• by February 6, 2006

Poppin'. At least according to Jessica Simpson, who strutted her Daisy Dukes all over Pizza Hut's new Cheesy Bites commercial last night during the Super Bowl broadcast.

The commercial itself is sweet and kind of fun, even if we think using Simpson to peddle gut-busting, fatty food to guys who don't have a snowball's chance in hell of landing such a babe if they eat said cheesy bites is, well, all wrong. Nevertheless, the bites had it last night and we suspect Pizza Hut is making the most of our all-American Jess to rake in more than bite-sized sales.

But even more fun, is the microsite that AtmosphereBBDO created for the Cheesy Bites campaign. We got the chance to sample the site with Michael Aimette, Atmosphere's animated executive creative director, who joined the interactive shop last fall. Aimette, whose surfer dude good looks and ebullience don't hurt his or Atmosphere's cause a bit, is also a prolific filmmaker whose latest film, "Turning Green," is a dark comedy set in Ireland in the 1970s. He and his writing/directing partner are angling for distribution as the film winds its way through the festival circuit.

Meanwhile, back to the bites. They're made for poppin', but they're also made for playin', as Aimette showed us on the microsite. On the site, all 28 of the cheese-filled bites are matched up with music genres ranging from reggae to record scratch, Bollywood to cowbells. The pepperoni pieces represent sound effects like sneezes, doorbells, and drills. Consumers are invited to quite literally play with their food and remix their own version of Simpson's "These Bites Are Made for Poppin'." Of course the track is a sendup of Nancy Sinatra's hit "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'." Consumers can watch, review, and share with friends via e-mail their version of the song, which is played along with the TV commercial. Kooky, but fun.

And the boots, well, you can enter to win a pair of boots.

Shifting from bites to candy, Aimette also showed us some whimsical work for Snickers under the "Snickers Satisfies" umbrella. Atmosphere created some 40 different interactive creative executions that represent uniquely satisfying and ironic moments. The minute-long animated vignettes were designed to reflect little moments of satisfaction that cubicle dwellers can access each day to uh, break up the tedium of office life.

Interestingly, Snickers doles these moments out carefully--just one execution per day--to keep folks coming back for more. Aimette dubs the bits "found art." We watched "Tree Hugger" and drawing in cement. Yesterday, we accessed a groovy little zit-popping animation. Hmmm. Makes us want to grab a Snickers.

Atmosphere is already working up 70 new executions for the Snickers Satisfies site. We asked about any plans for paid media for the quirky bits; there's a market for this zany content. We think Snickers could make this work on any number of sites, blogs, and big portals.

And finally, on this day after the Super Bowl, a bit of proof that folks actually do watch the game to gawk at the commercials.

More than half of U.S. adults (54 percent) who watch the big game do so as much or more for the commercials as for the game itself, according to a survey commissioned by ad agency Hanon McKendry and conducted by Harris Interactive Inc. last week. The survey indicated that nearly one in five viewers (19 percent) would watch the game mainly for the commercials, while more than 35 percent are equally as entertained by the commercials as the game itself.

"We knew the Super Bowl commercials helped build some of the buzz surrounding the game, but we were a little surprised by the results," said Hanon McKendry President Bill McKendry in a release. "This information confirms that the Super Bowl is as much a media event as it is a sporting event."

Among the findings:

The ads apparently are less appealing to older viewers: 62 percent of viewers aged 18 to 34 watch as much or more for the commercials than the game, versus less than 42 percent of viewers aged 55 and older.

Women reported that they were much more likely to watch the Super Bowl for the ads than men: among those who planned to watch the game, nearly 20 percent more of women (62 percent) than of men (47 percent) planned to watch as much or more for the commercials than the game.

Among those who planned to watch the Super Bowl, retirees (38 percent) and the unemployed (49 percent) were less likely than students (64 percent) and part- timers (65 percent) to say that they'd be watching at least as much for the commercials as the game.

Harris Interactive fielded the online survey between Jan, 27 and 31 among a nationwide sample of 2,345 U.S. adults 18 years of age or older, of whom 1,629 planned to watch the Super Bowl.