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Over the last 10 years, Doritos' "Crash the Super Bowl" contest became a staple of Super Bowl advertising, offering anyone with an idea and a camera a chance at the big leagues by making their own 30-second spot. But the PepsiCo brand is putting the contest to bed with what it is calling its "most audacious" version of the contest yet. 

For the 2016 Super Bowl, contestants have the chance to win $1 million and the opportunity to work with Zack Snyder, director of 300 and Man of Steel, whose latest film, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, will be released next March. The winner will work with Snyder as well as Warner Brothers and DC Comics on an undisclosed future project.

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Zach Snyder Photo: Getty Images

"We're giving consumers one last shot to make their mark and see their homemade ads air during the Super Bowl broadcast," Jeff Klein, vice president of marketing at Frito-Lay, said in a statement. "This is truly last call for all of those who not only want a shot at $1 million—but want a chance to jump-start their career in Hollywood."

The winning ad will air during CBS' Super Bowl 50 telecast on Feb. 7, 2016. Doritos will accept submissions until Nov. 15. Ads will be judged by a qualified panel of judges, including Frito-Lay executives. Three finalists will be announced in January.

"Crash the Super Bowl" started in 2006 and has received more than 32,000 submissions since then. In that time, Doritos has awarded some $7 million in prize money. In 2013, Doritos expanded the contest, accepting global submissions.  

"We've had a tremendous run with the program," said Klein. "The Doritos brand sparked a marketing industry in terms of crowdsourcing. 'Crash the Super Bowl' has played a major role in legitimizing consumer content."

The rules of the contest have changed over the years, but the grand prize in recent years has been $1 million. For many years, that cash prize was only bestowed to Doritos ads that won USA Today's Ad Meter, which gauged consumer reaction to Super Bowl spots.

Three ads won the $1 million by doing just that—2009's "Free Doritos!", 2011's "Pug Attack" and 2012's "Man's Best Friend." A second spot from 2012, "Sling Baby," also won $1 million by winning a separate online vote.

See all four of those spots below.

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Avocados From Mexico will make its second Super Bowl appearance, returning to the world's most-watched TV event after enjoying surprise success during the big game in February with an ad from its "First Draft Ever" campaign.

Once again, GSD&M will craft the creative, while Havas Media handles the buying chores. The ad will run during the first commercial break of the Feb. 7, 2016 telecast on CBS and is part of a new marketing push, "Always There," touting the year-round availability of Mexican-grown avocados.

"We are excited to lead the trend in healthier brands advertising during the most-watched event of the year," said Alvaro Luque, president of Avocados From Mexico, "and we are committed to take a leadership role to outshine packaged-food brands to reinforce the 'good for you' message of our delicious fruit."

AFM had a memorable Super Bowl debut. Its quirky first-quarter ad, which featured a God-like figure and commentary from ex-NFL stars, earned more than 1 billion media impressions and scored the second most social buzz of any Big Game spot (after "Like a Girl" from P&G's Always), according to Adobe Social. On USA Today's Super Bowl Ad Meter, the AFM ad placed 23rd out of 61 commercials. Views of the campaign's various videos across all platforms approached 1.5 million.

Neither client nor agency would discuss what direction the creative might take this time around. GSD&M's chief creative said only that the second Super Bowl push for AFM is "a creative dream" because, when it comes to delivering a brand message to the masses, "there's no greater stage."

Is the team worried about trying to repeat last year's unexpected win?

"Our success does up the ante for performance," Luque said. "But one way to look at it is there is no extra pressure that could ever be put on an event of this magnitude. It is a huge stage, and you have to deliver."

This year's telecast of Super Bowl 49 drew 114.4 million viewers, making the New England Patriots' dramatic win over the Seattle Seahawks the most-watched television broadcast in U.S. history. For the upcoming game, 30-second ad slots have been selling for $5 million.

Those are imposing numbers, but Avocados From Mexico views the Big Game telecast as one key component in a broader campaign.

"Our focus is on the experience versus just the game," Luque said. "The 30-second ad that you run during the game is critical, but these days, it's part of an overall program across channels that must engage the consumer and drive results for the brand."

