Thursday, January 8, 2009 , Updated
Plano-based Doritos announces five finalists for annual Super Bowl ad challenge
Five finalists have been selected from nearly 2,000 entries in the third annual Doritos "Crash the Super Bowl" challenge. Contestants are not only competing to have their self-made Doritos commercial take control of the chip brand's Super Bowl XLIII ad air time, they also are shooting to make history by beating the ad pros and garnering the top spot in USA TODAY's annual Ad Meter. If the winning Doritos commercial trumps the professionally produced commercials, Doritos will reward them with a $1 million bonus to help take their budding talents far beyond the Super Bowl spotlight.
People can vote for their favorite finalist once a day here between January 5 and January 25. The winning ad will not be revealed to the world - or the five finalists - until it airs on national television during the first quarter of the Super Bowl broadcast.
The five finalists - determined by a panel of Doritos judges - will each be awarded $25,000 and a trip to attend Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa Bay, Fla. in a private luxury suite at the game, where they will tune in to learn for the first time which ad won when it airs for a worldwide audience. The five finalist ads (in alphabetical order) are:
1. "Free Doritos" by Joe Herbert of Batesville, Ind.
2. "New Flavor Pitch" by Oren Brimer of New York, N.Y.
3. "Power of the Crunch" by Eric Heimbold of Venice, Calif.
4. "The Chase" by Chris Roberts of Burbank, Calif.
5. "Too Delicious" by Michael Goubeaux of Los Angeles, Calif.
In addition to sending the five finalists to this year's Big Game, Doritos is giving online voters a chance to get in on the action by giving away a pair of Super Bowl tickets every day of the voting period between January 5 and January 25. While at the contest Web site voting, visitors also can enjoy watching all 1,961 of the creative and entertaining submissions that came in from every corner of the country. Details about the vote-and-win game, including official rules, are available here.
The USA TODAY Super Bowl Ad Meter tracks the second-by-second responses of a panel of viewers to ads during the national broadcast of the Super Bowl and ranks them favorite to least favorite. Created in 1989, USA TODAY's Ad Meter has been regarded as the most influential Super Bowl ad rating in the advertising industry.
Source: Doritos
