Where have all the ad-lovers gone?

The Super Bowl is Sunday. I don't know which teams are playing. I don't really care.\nBut if I remember to watch, I'll be flipping through the channels, waiting for the commercials to come on. I've often heard about how so many people only watch this championship game for the commercials and talk about the best ones for weeks.\nI might not be in as good of company as I once thought. A study by Eisner Communications last year found that only 7 percent of viewers watch the Super Bowl solely for ads. \nIf this is true, where have all the commercial-lovers gone? Eisner stated that the figure is the lowest it's been in years. Apparently, the appeal of iguanas selling beer is not as strong as it used to be. In fact, the only commercial I remember from 2005 is the Diet Pepsi "Guy Watcher" ad, where hoards of women and Carson Kressley followed a man drinking Diet Pepsi down a sidewalk. \nBefore the Internet, these commercials were highly anticipated. You could only catch the excitement during the Super Bowl. Pirated copies now abound all over the Web. To go even further, advertisers are now putting their ads on iTunes and other sites for downloading. The Super Bowl Ads Web site, www.superbowl-ads.com, lists previews of the upcoming ads and discusses their anticipated content. Where did the suspense go? The previous excitement of secret, 60-second, big-budget commercials is gone.\nThis year, companies are paying $2.5 million for a 30-second spot, according to the site. So is it worth it now that some experts claim viewership is lagging? Let's take a look at some of the 27 previews posted on the Web site.\nBudweiser and Pepsi will grace the screen with 13 total ads varying in themes. ABC just approved www.GoDaddy.com's ad with Candice Michelle busting out of her tank top, yet again. Jessica Simpson and Miss Piggy are joining forces to sing "These bites were made for popping" for Pizza Hut. None of these are unique.\nStill, a few of the ads look promising. United Airlines will air its first Super Bowl ad in more than a decade, with stop-motion animation set to George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." Kermit the Frog promotes Ford's environmentally friendly vehicles and Star Trek favorite Leonard Nimoy advocates for Aleve pain relievers. \nMaybe the commercials this Sunday will be entertaining and original enough to be remembered until next year. I know that the commercials I like the best make me laugh, tell a story and feel like a mini-movie. The overall experience of Super Bowl Sunday is what makes it so great in the first place -- too bad you can download half the experience in advance.