"I don't how that is going to play - the reminder that people are losing their jobs," Kay said.
Audi's ads are going to project an image of a high-performance, luxury sports car. They will feature British actor Jason Statham, star of The Transporter films.
While Kay and Novick questioned the wisdom of showcasing luxury, Brian Steinberg, TV editor for the trade magazine Ad Age, defended it: "If that's your brand identity and you've successfully built it for years, you're not going to change it overnight."
As escapist as the game is intended to be, Steinberg also believes that real-world worries will remain with viewers like never before this year. Citing a study by market research firm Gallup & Robinson that shows viewers' recall of Super Bowl ads is 36 percent lower in bad economic times, Steinberg says the "bar will be higher this year" for a successful ad.
"People will be more distracted as they watch, and that will affect recall," he says. "But I believe there will still be new and different ads that will succeed, and people will still be talking about them for days. Super Bowl and the Super Bowl ads are just too much a cultural mainstay."
One set of different ads that Novick finds promising are those that fit what he terms "the Obama Brand." These are ads that, like the new president, Barack Obama, call to mind ideas of community involvement rather than consumption.
Included in this group will be ads by PepsiCo that will feature a musical mix of Bob Dylan's "Forever Young" and a rap by hip-hop artist will.i.am. Its tag-line: "Every Generation Refreshes the World."
According to Novick, Kellogg's will use its iconic Tony the Tiger to send viewers to a Web site where they can nominate a children's playground or park for a facelift that the cereal maker will pay for.
Meanwhile, Pedigree dog food has one of the ads certain to cause morning-after buzz: one for its adopt-a-dog campaign. The ad asks viewers to imagine a world without dogs. One features a woman holding a leash calling to her pet only to have a rhino comes charging into the room.
Not that all of the 67 ads will be different - far from it. The No. 1 sponsor will be Anheuser-Busch, which will stay traditional and feature its famed Clydesdale horses in at least three of the spots. But such American iconography can only go so far when many members of the audience know your company was recently taken over by a Belgian firm.