Avocado consumption has increased 35 percent in the past year, and Luque said AFM's Super Bowl appearance played a huge role. All told, the brand holds about 75 percent of the U.S. market. The group's chief rival, the California Avocado Commission, hired Mullen Lowe as its new agency this summer. But given CAC's modest annual ad budget (in the $5 million range), a Super Bowl showdown of avocado growers seems unlikely.

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Looking to expand its domain beyond North America, GoDaddy has selected TBWA\Chiat\Day as its first lead creative agency.

The Web domain company said it hired the agencys New York office after "an extensive review that included in-market meetings with GoDaddy country executives and agency teams in Asia, Europe and Latin America, as well as the U.S."

Barton F. Graf 9000, which handled much of GoDaddy's recent domestic advertising, did not participate in the competition. That agency is now off the business entirely, mainly owing to its lack of international reach, the client said.

Moving forward, GoDaddy plans to leverage TBWA's global assets across the Omnicom network to personalize its marketing experience for small-business owners, who account for the vast majority of the company's 13 million customers. Delivering highly targeted, data-driven messages to audiences at precisely the right time is paramount, CMO Phil Bienert said in a statement.

"GoDaddy has established a meaningful brand and built an extensive small business data platform with global reach," added TBWA worldwide CEO Troy Ruhanen. "This means we aren't marketing to just anyone at random times, but rather we are talking to relevant, potential customers who need GoDaddy's help to grow their own businesses, whether they are in Bangalore, Rio de Janeiro or San Francisco."

TBWA's New York office led the pitch, with input from teams in Canada, the U.K., Mexico, Brazil and other markets. A global push is planned for early next year. GoDaddy's in-house creative and content unit will contribute as needed. Interpublic Group's Initiative was tapped for media chores as the year began.

GoDaddy spends about $25 million annually on domestic ads alone, per Kantar Media.

In recent efforts, the company has tried to evolve its image from the risqué Danica Patrick-powered Super Bowl commercials that helped build the brand over the past 10 years. GoDaddy has yet to announce its big-game plans for Super Bowl 50, and, at present, has no agreement in place with Patrick to appear in its ads.

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Tune in to CBS's telecast of Super Bowl 50 on Feb. 7 for a commercial from … Chubbies Shorts, Death Wish Coffee Company or Vidler's 5 & 10?

Those are the top-three finishers, culled from thousands of entries, in software company Intuit's "Small Business, Big Game" contest. The winner will have a spot produced by RPA air on the Super Bowl, where the price for half-minute slots has reached $5 million this year. (Voting has concluded, and the winner will be announced in January. The second- and third-place finishers will each receive $25,000 and local advertising valued up to $15,000.)

Intuit, provider of accounting and financial programs like QuickBooks and TurboTax, held a similar competition in 2013-14, won by GoldieBlox, the maker of engineering-themed toys and games for girls. Its big-game spot riffed on the head-bangin' Slade tune "Cum on Feel the Noize." It ran during the third quarter and finished 30th (middle of the pack) in USA Today's Super Bowl Ad Meter.

Let's lake a closer look at this year's "Small Business, Big Game" final three:

 
• Chubbies Shorts in San Francisco describes itself as "basically a jetpack time-machine disguised as a clothing company," dedicated to propelling dudes "out of the age of capris and shants, and back to the boldly radical shorts era epitomized in the '80s by guys like Larry Bird, Tom Selleck, John McEnroe and everyone's dad."

 
• Death Wish Coffee of Round Lake, N.Y., claims to make the world's strongest coffee. "Some may say coffee this strong is irresponsible," the company says. "We like to think of it as revolutionary." (Judging by Chubbies' overheated self-description above, I think the staff's been nipping at some of that Death Wish brew.)

 
• Vidler's 5 & 10 in East Aurora, N.Y., is an old-fashioned five-and-ten-cent store, owned by the same family for 85 years, with, apparently, no plans to foment a revolution or travel back in time to a boldly radical shorts era.

 
Tell us in the comments which you'd like to see on Super Bowl 50, where an estimated 115 million viewers or more will tune in to watch the New England Patriots trounce some other team nobody cares about. Go Pats!

