The women are watching

If you believe the twangy beer jingle, a lot of men like football on TV, shots of Gina Lee - and twins.

In at least one of those supposed preferences - televised football - men are increasingly being joined by women. Consider:

• An ESPN poll three years ago revealed that women who watched TV sports favored NFL games above all other sports broadcasts.

• In 2002, a survey by Scarborough Sports Marketing, in New York, estimated that 50 million US women avidly followed professional sports - and confirmed pro football's top ranking.

• When last year's Super Bowl rolled around, nearly 40 million women tuned in, says Andrew Rohm, a professor of marketing at Boston's Northeastern University, "which is 10 million more than turned on the Academy Awards."

So if you fire up the television for Sunday's big game, will the commercial breaks offer signs of bold new thinking meant to capitalize on those numbers?

Well, maybe. Advertisers have been waking up - slowly - to this long-dawning shift in viewer demographics, experts say, adopting creative approaches they think will appeal to both sexes. And companies are beginning to use football games to push products that research shows are more commonly bought by women. But many firms and their ad agencies have been reluctant to let go of the "regular guy" imagery that football has traditionally evoked. And even with 150 million sets of eyes ready to watch the Super Bowl, companies see more cost- efficient ways of reaching women than spending $2.3 million for a 30-second spot.

It's clearly a high-stakes buy. The Super Bowl may crown a pigskin champ, but it also traditionally showcases the ad world's premium pitches, making the commercials as great a draw as the competition.

"It's the only broadcast event that exists where you can capture so many people at the same time," says David Blum, senior vice president at Eisner Communications in Baltimore, which released a survey last week on Super Bowl ads.

"There's been a shift away, over the years, from a few products that would tend to be more male- dominated in tone and approach," he says. You'll still see ads for Gillette razors and Viagra. But rounding out the mix now are "broad-based products, soft drinks, snack-food products," adds Mr. Blum. "There are some car manufacturers, movie studios."

The substories of Super Bowl advertising this year include politics (CBS's refusal to accept an anti-Bush ad from Moveon.org) and advertising history (the 20th anniversary of Apple's revolutionary computer ad). A somewhat quieter trend is an evolution toward more universally appealing ads.

Procter & Gamble will advertise Charmin in Sunday's Super Bowl. That could represent a more typical game-time advertisement, going forward, than the manly old Master Lock spot that had a rifle bullet failing to break a padlock, says Blum, who has tracked Super Bowl marketing since 1988.

Page: 1 | 2