in two Americans.

With network television viewership challenged by proliferating cable and satellite stations and the Internet, these are difficult days for advertising, and “it makes the Super Bowl even more important than it has ever been,” Mr. Antil says. “The Super Bowl is the only thing left that really reaches the mass audience.”

Surprisingly, though, Visa and McDonald’s are sitting it out this year, preferring to spend their advertising dollars on spots for the Winter Olympic Games that begin Feb. 10 — but there’ll be no shortage of burger ads. Burger King is trotting out a Broadway musical-style ad with “Whopperettes” dressed as burgers, pickles, lettuce and tomatoes.

Also, in a departure from ads aimed at frat-boy football fans, advertisers are planning to temper the male bravado and woo women — who form just less than half of Super Bowl viewers. For example, Budweiser ads, branded by some feminist groups as sexist, will reportedly cater more to female beer drinkers. The National Organization for Women has lambasted past Super Bowl ads, charging they overwhelmingly target men and make women the butt of jokes.

Viewers can also expect more chaste and family friendly ads, in the wake of the infamous Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” that sparked public outrage a few years back.

Yet the biggest testimonial to the power of the Super Bowl ads may be a show comprised of back-to-back Super Bowl ads that will air on the National Football League’s cable network after the game. The program also will be offered for a couple of days on the league’s Web site, NFL.com, on its on-demand digital video service, and on a streaming service provided to Sprint cell phones, reports the Indianapolis Star.

Dave speaks

District-born comic Dave Chappelle, who shocked fans last year with his sudden disappearance and reports of a stint in a mental-health facility, will tell all to Oprah Winfrey during a one-on-one with the talk show queen today at 4 p.m. on WJLA-ABC7.

Mr. Chappelle, creator of a self-titled hit show on Comedy Central, will explain “why he walked away from $50 million,” says a posting on Miss Winfrey’s Web site.

According to published reports, the comedian — a 1991 graduate of the Duke Ellington High School for the Arts in Northwest — signed a deal with the cable network for two more seasons of “Chappelle’s Show,” and then mysteriously vanished last April, reportedly surfacing in a South African mental-health facility a month before the scheduled May 31 start of his program’s third season.

Savor the ’Flavor’

Not up for watching the Super Bowl?

VH1 offers something of an alternative with “Flavor of Love,” starring Public Enemy’s Flavor Flav.

Flav (real name William Drayton), who’s cultivated a separate career on the cable network’s reality show lineup (“The Surreal Life” and “Strange Love,” with Brigitte Nielsen), is the star of his own harem, as a bevy of really young women — and we mean really young — vie for his affection.

Fifteen contestants signed on, and now only a handful remain — with Flav, who turns 47 next month, offering his signature humongous clock to the women he chooses to stay on and dismissing the castoffs by telling them, “Your time is up.”

On Sunday, the final few face a daunting challenge when Miss Nielsen turns up to administer a lie detector test in an effort to determine which woman is the right match for Flav.

The fun begins at 10 p.m.

Compiled by Robyn-Denise Yourse from staff, Web and wire reports.