• Ad Age, Wednesday, February 1, 2006 11:31 AM

Super Bowl advertisers are finally realizing that since about half of the estimated 89 million who will tune into the big game this Sunday will be women, it might be wise to target a few of their ads to them. ESPN Research from ESPN revealed that last year's Super Bowl audience was 56 percent male and 44 percent female. This year's advertiser lineup runs the gamut from antibacterial soaps and Aleve to nuts and life insurance, proving that "media people are starting to see that [the Super Bowl] is a media vehicle that transcends just men," said Ed Erhardt, president-ad sales and customer marketing for ESPN and ABC Sports. On Sunday, Unilever will run its "Real Beauty" spots for its Dove brand while beer giant Anheuser-Busch says it is keeping the female audience in mind in the spots it chooses to show during the game. Even automakers are jumping on the bandwagon. Cadillac, for example, will launch its redone Escalade SUV with creative that shows the vehicle on a model's runway.

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