“In 2007, an average of 93.1 million Americans tuned in to the CBS Network to watch the Indianapolis Colts beat the Chicago Bears. The event averaged a 42.6% household rating, up from the 2006 match-up between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Seattle Seahawks, which was watched by 90.7 million viewers and an average of 41.6% of U.S. homes. The most-watched Super Bowl of all time was in 1982 with a 49.1% rating, which also happened to be the fourth-highest rated television program since 1961 just behind the final episodes of M*A*S*H, Dallas and Roots Part VIII.  Of the top-40 sports telecasts since January 1961, all but four telecasts were Super Bowls.” (source: The Nielsen Company’s 2008 Guide to the Super Bowl)

In 2007, creativity came in the form of consumer-generated advertising. Frito-Lay with its Doritos brand jumped on the consumer-generated content bandwagon in a big way, turning over its Super Bowl ad to regular Joes. The Plano, Texas-based Pepsi division bypassed its agency, Omnicom Group’s Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco, in favor of creative work from consumers through their “Crash the Super Bowl” competition. Chevrolet and the NFL as well decided to go creative with their own consumer-generated advertising on the 2007 Super Bowl.

Super Bowl Commercials 1969-2008 (AdLand, membership required)
http://commercial-archive.com/SuperBowlCommercials

The Nielsen Company’s 2008 Guide to the Super Bowl:
http://www.nielsen.com/media/2008/pr_080124.html
http://www.nielsen.com/media/2008/pr_080124_download.pdf

Road to The Big Game – A 360° View of One of the World’s Biggest Marketing Events (Nielsen Company’s Blog):
http://blog.nielsen.com/bowl360/

Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials 2008 (CBS, aired on Jan 26th, not sure if/when there’s a rerun):
http://www.cbs.com/specials/superbowls_greatest_commercials/

The Sleaziest Super Bowl Ads of All Time (MSNBC):
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22871730/

All-Time Super Bowl Ad Rejects (AOL):
http://www.aolvideoblog.com/2008/01/29/all-time-super-bowl-ad-rejects-no-11/

Who’s Buying What in Super Bowl XLII (AdAge):
http://adage.com/superbowl08/article?article_id=122644

Super Bowl Advertising History – 40 Years of Prices and Audience (AdAge):
http://adage.com/SuperBowlBuyers/superbowlhistory07.html

This Year’s Super Bowl Ads to Be Gentle and Sweet (NY Times):
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/business/media/31adco.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Hey!Nielsen to Track Super Bowl Ad Effectiveness:
http://www.mediabuyerplanner.com/2008/01/28/heynielsen-to-track-super-bowl-ad-effectiveness/
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,141952-c,sites/article.html

So Bad, They’re Good (AdWeek):
http://www.adweek.com/aw/creative/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003702538

Sorting through the history of Super Bowl ads (San Francisco Chronicle):
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/01/DD3GUNQ39.DTL

Sunday’s Lineup for the Super Bowl of Advertising (USA Today)
http://www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/2008-01-31-super-bowl-ads-schedule_N.htm

USA Today’s Ad Meter (should be updated Monday morning):
http://admeter.usatoday.com/

In this year’s Superbowl, Doritos, Chevrolet, the NFL and YouTube let consumers create their own Superbowl ads which they will air…