Stuart Elliott, The Times’s advertising columnist, is taking a running look at some of the evening’s Super Bowl commercials:

And that’s a wrap, ad-wise and otherwise-wise, for Super Bowl XLIV.

There were some surprises near the end of the game in the ad line-up. Anheuser-Busch InBev added a spot in the fourth quarter, for Bud Light, bringing its total for the game to nine. Hyundai also added a spot in the fourth quarter, running a commercial for the Hyundai Sonata that had appeared during the pre-game show. The spot, depicting the workers of the Hyundai plant in Alabama carrying a car from the beginning of its manufacturing to the end, becomes the second in the game using a crowd joining forces to do good; there was a Budweiser spot with a similar tack, in which townspeople built a human bridge.

E*Trade also bought an additional spot that was originally not in its plans, also in the fourth quarter. The spot featured five babies; the first one had three.

There had been speculation that additional commercials would turn up in the game because of the strong demand among advertisers for time during this Super Bowl.

The Ad Bowl inside the Super Bowl may have come to an end. There are usually no more commercials after the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter. By a preliminary count, there have been 63 spots in the game, and with two of them the identical spot for Skechers, the final total could be 62. A typical Super Bowl has 62 commercials.

This game marked the third in a row that the fourth quarter was close (well, in this instance, for a while). The old theories about not wanting to buy time in the second half of a game, or especially in the final quarter, may finally be disproved.

More grist for the mill of those who believe there is a misogynistic streak in the Super Bowl spots: a commercial for Bud Light beer in which a loutish man disrupts a women’s book club.

“I’d love to hear you read some words,” the Neanderthal tells an attractive woman. The punch line at the end involves a weak play on words on “Little Women”: “I’m not too picky, you know.”

Add the Bud Light spot to others for brands like Dodge and Flo TV and there is going to be an intense conversation in the hours and days after the game about Madison Avenue’s attitude toward women.



There seems to be a theme in many of the Super Bowl spots: the need to reassure men that they are as manly as they hope they are. That theme recurs in Super Bowl ads because so many of the viewers are men and so many of the products advertised are aimed at them.

For instance, a Dodge spot carried the theme “Man’s last stand” and showed men thinking to themselves about the women in their lives. The thoughts were not of the type to win plaudits from feminists; they were grudging and stereotyped, along the lines of “I will watch your vampire TV shows with you.”

There was a spot for Flo TV showing a man shopping with a woman for women’s clothes. A man observing him was not pleased, admonishing him, “Change out of that skirt, Jason.” A spot for Dockers touched on the theme but more subtly, telling men it is time to “wear the pants” and showing scads of them pantsless.

The overly masculine tone is upsetting many people who are posting comments to blogs about the Super Bowl spots, particularly women, who are decrying those spots as misogynistic.



With the third quarter over, here is a wrap-up of the first three quarters, ad-wise. There were 15 spots in the third quarter, although my count may be off. Adding 15 to the 15 in the second quarter and 18 in the first brings the total so far to 48.

Scotts, with a third-quarter spot for Roundup weed killer, was an advertiser that had not been listed in any of the pre-game rosters of Super Bowl advertisers. And the Google spot in the third quarter was unexpected, too, although tech bloggers had been speculating about it for the last day.

Still a lot of anticipated spots to come, including the first appearance by the Budweiser Clydesdales.

The speculation was indeed true — Google bought a commercial during the Super Bowl. The spot, appearing in the third quarter, was, as bloggers reported in the last day, promoting Google’s search function and is part of a series demonstrating search in action.

The spot began with “study abroad” in Paris and continued through what seemed to be a whirlwind romance, through “jobs in Paris,” “churches in Paris” and “how to assemble a crib” — with an infant’s gurgle at the end.

It was just like that sequence from the animated film “Up,” showing the married life of the old man, only about three minutes faster. The spot was tipped off by a Tweet from Google’s chief executive that alerted everyone to watch the spots during the third quarter.





Men without pants … a Super Bowl XLIV theme.

In the third quarter there was a third spot featuring a pantsless man. It was for Coca-Cola and showed a man sleepwalking through the veldt, encountering animals.

