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A single Super Bowl commercial can change the way
society talks. Consider: A nation of frog lovers jointly croaking
"Bud-wei-ser." It can change what makes us laugh.
Consider: A grinning
monkey clapping its hands for E-Trade. It can change what
consumers buy. Consider: Apple's Macintosh computers virtually
sold out the day after the computer maker's famous "1984"
commercial made its debut during a Super Bowl.
But Super Bowl ads don't just change those who watch them.
They can instantly change the lives of those who create them.
Or direct them. Or star in them.
Perhaps nobody knows that better than actress Ali Landry.
Two years after winning the Miss USA title, she was still
a virtual unknown. Then she was cast for a Doritos commercial
that aired on the 1998 Super Bowl. In the ad, filmed in a
Laundromat, she plays a customer who catches Doritos chips
in her mouth as they come flying helter-skelter.
"That one Super Bowl ad changed everything," says
Landry. "It's the best thing that ever happened in my
career — and that includes becoming Miss USA."
The day after the Doritos ad ran, studio chiefs at Disney
and Fox summoned
her. She was offered a record deal, she says, "even though
I can't sing."
Hollywood has come calling. She has the title role in the
upcoming film Repli-Kate from the producers of American Pie.
And she co-starred in the film Beautiful with Minnie Driver.
The success of her first Doritos spot also landed her a three-year
contract with Frito-Lay. Wherever she goes, Landry says, people
call her "The Doritos Girl." She doesn't mind. The
ad made her famous, wealthy — and, yes, influential. "People
tell me that they eat Doritos because of me," she says.
Even five-star celebrities jockey to get their mugs into
Super Bowl spots. And why not? The best ads get more buzz
than the game itself. Michael Jordan has been in nearly a
dozen. Cindy Crawford has been in a handful. Britney Spears
also wiggles her way into a flashy, 90-second Super Bowl commercial
for Pepsi.
No one appears in a Super Bowl ad and walks away unaffected.
"It's the advertising Olympics," says Carol Moog,
an ad psychologist. "It's the Big Stage where careers
are blessed
— or cursed." For Bo Jackson, memories of his Super
Bowl ad for Lipton tea linger.
Jackson was a dual-sport
hero — a star running back for the Los Angeles Raiders and
outfielder for the Kansas City Royals. In the ad, which
ran in 1994, Jackson appears to race down a staircase to
the bottom of a skyscraper just in time to catch a can of
Lipton that he dropped off the roof.
Recently, an adoring but gullible fan asked Jackson how
he accomplished that feat.
"I was younger and faster then," Jackson told
her. She believed him.
Jackson recalls one thing most about that Super Bowl
spot: It changed his family life. "My kids began to
realize that 'Daddy' was Bo Jackson," says Jackson,
who now is majority owner of a company that makes Bo Jackson's
Better Bar, a nutrition
bar. "I had a lot of explaining to do."
For Bob Dole, the fallout
from appearing in two Super Bowl spots — one for Visa and
one for Pepsi — has been humbling.
Dole thought he was best known as a senator. Or as a presidential
candidate. But that isn't true among the younger set. When
Dole appeared with President Bush at a high school in Maryland,
Dole saw a student point to him, then overheard him telling
his buddy, "That's the guy from the Pepsi commercial."
The Pepsi spot was a spoof of the Viagra ads that Dole
had made.
The Visa spot also was self-mocking. In it, he returns
to his hometown after losing the election and can't cash
a check because nobody recognizes him.
When he did that ad, Dole had no idea what a big deal
a Super Bowl commercial was. "Then I got to the studio
and saw 80 people on the scene — and a trailer sitting there
just for me. I said to myself, 'This must be the Big Time.'
"
Dole won't say what he made from the spots. But analysts
estimate more than $1 million between the two. "I wish
I had one this year," Dole says.
But it's not just the name-brand celebrities who lust
for the Super Bowl limelight. For unknowns, it can make
the difference between waiting on tables and riding in limos.
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