• by Karl Greenberg , January 31, 2007

Ford will advertise during the Super Bowl pre-game Sunday night, but take a pass on the main event. It will use its title sponsorship of the "Built Ford Tough Pre Kick" show to tout its super duty version of the F-Series pickup truck.

Ford has sponsored the pre-game for the past two years, and plans to run two 15-second teasers and one 60-second spot. The longer spot shows the truck being "built"--with each component coming together as a fictitious owner describes the truck before donning his hard hat and driving off. The shorter spots highlight the truck's TailGate Step and diesel engine. The ads, via JWT, Detroit, use the "Bold Moves" divisional theme.

General Motors yesterday said it would run a new corporate ad during the game, touting GM's focus on quality control.

The 60-second ad, via Deutsch, LA, begins a new phase in a product-quality-focused corporate campaign that began last fall with GM's introduction of a 100,000-mile warranty. The new ad shows a robot at work in an assembly plant--GM's Lansing Grand River plant, where it makes Cadillac vehicles. The digitally created robot makes a mistake--dropping a screw--and the production line shuts down. The robot is sent away, ashamed ...

General Motors said the ad would also run on Yahoo, AOL and MSN, with supporting banner ads on ESPN.com and Edmunds.com. GM's other showcase will be a divisional Chevrolet ad that culminates a PR effort started last year, "Chevrolet Super Bowl College Ad Challenge." Honda will run two ads touting its CR-V.