The other two, also in the third quarter, were for CareerBuilder.com and Dockers.



CBS came in for a considerable amount of criticism before the game when it refused to sell a commercial during the game to a gay dating Web site, ManCrunch.com. But a gay couple appeared in a spot in the third quarter, for Motorola.

The spot featured Megan Fox in a bathtub wondering what would happen if she was to send a photo of herself out into the world. Among the vignettes of havoc was a scene of two men in a kitchen. One slapped the other in the face and the second man slapped back.

The implication was that Ms. Fox’s naughty pictures could even come between a gay couple. It was a nice moment of inclusion rather than exclusion.



And here is the halftime report on the commercials. There were 15 spots in the second quarter, with an asterisk, which added to the 18 in the first quarter totals 33. The average Super Bowl has 62 or so commercials of varying lengths, so Super Bowl XLIV is on track to be typical.

The asterisk for the second quarter refers to three spots that will probably not be counted by the USA Today Ad Meter, pollsters, data trackers and the like who obsess over Super Bowl ads. One was for Papa John’s pizza, but because it was bought from the National Football League rather than CBS it will not be counted by most folks.

The other two were promotions from CBS itself, one featuring Mark Sanchez of the New York Jets in a “CBS Cares” spiel for women’s heart health and the other a hilarious surprise pitch for “Late Show With David Letterman.” The latter was a sequel to a surprise promotion that CBS ran the last time the network broadcast a Super Bowl, in 2007.

The spot three years ago had Mr. Letterman with Oprah Winfrey on a couch watching the game together; the new one added Jay Leno to the mix.

In a news release sent minutes ago by CBS, the network said the new promotion was taped last week at the Ed Sullivan Theater, the home of “Late Show.”

For the second time in the second quarter, there were two spots in a row with common content.

The last time, it was spots for CareerBuilder.com and Dockers that both had men without pants. This time, it was spots for Dr Pepper Cherry soda and a new series on the truTV cable channel, “N.F.L. Full Contact,” that both had mini-men.

For Dr Pepper Cherry, the wee men were dressed as members of Kiss. For the TV series, there was a miniature version of the football star Troy Polamalu.

Kudos to CBS if this is all on purpose.



Who wears the pants in the Super Bowl? Maybe no one.

A commercial for CareerBuilder.com after the second quarter began, in which office workers wore only their underwear, was followed by a spot for Dockers in which men were shown pantsless. The CareerBuilder spot, part of a contest to get consumers to create commercials, was a joke about casual Fridays being taken to their illogical extreme. The Dockers spot was meant to comment on men needing to “wear the pants,” i.e., be mature enough to be seen in a pair of khakis.

A delightful coincidence or the result of careful planning? It may be a Super Bowl ad mystery for the ages.





CBS had a trick up its sleeve with an eye-popping promotional spot that appeared not long after the second quarter started. The spot showed David Letterman on a sofa watching the game with Jay Leno and Oprah Winfrey. The spot promoted “Late Show With David Letterman” and will certainly get a lot of post-game attention. It looked as if the improbable trio was actually on the sofa all at the same time.



7:20 p.m.: The first quarter is over and here is the ad count so far: 18 commercials, including the much-discussed Focus on the Family spot. Anheuser-Busch InBev and Frito-Lay had the most, three apiece.



The Anheuser-Busch spots were all for Bud Light. The Frito-Lay spots were all for Doritos and all finalists in its consumer-created “Crash the Super Bowl” ad contest. The company was to run three spots in the game but in an e-mail message a spokesman said that Frito-Lay had an opportunity to buy a fourth spot so there will be another Doritos ad created by a consumer to come.

Universal Pictures followed, with two spots, for the movies “Robin Hood” and “The Wolfman.”



7:03 p.m.: It was at 6:43 p.m. Eastern Time that Super Bowl ad history was made: the first commercial to advocate a side on a contentious public issue was shown. The spot was, of course, the commercial from Focus on the Family, the evangelical organization, which bought 30 seconds of time from CBS.



The spot was similar to one that the organization ran several times in the pre-game show. It was the third commercial to be shown during Super Bowl XLIV, after spots in the first quarter for Bud Light beer and Snickers.

