LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The Super Bowl this weekend is the biggest day of the year for advertisers.
(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)
TOM WOODARD: (As Frog #1) Bud.
RONNIE BROOKS: (As Frog #2) Weis.
BRIAN STECKLER: (As Frog #3) Er.
BERT BELASCO: (As character) You're playing like Betty White out there.
BETTY WHITE: (As Mike) That's not what your girlfriend said.
BRYAN CRANSTON: (As Walter) No, we don't eat our own supply.
AARON PAUL: (As Jesse) Mr. White.
CRANSTON: (As Walter) Jesse?
PAUL: (As Jesse) Everyone's gonna want a taste.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Samples of previous years' Super Bowl ads. And, of course, we'll find out the new ones this Sunday. According to Paramount, which holds the rights to the game, a single 30-second commercial can cost the advertiser up to $7 million this year.
FADEL: Maria Rodas is a marketing professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She's a big fan of Super Bowl ads.
MARIA RODAS: We talk during the game and absolutely not during the commercials because that's what I want to see. This is, for me, what the event is all about.
INSKEEP: Rodas says advertisers are hoping to create a moment that gets people talking.
RODAS: They're like mini-movies. They hire these big celebrities. The production value is insane. And so all of a sudden, 7 million is probably, like, the smallest of what they spend compared to the rest that they put into creating these.
INSKEEP: All in trying to link their products to a feeling, an emotion, a story.
RODAS: To have this almost undivided attention provides an amazing opportunity for marketers to create a narrative, to really be able to connect at a much deeper level with consumers.
FADEL: A deeper level with consumers and a deeper level with their pockets. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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