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Doritos Spot Scores Big In Super Bowl Polls

A Monster.com ad in which a worker shares his office with the tail-end of a moose and a Doritos spot that features a crystal ball inadvertently tossed into the groin of a boss took top honors in the Journal's survey of advertising executives and consumers.

The USA Today Ad Meter gives a clear and decisive victory to the "Free Doritos" spot, which features a guy who shatters a vending machine with his crystal ball after predicting free Doritos for everyone in the office. Another sad sack then lets loose with the ball, which hits his boss where it hurts. The ad was the winner of a $1 million contest sponsored by PepsiCo.

"Two nobodies from nowhere," just walked off with one of the ad world's top honors, 32-year-old Dave Herbert tells Bruce Horovitz. He and his 33-year-old brother, Joe, made the ad. It was the first time in 10 years that Budweiser didn't take the top spot in the Ad Meter contest, but it finished at Nos. 2 and 3.

The folks I watched the Super Bowl with yesterday -- and have since the days when everyone was waiting to see what Apple was going to do next -- kept commenting on the seeming abundance of violence and anger on the selling field. People flying out of windows, rampaging animals, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head arguing like two old spuds. Perhaps it has something to do with our sense of collective seething as we contemplate our checkbooks and 401(k)s.

Or maybe it's been hidden right in front of us all along. A study released by Common Sense Media the other day would indicate so: 500 of the roughly 5,000 spots broadcast during 50 NFL games that it monitored were deemed violent. In all, one in six were deemed inappropriate for children because they were overtly sexual in nature, promoted alcohol, or were violent.

Stayed tuned for more reactions to marketing the big game, when Marketing Daily's Sarah Mahoney rounds up reactions from around the nation.

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Read the whole story at Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Common Sense Media »

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