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Despite the enormous popularity of its first two puppy-based Super Bowl commercials, Budweiser won't be unleashing a third come February.

Ads starring the Labrador pup from Anomaly, Bud's lead creative agency, topped USA Today's Super Bowl Ad Meter in each of the past two years. But the brewer is relegating the little scamp to the sidelines for CBS's Feb. 7 telecast of Super Bowl 50.

Why? The puppy spot in this past Super Bowl simply didn't sell enough beer. So said Anheuser-Busch vice president of marketing Jorn Socquet in a statement sent to Adweek.

"Budweiser aired two very different spots in last February's Super Bowl, and we learned that content focused on the quality of our beer was most effective in generating sales," he said. "Starting with our 'Brewed the Hard Way' ad in last year's game and throughout 2015, our marketing has featured a bold, confident voice that speaks directly to Budweiser drinkers, and sales trends have improved as a result. We'll continue this tone in Super Bowl 50, and we're excited to explore new creative territory."

Here's the 2015 Bud Super Bowl ad "Lost Dog":



Naturally, Budweiser's iconic Clydesdales "will most certainly make an appearance," he said.

Last month, Adweek ran a poll asking readers if the puppy should return to the big game in 2016, and three-quarters of respondents voted for more puppy love.

Industry experts, for the most part, agreed, noting that recurring motifs have generally worked well in Super Bowl ads through the years. (Plus, why take a chance on an unproven concept with up to $5 million riding on each 30-second ad placement in the game?)

"The commercials that usually win the popularity contests are the ones that have recurring characters and an ongoing story," Scott Davis, chief growth officer at brand consultancy Prophet, said at the time.

Still, there were voices of caution and dissent. Edward Boches, an advertising professor at Boston University, former chief creative officer of Mullen Lowe and occasional columnist for Adweek, said Anomaly would have to put a dynamic twist on the puppy concept to extend its popularity.

Mark Hunter, currently executive creative director at SapientNitro, who served as creative chief at Deutsch L.A. in 2012 when Volkswagen returned to the Super Bowl for a second straight year with a Star Wars-themed ad, discouraged Bud from letting out the dog for a third run.

"I would move on," he said. "This year's was not as good as 2014's, and if you're not careful, the whole thing becomes a parody of itself."

Here's the 2014 Bud Super Bowl ad "Puppy Love":

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Super Bowl fans, are you ready to rock? Hope not, because you're getting Coldplay.

The mellow crooners were announced today as the 2016 Super Bowl's halftime headliners, which was music to the ears of fans. But the choice (as it does each year) elicited its share of critics.

Here's a brief sampling of how Twitter users responded to the news:

Someone should run the concussion protocol on whoever picks Super Bowl halftime talent.

— Ken Wheaton (@kenwheaton) December 3, 2015

Total snoozers to perform Super Bowl halftime show https://t.co/Rz1XEvjBkJ

— Jordan M. Schultz (@MonroeSchultz) December 3, 2015

tfw when Coldplay takes the stage for halftime pic.twitter.com/i0kZRRGEtz

— Connor Finnegan (@ConnorFinnegan) December 3, 2015

Coldplay is doing the Super Bowl halftime show. Players are going to start calling their old teams in tears, trying to get back together.

— Josh Gondelman (@joshgondelman) December 3, 2015

"COLDPLAY DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT FOOTBALL *IS*! THEY CALL IT SOCCER OVER THERE!" "Sir, do you have an actual emergency you're calling for?"

— Mike Scollins (@mikescollins) December 3, 2015

Coldplay is the clip-on-man-bun of bands

— Doug Bies (@dougbies) December 3, 2015

Ya know how Coldplay got its name? It's because their shit ain't fire #stepitupsuperbowl

— Nate Coble (@NCoble06) December 3, 2015

Who would be a better #SB50 halftime act than Coldplay?

— Ken Scudder (@kenscudder) December 3, 2015

The majority of Twitter's reaction to the #NFL announcing Coldplay as the #SuperBowl50 halftime act.... pic.twitter.com/RKVBU7pTjT

— Kayla Mortellaro (@KaylaMortellaro) December 3, 2015

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Exactly two months before Super Bowl 50 airs, CBS said it is holding back a few of its 30-second spots so it can sell them last-minute to advertisers who are desperate to get into the Big Game. 

