No Advertiser Blitz Before Super Bowl

Super Bowl advertisers have eased off the hoopla ahead of the National Football League championship game after an indecency scandal last year.

Less than two weeks before the big game Feb. 6, few advertisers have trumpeted their plans for U.S. television’s most watched -- and, at $2.4 million per 30-second spot, most expensive -- commercial venue.

Many were sobered by a viewer outcry after the 2004 Super Bowl, when singer Janet Jackson bared a breast while performing in the halftime show. The incident prompted an indecency crackdown by federal regulators.

“There may be some caution in the air now based on what happened at halftime last year,” said Bob Scarpelli, U.S. chief creative officer at ad agency DDB. “Marketers are being cautious in terms of what they’re going to run and also how it is talked about in the press.”

The backlash engulfed the more off-color commercial content during last year’s game, including a flatulent horse in an ad for brewer Anheuser-Busch Co. and a breezy peek up a bagpipe player’s kilt in a spot for PepsiCo Inc.’s Sierra Mist soda.

As a result, some advertisers may prefer to wait this time and let the commercials do the talking.

“Larger advertisers have been burned in the past by over-hyping what turned out to be rather bad or at least unpopular ads,” brand expert Mark DiMassimo said.

Marketing executives say they are aiming for smiles, not outrage. Several childhood icons will tout products this year, including Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny in ads for Diamond of California’s Emerald of California snack nuts.

Novartis’ CIBA Vision will premiere a Super Bowl spot for contact lenses aimed at female consumers. The ad has lens wearers exchanging flirtatious, but not racy, glances.

“It is very appealing to both men and women, delivered tastefully -- and I will underscore that,” said Karen Gough, CIBA Vision’s president of the Americas. “I think it’s safe to say the Super Bowl this year will be a much more appropriate venue for advertisers.”

Marketers may have hesitated to talk up ads in the weeks after a Dec. 26 tsunami in South Asia that killed about 200,000 people, eliciting a global outpouring of sympathy and pledges of aid.

Advertisers responded with similar caution after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.