Super Bowl Ads: Money Well Spent?

Average cost of 30-second spot that year: $850,000
Fumble: Cola for the body-conscious? What could go wrong? The thought was that, if Pepsi's caramel coloring and caffeine were removed, it'd be a ''healthy'' alternative to standard sodas. For the ad, they couple this new twist on an old favorite with ''Right Now,'' a zeitgeisty hit by Van Halen in the prime of their Sammy Hagar era. The only problem? Crystal Pepsi clearly tasted terrible.
The final score: Pepsi discontinued production months later, and Crystal Pepsi was a quaint, ''New Coke''-style relic of the past by 1994.

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Average 30-second ad cost that year: $1.3 million
Fumble: A sloppy borscht of clichés and fear-baiting, this ad featured Russian military men freaking out as they wondered whether a hacker had sent them fake nuclear codes. Because Cold War paranoia was all the rage in 1998 — and totally relevant to personal computer security. Ever.
The final score: After a series of complex mergers, acquisitions, and name changes, the shell of Network Associates now goes by the name McAfee. The company has seen plenty of controversy, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission's 2006 suit claiming the company had overstated its net revenue by more than half a billion dollars between 1998 and 2000 — the thick of the Network Associates era. McAfee also saw a global rupture of its security system in 2010 and a hacker campaign in 2011. The question is, though, were they Russian?

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Average 30-second ad cost that year: $2.2 million
Fumble: Though the sock puppet-starring ad was well-liked in its day, Pets.com was part of a virtual bloodbath in 2000, essentially the rubber-band reaction to the mid- to late-'90s boom in Silicon Valley. The ''Dot-Com Bowl'' featured 17 Internet companies who hoped to leverage big-game exposure as they went public. Unfortunately, their risk-reward scheme backfired in a major way. Have you visited Epidemic.com, OnMoney.com, Lifeminder.com, OurBeginning.com, Computer.com, or Netpliance.com lately? Nope? That's because you can't. Nearly half of the companies with ads that year had folded by the time the clock struck 2001.
The final score: One of the most drastic example of this collapse, Pets.com had closed by November 2000. Bittersweetly, the sock puppet toy was the last item available for purchase when the site shut down.

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Average 30-second ad cost that year: $2.2 million
Fumble: Tech companies weren't the only ones whose bubble burst in the wake of the Super Bowl XXXIV. The animated sci-fi adventure (written by Joss Whedon) was one of the final gambles for Fox Animation Studios. A gamble that didn't pay off, alas, as the film's June 16, 2000, release was met with a critical shrug and an even worse audience response. Ultimately, FAS shuttered in response to the failure of Titan.
The final score: More like Titanic — the film sank at the box office, grossing just $9.3 million in its opening weekend and recovering a scant $36.7 million of its $75-million budget.

Watch a Titan A.E. trailer.

Average 30-second ad cost that year: $2.1 million
Fumble: Though it may be difficult to believe, somehow Super Bowl watchers just didn't cotton onto a 219-minute Civil War movie, whose biggest star was Jeff Daniels, condensed down to 30 seconds. Is your mind blown?
The final score: Gods, which cost $56 million to produce, grossed an abysmal $4.6 mil its opening weekend. With only a five-figure international turnout, its lifetime gross peaked at $12.8 million. For those of you doing the math, that's an unholy 23-percent return.

Watch a Gods and Generals trailer.

Average 30-second ad cost that year: $2.4 million
Fumble: You can just hear the pitch meeting, like the 11th-hour scene in a wacky sports movie: ''Gladys Knight playing rugby? It's so crazy, it's gotta work!'' So, in one of the Super Bowl's most head-scratching commercials, the independent credit card issuer tapped the soul legend to not do the thing for which she was most famous and not play the very sport that millions were gathered around their televisions to watch. Huh. Wonder why that didn't pan out...
The final score: Another case of a company that's been merged and acquired into oblivion, questions about customer harassment, political finagling, and shady lending processes have cast a shadow on what's left of a once powerful institution.

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Average 30-second ad cost that year: $2.4 million
Fumble: Six years after getting into hot water with music giants for proliferating pirated music, Napster tried to go legit with this make-or-break ad. With ''Do the Math,'' the service once again took on Goliath, condescending to iTunes users as it would ''explain'' to fans how much more economical their service would be. Maybe it was the spot's tone, perhaps it was that we no like math, either way, fans were neither amused nor enlightened.
The final score: Napster took a nosedive that year, losing $13.6 million in Q2, and no journalists could resist throwing the ''Do the Math'' punchline back in the company's face. Though not completely dead, Napster was acquired by Best Buy in 2008 and subsumed into the electronics chain's Rhapsody music service at the end of 2011. Point, iTunes.

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Average 30-second ad cost that year: $2.5 million
Fumble: This one seemed tailor-made for pigskin fans — a film featuring Fast and Furious star Paul Walker. Unfortunately, they weren't sold, as became clear when the film opened on Feb. 24.
The final score: A seemingly paltry $3.3 million opening weekend actually comprised more than a third of the film's lifetime gross — worldwide. Though produced for a relatively lean $15 million, it only recouped $9.3 million. Audiences, it seemed were the ones running scared from the film's lack of plot and character development.

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Average 30-second ad cost that year: $3 million
Fumble: Rupert Murdoch went all in on his iPad-only news app, which was launched after delays just days before Super Bowl XLV. With a punk rendition of ''What a Wonderful World,'' the Australian media mogul promised to revolutionize news delivery — nay, make it wonderful. Unfortunately, the trailblazer was an unknown quantity in a climate when trusted journalism institutions were increasingly on the decline.
The final score: Though it boasted a 100k-strong subscriber base, The Daily was estimated to be losing $30 million annually in 2012. Add to that, the after-effects of a company-wide hacking and ethics scandal. With lost faith across his brands, The Daily was under the ax. Murdoch announced its closure as of Dec. 15, 2012.

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Average 30-second ad cost that year: $3.5 million
Fumble: The live-action debut from Pixar superstar Andrew Stanton proved overlong and overhyped. Airing more than two months before the film's March 9 premiere, audiences still had a twinge of hope that Friday Night Lights alum Taylor Kitsch had a promising career ahead of him as a leading man in blockbusters. They were wrong.
The final score: A $30 million opener sounds pretty robust...until you consider the film cost a bloated $250 million to produce. By the time the film's much-needed international figures rolled in (adding up to $282.7M total) the Martian mess was on the hook for a Disney write-down of $84 million, easily the Mouse House's biggest loss in recent memory.

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