"We could close it out tomorrow if we wanted," Les Moonves, CBS Corp. president and CEO, told investors today at UBS's annual Global Media and Communications Conference in New York. But the network believes it can fetch "north of $5 million a spot" shortly before the big game.

"As you get closer and closer to the game, there's going to be some advertiser who has to be in the Super Bowl," said Moonves, indicating that a movie studio would be the most likely candidate to shell out right before the game. 

This year's Super Bowl drew 114.5 million viewers, making it the most-watched show in U.S. TV history, and CBS is betting that at least one brand will decide at the last minute that it can't resist reaching such a large audience.

The network, which will broadcast Super Bowl 50 on Feb. 7, has received as much as $5 million for some of its 30-second ads, Moonves said during an earnings call in August. This year, CBS will livestream all national ads for Super Bowl 50.

In July, CBS had been selling spots in the $4.6 million to $4.7 million range, a person with knowledge of the talks told Adweek at the time. At that point, only 20 to 25 of the 30-second spots remained for sale.

Last year, NBC didn't sell out its Super Bowl ad inventory until Jan. 28, just four days before the game. The average price for those 30-second spots was $4.5 million. A year earlier, Fox had sold all of its in-game spots by Dec. 4.

While the network is in no hurry to sell out its ad inventory, CBS has been working to finalize other Super Bowl-related business. Last month, it locked in The Late Show with Stephen Colbert for the post-Super Bowl time slot.

In non-Super Bowl news, Moonves said CBS' volume was down 4 percent to 5 percent in this year's upfront. But thanks to the strong scatter market—"third quarter scatter was phenomenally good, and fourth was even better than that"—he predicts "next year's upfront is going to be extraordinarily strong" since advertisers are regretting not paying "20 percent less," as they could have during the upfront.

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After a controversial Super Bowl spot last year, GoDaddy will not be returning for Super Bowl 50 in February. It's part of the Web domain company's effort to reposition its marketing strategy.

"The Super Bowl has been a great platform for our domestic brand building," a GoDaddy rep said in an email statement. "It's done its job to get our name out there. Now, we can move beyond the generic megaphone of a Super Bowl campaign to a more targeted brand of marketing."

GoDaddy has run risqué ads during the Big Game every year since 2005—it launched in the late 1990s—including several memorable spots with Nascar driver Danica Patrick and supermodel Bar Refaeli.

Last year, the brand pulled its ad featuring a golden retriever puppy that falls off a truck and is sold to a new owner, spoofing Budweiser's popular "Puppy Love" Super Bowl commercials. The spot was removed from YouTube after critics panned it for making light of puppy mills.

Instead, GoDaddy and agency Barton F. Graf swapped in another spot, called "Working," about a small-business owner who decides to work instead of watching the Super Bowl with his friends.

According to a GoDaddy rep, the brand is moving on from the Super Bowl to targeted marketing geared toward small-business owners.

"As you've been tracking us over the past several months, you've seen us shifting away from high-level domestic brand awareness to a more personalized, data-driven marketing approach as we expand globally," GoDaddy said. 

Just yesterday, the brand hired MEC as its first global marketing agency and also recently started working with TBWA.

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Honda said Friday that it will air a 60-second spot for its Ridgeline pickup truck during Super Bowl 50 in February, returning to the big game after a year away.

The ad, created by ad agency RPA, will air during the third quarter. No details about the creative approach were available.

The 2017 Honda Ridgeline will have its world debut in January at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

"The big game is the largest and most coveted stage to show the world that Honda is back in a big way with an all-new Ridgeline truck," Jeff Conrad, svp and general manager of the Honda Automobile Division, said in a statement. "Super Bowl 50 is the right time and the right venue to communicate Honda's continued leadership in light trucks. The multiplatform approach will enable Ridgeline to come out of the gate strong in 2016."

The spot will be Honda's first on the Super Bowl since 2014's "Hugfest," promoting Honda safety. Among the brand's other well-known Super Bowl ads is the Ferris Bueller commercial, which aired on the 2012 game. 

