Short of the Great Depression, it would be hard to imagine an economic and cultural climate more hostile than today's in which to sell messages encouraging feel-good consumption.
And yet, during tonight's Super Bowl, dozens of advertisers are betting millions of dollars that they can still work their old mojo to keep Americans buying their goods.
Executives for NBC, the network that will carry the game, said Saturday that they had sold all the ad slots. But they also acknowledged that they have sold 30-second ads for as little as $2.4 million rather than the $3 million that has been widely cited as the base figure.
Even with NBC's sell-out of the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals, the economy has already changed the face of Super Bowl advertising in ways that will be impossible to miss. As much as the Super Bowl TV experience is a "national party," in the words of Woody Kay, of the Arnold Worldwide advertising agency, none of the millions of partygoers will be likely to forget their troubles this year.
"The Super Bowl really has been a big national party since its beginning, but this year it's a party in the middle of really bad snowstorm," Kay says. "And that snowstorm is the recession. How it will affect the party is going to be one of the most fascinating things to watch. For example, which of the top guests won't arrive because of the bad weather?"
Absent this year will be the Big Three automakers - General Motors, Ford and Chrysler - as well as the ubiquitous FedEx.
The symbolism of GM runs even deeper than its economic collapse, according to Abe Novick, a former executive at the global ad agency EuroRSG.
"The absence of GM is a real marker, a cultural sign of the times," Novick says, "particularly if you look at who is replacing GM and the other U.S. automakers this year."
The void left by the Big Three will be filled by Audi AG, Hyundai and Toyota - all foreign automakers. Novick thinks that shift in sponsorship will remind some viewers that some of the country's largest corporations have been taken over or displaced by foreign competitors.
For their part, the foreign automakers are responding to the uncertain times with different strategies.
Hyundai planned to promote an incentive program that would let buyers of new cars return the car if they lost their jobs within a year of purchase. Hyundai would cover $7,500 worth of depreciation.
