The world's top soft drink maker is returning to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1998. Coke, which produced arguably the most memorable Super Bowl spot of all time with its Mean Joe Greene spot from 1980, will have three ads airing during the game.
Interestingly though, only one of the ads will be new. Two of Coke's Super Bowl spots have already aired during recent episodes of "American Idol," including the videogame-themed ad pictured here that is a spoof of the popular "Grand Theft Auto" games. Coke wouldn't share any hints about what the remaining Super Bowl ad is about.
Susan McDermott, a spokesperson for Coca-Cola North America, said the time was right to advertise during the Super Bowl again since the company has a relatively new ad slogan, The Coke Side of Life. She added that Coke felt it could get more bang for its buck by advertising during both the Super Bowl and 'Idol.'
"We wanted to kick things off big in 2007. We've been a partner with 'American Idol' since the beginning so the strategy was to debut new ads on the Super Bowl and 'Idol' in order to hit the biggest entertainment and sports programming within two weeks," she said, adding that since not everybody watches "Idol" the "old" ads now have a chance to reach a much larger audience.