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As the U.S. economy continues to improve, SunTrust Banks plans to run its first national 30-second commercial during Super Bowl 50.

According to CMO Susan Somersille Johnson, the brand decided to go all in on the Big Game this year because Americans are starting to recover their financial footing from the decade-long recession. She cited the Federal Reserve's recent decision to hike interest rates for the first time in 10 years as proof that Americans are optimistic about their finances.

"Timing is everything," she said. "With the work that we've been doing, we want to help. It's a very optimistic tone because research shows that anyone can achieve [financial confidence] regardless of income level. It hits on the real pulse of the nation right now."

The concept of the ad focuses on giving people money-related "tools, tips, ideas and conversation starters." "We've spent a lot of time going around the country capturing Americans in this time," added Scott Goodson, founder and chairman of StrawberryFrog, the New York agency behind the campaign.

MJZ Productions' Dante Ariola is the director, whose work includes 2013's Kate Upton Super Bowl ad for Mercedes and 2011's "Black Beetle" for Volkswagen.

The commercial will air in the last slot before the two-minute warning of the fourth quarter, with a longer 60-second ad running online. The brand will also post to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to build awareness for the ad.

"We see it as part of a package—Super Bowl can be an extremely effective, if not the most effective, platform when you wrap it around digital and social," Somersille Johnson said.

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Taco Bell said Thursday that it is returning to the Super Bowl for the first time since 2013 with a 30-second spot in the first quarter of the Feb. 7 game. The ad will unveil one of Taco Bell's "biggest product launches to date," the fast-food chain said.

But good luck getting much more info from the press release, which has been heavily—and comically—redacted. (See the whole release below.) So many key details have been blacked out that you can probably just go ahead and play Mad Libs with it.

This much we do know: The new menu item is described as a "food innovation" and seems to be a combination of (unknown) food items; it might be made available to certain fans before the game; the spot was made by Deutsch LA; and fans wanting to know more should follow the Feed on Taco Bell's website, Ta.co.

Taco Bell's most recent Super Bowl spot was a :60 on the 2013 telecast, featuring octogenarians partying all night to a cover of the Fun song "We Are Young," sung in Spanish. 

Click the image below to enlarge.

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CBS isn't shying away from hyping its upcoming Super Bowl telecast as one of the biggest of all time. During its presentation at the Television Critics Association's winter press tour, CBS Sports referred to Super Bowl 50—which it airs on Feb. 7—as "the game America will never forget" in a sizzle reel.

"I really think the next time the Super Bowl will be this big will be Super Bowl 100," said Sean McManus, chairman, CBS Sports, who quipped, "Our promo campaign for that will actually start next week!"

CBS has been preparing for Super Bowl 50 since "five days after Super Bowl XLIX," when CBS Corp. president and CEO Les Moonves hosted a companywide meeting involving all departments from programming to interactive to research to sales. Eleven months later, McManus said, "We are set from every single aspect to present what I think will be the best presentation of the Super Bowl in its history." 

"There has never been a promotional campaign as broad ranging and as large as the promotional campaign behind Super Bowl 50," said McManus. On the Monday through Friday of Super Bowl week, CBS will be doing live inserts at 8 p.m. to update viewers on that night's Super Bowl activities. "Wherever the biggest event is going on around the Super Bowl, we will be there live for one minute," said McManus.

On Super Bowl Sunday, the network will broadcast seven hours of pregame programming, featuring four different sets: one on Market Street in downtown San Francisco and three at Levi's Stadium (outside, on the field and the host set on a concourse overlooking the field).

Among the "bells and whistles" CBS is highlighting during the game is Eyevision 360, a replay system featuring 36 cameras strung around the stadium's upper deck, which allows the team to freeze replays, rotate around a play and then continue to let the action play out. CBS tested out the technology during a few regular-season games, and McManus said, "It looks remarkable."

In another Super Bowl first, CBS will outfit eight pylons with 16 cameras and microphones to film the goal lines and sidelines during the game. It provides "an unbelievable ground-level view," said McManus of the cameras, which were deployed Monday night during college football's national championship game.

