The Super Bowl is tomorrow and I`m looking forward to watching some good football as well as being entertained by great TV commercials. This year the average spend for the 30 second slots ranges about $3 million –  about the same figure as last year’s average. Just to grasp how much money is to be made, NBC earned over 200 million dollars in Super Bowl advertising  in 2009.

I am looking forward to some of the entertaining commercials from Budweiser and CareerBuilder – both of these companies have traditionally done well. Budweiser has even won a number of top spots in the USA Today Super Bowl ad meter survey in the last few years. What I am a bit disappointed by is how Pepsi shied away from the Super Bowl this year – a fact that Coke knows and will benefit from.

But my main interest lies in the Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl” contest. That’s the viral marketing campaign that the Doritos guys started back a few years ago. The campaign is simple: the public is invited to send in self-made Doritos commercials. The selected finalists get cash prizes and airtime during the Super Bowl. There is a bonus payout of a million dollars if the ad is rated best by the Super Bowl Ad meter.

The simplicity of the idea is the reason for its success. In 2009, the Doritos finalist Free Doritos was one of the best rated by the USA Today survey and created major social-buzz post game. So, I’m very eager to see who will win this year. My favorite finalist is called “Kids these days” (shown below).

The other 5 finalists are listed below.

• House Rules
• Samurai
• Underdog
• Casket
• Smack Out