The spot, as expected, featured the college football star Tim Tebow and his mother, Pam, who are both against abortion. The spot never used the word “abortion,” and the only nod to the organization’s anti-abortion stance was the sign off at the end, “Celebrate family. Celebrate life.” An article in USA Today on Friday suggested that the word was omitted to help smooth the clearance process for the spot to be accepted for airing.

The spot directed viewers to the Focus on the Family Web site, where full information is available about a story Mrs. Tebow has often told about deciding to give birth to Tim despite doctors’ suggestions she get an abortion. The spot alluded to Mrs. Tebow’s story, which received extensive coverage before the commercial appeared, in a couple of ways. After Mr. Tebow pretends to tackle his mother, she says to him, “We’re trying to tell our story here.”

And on screen these words appeared at the end of the spot: “For the full Tebow story, go to focusonthefamily.com.”

The spot was slick and well done; a casual viewer might not have any idea it was from an organization as opposed to abortion as Focus on the Family. It used a production style and tone that is typical of Oprah Winfrey: upbeat, seemingly free of ideology, including chirpy music.

The appearance of the spot has opened a debate on whether advocacy and issue ads belong on a Super Bowl, which has become an unofficial midwinter American holiday. If the answer is yes, there may come a time when watching the Super Bowl will be like watching TV in a swing state like Ohio or Florida the Sunday before a presidential election, with commercials taking sides showing up every couple of minutes.

6:35 p.m.: One of the last pre-game spots, for McDonald’s, was a winner. It was a sequel to a popular spot the company ran in the game in 1993, called “The Showdown,” pitting Michael Jordan and Larry Bird against each other in a game for fast food. The sequel was great, with LeBron James and Dwight Howard subbing for the original pair of basketball stars. And Mr. Bird even had a cameo.

The question is, why didn’t McDonald’s run the spot in the game? Was the cost of a spot in the game so much more than one just a few minutes before the game starts?

6:25 p.m.: Although the Super Bowl is often the program watched each year by more women than any other, there are few signs of that in the line-up of commercials scheduled for the game.

In the final minutes of the pre-game show, there was one spot aimed at women, for L’Oreal, and another, for Quilted Northern bathroom tissue, a product that is more often bought for a household by the woman than the man. As for the line-up in the game, some products are bought by women as well as men, among them Coca-Cola. But the lion’s share of spots will be aimed at men.



Of course, the lopsided focus reflects that Super Bowls are by far the biggest show of the year for male viewers. Sometimes, though, advertisers reach out to the large female audience by scheduling spots for products meant for women. One year a commercial for Dove got a lot of attention.

This year there will be a spot for Dove — but for the brand’s new line for men.



5:20 p.m.: The organization that is sponsoring what is perhaps the most talked-about commercial to be shown during Super Bowl XLIV is already running an ad.

Focus on the Family, the evangelical organization that has bought a spot in the game, has been running a commercial during the pre-game coverage on CBS. The pre-game spot, like the spot the group is running during the game, features the college football star Tim Tebow and his mother, Pam, who have both in the past been vocal in their opposition to abortion.

The pre-game spot, which has already run at least three times, shows Mrs. Tebow talking about her “miracle baby,” who turns out to be Tim. He appears at the end, hugging his mother, after which these words appear on screen: “For the full Tebow story, go to focusonthefamily.com.”

It is not clear how much or how little the spot in the game will resemble the pre-game spot because Focus on the Family is not disclosing ahead of time any details about its in-game commercial.

The presence of the commercial has been perhaps the biggest advertising story of this Super Bowl because it is probably the first time that an advocacy spot, taking sides on a contentious issue, has been accepted for broadcast during a Super Bowl.

The commercial in the pre-game coverage does not include the word “abortion,” and is worded so carefully that an uninformed viewer might not know what the subject of the spot is. Focus on the Family is a conservative organization that is against abortion and gay rights.

In a video clip on the organization’s Web site, an official says the Focus on the Family Super Bowl spot is to appear early in the game. USA Today reported on Friday that it is planned as the third spot in the first commercial break in the first quarter — in other words, the third commercial in the game.