Super Bowl week will also see the launch of CBS Sports' new logo, which is changing for the first time in 35 years, and a new on-air graphics package for CBS Sports and CBS Sports Network. "The look of CBS Sports during Super Bowl week will be very, very different than it is right now," McManus said.

McManus also said his network is still waiting to hear whether it will get the Thursday Night Football package in the fall. In December, the NFL asked for bids that addressed "how we would treat Thursday Night Football" from a financial, production and promotional standpoint. The league is also considering splitting the package up among several networks.

"They did ask us to express our interest in both an exclusive package for eight weeks on CBS and a split package where the networks would share the first eight weeks of the season," McManus said. "We still haven't heard anything back yet; they're still looking at the proposals."

While CBS "would like to renew" its Thursday-night deal, McManus said, "Quite frankly, we are in a wait-and-see period right now." Ultimately, the NFL will decide "what's best for their effort to continue to establish Thursday night as an important NFL viewing destination."

McManus also downplayed the recent interest in the NFL's foray into exclusive streaming broadcasts of its London games. "We look at it as a complementary platform for our broadcasts," he said. "I don't think there's a scenario where a significant amount of NFL programming is streamed as opposed to being on broadcast television or cable television. The NFL has always been very forward thinking in terms of how it disseminates its programming."

Noting that even streaming games are broadcast on TV in their home markets, McManus said, "The truth of the matter is that the largest audiences are generated Sunday afternoons, Monday nights and Sunday nights. And I think that's going to remain true for many years to come."

• For more Super Bowl 50 news, check out Adweek's Super Bowl Ad Tracker, an up-to-date list of the brands running Super Bowl spots and the agencies involved in creating them.

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In the best news my 7-year-old has heard all day, Pokémon has announced it will air a commercial on Super Bowl 50 to celebrate the brand's 20th anniversary.

Details were scant about what the commercial will entail. The Pokémon Company said only that that it will encourage fans to "Train On." That refers to the competitive gameplay aspect of Pokémon, in which the owners of Pokémon video games and trading cards are considered "trainers," preparing Pokémon creatures for battle.

It is not known how long the ad is, or when it will air on the game.

Pokémon also revealed plans for a larger #Pokemon20 campaign, in which fans will be encouraged to share their favorite Pokémon memories on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

On Feb. 27, which is Pokémon Day, fans can attend special anniversary events at retailers. That same day, Nintendo will make some of its best-selling Pokémon amiibo interactive figures available again—in particular, Charizard, Jigglypuff, Greninja, and Lucario.

Fans can follow Pokemon.com/20 for more. 

• For more Super Bowl 50 news, check out Adweek's Super Bowl Ad Tracker, an up-to-date list of the brands running Super Bowl spots and the agencies involved in creating them.

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If you're a Chinese goose who runs a noodle shop in an animated film franchise, you could really use Wix.com to help with your small business.

The Tel Aviv-based web development platform unveiled the first teaser in its 2016 Super Bowl campaign Wednesday, and it features characters from DreamWorks Animation's upcoming movie Kung Fu Panda 3. The campaign, developed by DreamWorks (without ad agency involvement), features the characters trying various silly "out-of-the-box" marketing ideas to advertise Mr. Ping's Noodles, the restaurant in the film. 

In the end, of course, they realize they should just whip up a cool website with Wix. "Create your stunning website today," says the end line. The campaign hashtag is #StartStunning. 



Wix has create a microsite at startstunning.com, where the whole Super Bowl campaign will play out. Three more teasers are expected before the 30-second Super Bowl ad itself airs on Feb. 7. A final video in the campaign will break three days after the Super Bowl, on Feb. 10.

"The Super Bowl is a huge stage, and all brands play offense to score big and win viewers' attention. Collaborating with a creative leader like DreamWorks Animation enabled us to develop a fun and effective campaign that will give us an edge come Super Bowl Sunday," Wix CMO Omer Shai said in a statement. "Even if you're not a Dragon Warrior, with Wix you can effectively use the web to grow your business or brand. And that all starts with a stunning website." 

