The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 76

I I1 i ttin t- I i- i Frito-Lay Sponsors Own Halftime Show Advertisers play new games with Super Bowl By BILL CARTER NkwYork Timks "SuperBowl Washington Redskins vs. Buffalo Bills at the Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minn. Today, CBS at 5. "In Living Color Super Halftime Live special featuring the regular cast of "In Living Color," plus special guests. Tonight, Fox during halftime of the Super Bowl.

v- Is Hit lilt mm Pre-game, post-game programs The kickoff for today's Super Bowl between the Washington Redskins and the Buffalo Bills is scheduled for 5 p.m. at the Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minn. For those who want to watch every pre-game interview and post-game analysis about today's Super Bowl, there are plenty of programs to choose from: "NFL Game Day: Super Bowl Edition" (ESPN at 11 a.m.). A special 90-minute preview of the game. "Edge NFL Super Bowl XXVI Matchup" (ESPN at 12:30 p.m.).

Charley Steiner, Allie Sherman and Ron Jaworski analyze the Super Bowl teams. "Super Bowl Tailgate Party" (MTV at 12:30 p.m.). A special that features musical performances, celebrity guests and pro football players in the parking lot of the stadium in Minneapolis. Also, reports from across the country on Super Bowl fever and world premiere videos. "Super Bowl Sunday" (ESPN at 1 p.m.).

Chris Berman and Tom Jackson offer four hours of highlights from past Super Bowls. "The Super Bowl Today Pre-Game" (CBS at 2:30 p.m.). Host Greg Gumbel, analyst Terry Brad-shaw, contributing reporters Lesley Visser and Pat O'Brien and contributing analysts Dan Fouts and Randy Cross offer commentary and statistics on the game. "The Super Bowl Today Post-Game" (CBS at approximately 9:30 p.m.). Highlights, replays and analysis of the game.

"SportsCenten Super Bowl Edition" (ESPN at approximately 9:30 p.m.). Highlights, replays and analysis of the game. Kecnen Ivory Wayans is surrounded by the dancing Fly Girls of "In Living Color." The Fox series has a special, live, halftime show planned during today's Super Bowl. os Angeles, Calif. Every year during the telecast of the Super Bowl, advertisers seek to score more points than both teams put together.

Because it is always the most-watched television event of the year, the game has become a showcase for new advertising campaigns. Now even making fun of the Super Bowl has become a marketing opportunity. Looking for impact beyond what it could get by simply paying $850,000 to buy a 30-second commercial in today's CBS coverage of Super Bowl XXVI, Frito-Lay the maker of Doritos snack chips, has spent a comparable amount to buy all the commercial time on a special half-hour episode of the Fox Broadcasting series "In Living Color." It will begin the moment the Super Bowl breaks for halftime. The idea is calculated to play off the publicity blizzard that always surrounds the game. Much of that publicity is inherently repetitious, so a new gimmick always draws attention.

Several years ago, NBC received enormous publicity for its "silent minute." The network provided 60 soundless seconds in its pre-game show to counter complaints about too much talk. The reason Frito-Lay bought into the idea, said Jerry Noonan, the company's vice president of marketing, is that it saw the special as a way "to break through all the clutter of the advertising world" and to increase public awareness of a new Frito-Lay product, a bite-size version of two flavors of Doritos chips. The idea was brought to Frito-Lay not by Fox, but by Jay Coleman, the president of Entertainment Marketing and Communications International, who has previously paired products and entertainment outlets. Perceiving the Super Bowl half- NBC doesn't Ebersol welcomes the "cutting-edge commentary" by revolving cast of ex-coaches. By PHIL ROSENTHAL is Am Daily Nkws os Angeles, Calif.

With the recent departure of Bill Walsh Em (or the greener pastures of the Stanford football farm, NBC Sports again has been used like a cheap hotel room with hourly rates by a once-and-future sports figure, and it couldn't be happier. "The real, issue at this point is do we jjke qf half the Super Bowl that has inspired the Fox effort. "It's a very bold thing to do," said Keenen Ivory Wayans, star and executive producer of 'In Living We understand what the Super Bowl is." Coleman said a repeat episode of "In Living Color" received a 10 rating against last year's Super Bowl, which received a 41.8 rating on ABC. He believes this year's live special could do as well as a 15 rating. Each rating point represents 921,000 households.

"The Super Bowl is watched by 120 million people," he said. "If we could even get a third of them to turn over to us, it would be tremendous." has. The league is adding the singer Gloria Estefan to a halftime lineup that includes the figure skaters Dorothy Hamill and Brian Boitano. CBS is obliged to broadcast the 12-minute on-field show. But it plans to use the rest of the half-hour break for a recap of the first half and promotion of its own.

CBS will go live to Albertville, France, for a preview of its Winter Olympics coverage, scheduled for next month. George Schweitzer, senior vice president of marketing for CBS, said the network is far from fearful about losing viewers to Fox. "We're thrilled there's so much interest in our Super Bowl," he said. But it is the boldness of taking on halfway house time to be "video wallpaper," Coleman said he approached Fox in late 1990 about finding an entertainment special to go against it. Fox was the logical outlet for several reasons, Coleman said.

He mentioned the network's reputation for taking risks with programs. Also, Fox is the only national broadcasting service that did not have a deal with the NFL, so it doesn't have a vested interest in not seeing the Super Bowl's halftime ratings diminished. Coleman saw "In Living Color" as the ideal vehicle because it normally is broadcast on Sunday night and because as a sketch comedy, it would easily play off the game. The Fox series also was considered ideal because it attracts a large number of younger male viewers, a principal audience for the Super Bowl and a primary market for Doritos. So instead of watching marching bands and highlights of the game's first half, viewers can turn to "In Living Color" for comedy sketches that include the show's familiar characters.

Regulars from the "Homeboy Shopping Network" will be looting the players' lockers, and the outrageously gay movie critics of "Men on Film" are switching for one night to become "Men on Football." CBS is not quaking under the threat, however. The network has done nothing different to add appeal to the halftime show, but the NFL mind running way house for coaches and the answer is yes, we do," NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol said. "We think we get cutting-edge commentary." Forget cutting-edge commentary. These guys rarely admit they're looking for work. So how much credibility should they have on subjects of which they don't have intimate knowledge? The real bonus of hiring amateur sports announcers-professional job-seekers comes in cutting costs, a practice hardly discouraged at NBC these days.

That's why NBC Sports doesn't mind being used as a sabbatical stop by the likes of ex-San Francisco 49ers coach' Walsh rfej tg iiiiiir 1 i I 1 i St I -r i i for coaches where NBC Sports temps such as ex-New York Giants football coach Bill Parcells will wind up, has enabled him to painlessly gut his division's print-advertising budget. "We don't seem to miss it in football," Ebersol said, "because you all have felled so many trees in covering this story." That's great, but it doesn't help NBC in basketball since coach-turned-analyst Mike Fratello, once rumored to be in line for the Los Angeles Clippers job, seems to be perfectly happy where he is. "We find we encourage Fratello to take a job elsewhere," play-by-play man Marv Albert joked. "He's the only guy, I think, who starts his own Stanford University, former Los Angeles Lakers basketball coach Pat Riley on his way way to the New York Knicks and pro-football executive Bobby Beathard between the Washington Redskins and the San Diego Chargers. "The policy of allowing coaches the freedom to go back to their sports allows us to pay them at a rate that's about half of what our competition's paying," said Ebersol, whose top analysts get about $500,000 before taxes compared to $1.2 million at CBS and $900,000 at ABC.

a -over; i Dick Ebersol.