Shai told Adweek in December that Wix was thrilled with its Super Bowl debut in 2015, which starred football legends Terrell Owens, Emmitt Smith and Brett Favre. The company also cranked out 50 pieces of online content using 16 different social accounts for that campaign.

"We're really happy with what we achieved last year—we did a great campaign, not just a spot,"  Shai said. "This year was almost a no-brainer." 

"[DreamWorks] approached us after the success of last year, and they said that they would like to do something together," Shai added. "Because there are so many values of the brand that combine, it was easy to work together, and we're happy with what we created. They know how to tell the story in a lovely way."

• For more Super Bowl 50 news, check out Adweek's Super Bowl Ad Tracker, an up-to-date list of the brands running Super Bowl spots and the agencies involved in creating them.

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Pepsi is returning for its fourth year as title sponsor of the Super Bowl halftime show. And on Wednesday it launched a new online video series called "Camp Halftime," comprised of weekly clips starring actor/comedian Donald Faison, who schools counselors on how to produce a flawless halftime spectacle on the big day.

Each of four spots, created in partnership with The Kicker—Above Average's sports comedy site—will roll out on Wednesdays leading up to the Super Bowl on Pepsi.com and YouTube.

Check out the first video below. As revealed in December, Coldplay will be the headline act at this year's Super Bowl—so it's unclear whether this young camp counselor's energetic moves will be much in demand during this particular band's set.

 
Below, check out two other Pepsi videos heralding Coldplay as the halftime performers. 

• For more Super Bowl 50 news, check out Adweek's Super Bowl Ad Tracker, an up-to-date list of the brands running Super Bowl spots and the agencies involved in creating them.

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Budweiser and Bud Light won't be the only Anheuser-Busch beers taking center stage at this year's Super Bowl. The company has decided to add its craft-like offering, Shock Top, to the Big Game for the first time as well as bring Michelob Ultra back for the first time since 2010. 

A-B InBev, which has advertised during the Super Bowl for the last 28 years, purchased a total of three minutes of commercial air time for the Feb. 7 game. The company has also nabbed the A1 spot with airtime right after kickoff, though it is unclear which brand will take the premium placement. 

"A powerful Super Bowl ad can set the tone for a brand's performance throughout the following year and beyond," Jorn Socquet, vice president of U.S. marketing for A-B InBev, said in a statement. "We've made significant investments to make sure this year's spots will connect with fans in new and unexpected ways." 

The company declined to provide specific details about the spots.

This will be Wieden + Kennedy's first Super Bowl for Bud Light, which serves as the official beer sponsor of the NFL.

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The Clio Awards will be holding its second annual Super Clio contest during this year's Super Bowl, getting a handful of top creatives in the industry to vote for their favorite commercial from the game—and eventually crown a winning spot.

Below are a couple of tongue-in-cheek ads promoting this year's contest, comically suggesting that the makers of the Super Bowl spots badger and cajole the judges into voting for their work. Or as the ads themselves say: "Let the super ass-kissing begin."

Bold move to include the email addresses of the judges, who will probably now have to set up filters sending any emails with the word "Clio" to the trash. 

The ads were done by Fitzgerald & Co. Click to enlarge.

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CREDITS

Agency: Fitzgerald & Co.
Chief Creative Officer: Noel Cottrell
Group Creative Directors: Ryan Boblett, Brad Harvey
Copywriter: Meredith Young
Network Creative Manager: Eric Monnet
Producer: Cris Tally
Account Supervisor: Rhanatah Griffith

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Dude, Mountain Dew is back in the game.

The PepsiCo brand said Tuesday that it will use its first in-game Super Bowl spot since 2000 to push its Mtn Dew Kickstart beverages—the line of low-calorie drinks that launched in 2013 and combine Mountain Dew with fruit juice and a kick of caffeine.

The brand didn't reveal much about the creative, other than to say it will be "a hilarious TV ad that combines fan-favorite ad elements and is guaranteed to have fans talking." BBDO New York is handling the creative. 

The in-game spot may be Mountain Dew's first in 16 years, but the brand did run this entertaining 90-second spot from BBDO on last year's Super Bowl pregame show. The theme for that spot, "It All Starts With a Kick," continues today. 

Here is last year's ad:



The larger campaign around the new Super Bowl spot will include digital, social and out-of-home advertising, as well as merchandising and experiential activations.

Also, four new Kickstart flavors will hit store shelves on Jan. 25—Orange Citrus, Fruit Punch, Black Cherry, Limeade, Pineapple Orange Mango and Strawberry Kiwi—joining six previously released flavors.

PepsiCo describes Mtn Dew Kickstart as one of the successful beverage product launches in the past decade, generating annual retail sales of more than $300 million. 

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Brands are notorious for pulling out all the digital marketing bells and whistles during the Super Bowl, and Google hopes to take a bite out of Twitter's reputation as brands' go-to platform for real-time marketing this year.

Today, Google launched a new ad format called real-time ads that lets brands trigger promos around big events like the Super Bowl and Oscars instantly, similar to how marketers use Twitter. The format includes inventory on YouTube and Google's Display Network, which is made up of thousands of publishers' sites and apps.

Advertisers first pre-plan and upload the creative they want to use and then can push out the content in real time. That's a bit of a difference compared to Twitter, where brands sometimes create and post content on the fly.

"The goal for marketers and being able to react real-time in a way that really resonates with folks around big cultural events and the micro-moments that go with them is common across many platforms," said Tara Walpert Levy, managing director of agency sales at Google, during a press event on Wednesday. "What's unique about real-time ads is the ability to do that in video and display with the reach and scale and power of the platform, which as you find out is relatively incomparable."

Super Bowl advertiser Wix has signed on to use the new YouTube ads during the Big Game. This is the second year that the website-development company has run a Super Bowl ad, which is being produced by Hollywood film studio DreamWorks Animation.

Wix's CMO Omer Shai recently told Adweek that this year's campaign will include a big digital push that extends the campaign beyond a 30-second TV spot.

"We're really happy with what we achieved last year—we did a great campaign, not just a spot," Shai said. "This year was almost a no-brainer."
 

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New England Patriots, Denver Broncos, Carolina Panthers and Arizona Cardinals players who hope to do a touchdown dance in the playoffs but don't want to pay a fine are in luck. Butterfinger has them covered.

As part of its Bolder Than Bold Super Bowl campaign, the Nestlé brand announced it will cover up to $50,000 in excessive celebration fines levied against NFL players through Super Bowl 50. 

Butterfinger tapped two bold stars to make the announcement: Billy on the Street host Billy Eichner and former NFL wide receiver Terrell Owens. The duo hit the streets of New York and, in Eichner's classic style, asked people to show off their boldest end-zone celebrations in exchange for a Butterfinger.

"I may not be associated with sports, but I am a big pop-culture guy. And the Big Game is a moment and one day where sports and pop culture collide," Eichner told Adweek. "I love a big pop-cultural moment where everyone sits down and watches the same event live. I'm all about that, and I tweet. I'm all over social media." 

In his prime, Owens was known for his outlandish touchdown dances, which often resulted in fines. He once notoriously pulled a Sharpie out of his sock after scoring a touchdown, signed the ball and handed it to someone in the crowd.

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"Having played in the Big Game before, it's an honor to be partnered with Butterfinger and what they are doing with the campaign," Owens told Adweek. "When I walk the streets now, not only just today, but since I haven't played in a while, people say I'm what's missing from the game—and that's that bold personality."

Butterfinger doesn't believe players can ever celebrate "excessively" after scoring a touchdown, Kristen Mandel, Butterfinger brand manager, said in a statement. "For us, the bolder the celebration, the better." 

Butterfinger may be open to all forms of on-field celebration, but the NFL tends to come down on players who get a little carried away. This season, for instance, the league fined Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown $11,576 after he attempted to bear hug the goalpost.

Butterfinger kicked off its Bolder Than Bold campaign by asking a professional skydiver to announce the brand's return to the Super Bowl after completing a 12,000-foot jump. No further details have been released about the campaign that will air on game day, but the brand continues to promise it will be bold. 

• For more Super Bowl 50 news, check out Adweek's Super Bowl Ad Tracker, an up-to-date list of the brands running Super Bowl spots and the agencies involved in creating them.