I didn't watch much of the Super Bowl, but my husband called me in to watch the GoDaddy ads; I have several domains registered through the company, and they were ... memorable. It was of little surprise that, as soon as I reacted in horror to the courtroom advertisement in which a woman, with obvious breast enhancements, shows the court a little too much of her cleavage, I started seeing the "tweets" from dozens of the people I follow on Twitter. Those who weren't already divested of GoDaddy claimed outrage, and began to wonder if they should pull their domains.

This morning, I watched in amazement as "#nodaddy" became a trending topic on Twitter. Not only were both men and women in equal numbers angry about the misogynistic ad, but people were actually changing their domain registrar; a difficult process that can take hours of waiting on hold. A list of GoDaddy alternatives was making the rounds; no one at all was suggesting they'd buy a domain from the company because of salacious excitement.

Naturally, the Twitter audience is likely already familiar with the company, so the simple name recognition play the company continues to chase wouldn't work with the million-strong "niche." But perhaps this niche is also the sort which registers domain names in enough quantities to affect the company's sales; in my opinion, it was an attention-getter that went so far over the edge, sales are now hurtling toward a chasm. (Here is a chart of gains and losses in top domain companies; tomorrow's figures will be telling, but for now, losses nearly equal gains, whereas they are usually about half.) Whether or not GoDaddy survives the firestorm of negative opinion, one thing is certain: we now know where the line is. Also, women both watch football, and register domain names, and future ad companies might do well to remember this.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE)'s NBC Universal unit will charge $3 million per 30-second advertising spot in the 2009 Super Bowl, according to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required). Is it me, or does that strike anyone as particularly insane? The deal is this: I would be that many disinterested fans watch the Super Bowl just for the ads alone. The reason? These are the best of the best, attention-grabbing and inventive commercials.

So, why don't ad agencies and PR flacks do this the rest of the year? The only Super Bowl ad that stuck in my mind this year was Tide's 'talking stain" ad, which probably cost a few dollars to produce and was enormously effective. The cost of the campaign was the cost of the ad, of course. All those other advertisers that spend millions on Super Bowl ads this year? Can't remember one of them.

The price for a 2008 Super Bowl 30-second ad spot was $2.7 million, so NBC is upping the game here a bit. Is that ad inventory worth it? With media changing all the time, television is still a lucrative game, and smart advertisers are combining the web and television into complementary market platforms. Like the Tide commercial referenced above, the entire ad was designed to drive traffic to MyTalkingStain.com, not to your local supermarket to buy the product. That's smart marketing. If you spent $3 million for an ad, would you want the impact of the web to somehow be involved? I thought so -- but not all ads do, apparently.

General Motors' (NYSE: GM) GMC had an ad on last night's Super Bowl for the first time in years. It cost something in the neighborhood of $5 million to broadcast, and if you're a GM stockholder, you might want to ask: why did GM waste so much money?

The ad (you can see it below) is a spare, black and white cartoon of a human figure rolling a large boulder up a hill. The figure works immensely hard, pushing the rock for over 45 seconds -- an eternity in Super Bowl ad time. Finally, he gets the rock to the peak of the mountain. Fade to a white GMC Yukon hybrid, which, according to the ad, gets 50% better mileage than a regular Yukon.

This post is part of our Battle of the Brands feature. Let us know which brand you prefer, and watch out for more Battle of the Brands posts.

Some people drink Pepsi, some people drink Coke,
The wacky morning DJ says democracy's a joke.
-- Cake, Comfort Eagle

Unless you are a rare RC Cola drinker, your carbonated beverage decision in the supermarket comes down to the two heavyweights: the flagship products from the Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) and PepsiCo Inc (NYSE: PEP). But the battle between these brands spans much further than the supermarket shelves. From which brand restaurants stock, to what countries each operates in, this rivalry is all-encompassing and global. But instead of a list of countries or restaurant chains, lets take a deeper look at the actual products.

Cola and Beyond

We don't have space to list, nor would you have time to read, every different variant of Coca-Cola and Pepsi, which would force me to include failed ideas such as Crystal Pepsi. Suffice it to say, you won't find many original ideas here, and when a successful idea comes from either company, an imitator just as quickly appears from the other. Coke/Pepsi, Diet Coke/Diet Pepsi, Cherry Coke/Wild Cherry Pepsi, Coke with Lime/Pepsi Lime, Coke Zero/Pepsi One, Coca-Cola Blak/Pepsi Cappuccino. Had enough yet? Because that was just a list of comparable colas. Both companies also make lemon-lime sodas, orange sodas, and other similar carbonated and noncarbonated beverages. So then what differentiates them? Certainly not their product arsenal, but taste and marketing.

The opening of a new ad campaign designed to attract the African American community to The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) products will be unveiled during Sunday's Super Bowl. Titled Timeline: Especially Today, the ads will honor historically important achievements by African Americans, as well as the key role they continue to play in our country's success.

While they haven't explicitly tied the ads to Black History Month, the timing seems obvious. These ads are part of a campaign that will continue throughout the balance of 2007.

In 2000, Coca-Cola settled a race discrimination lawsuit for what was, at that time, a record $192 million for charges of inequitable pay, promotions and performance reviews. Since then, they have aggressively pursued a more positive image in the black community with support for programs and facilities such as The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, The Apollo Theater Foundation, and Art of Harmony.

Advertisers are busy teasing viewers and the press with hints about the ads they will unveil during Superbowl XLI next Monday night. The ads, which will bring CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS) up to a reported $2.6 million per half-minute, are reputation makers/breakers for companies such as GoDaddy and Pets.com. (Remember Sock Puppet? And we didn't believe there was an e-bubble!)

This year's biggest spender is, once again, Anheuser-Busch (NYSE:BUD) for its Budweiser beer. Don't expect more Bud Bowl silliness or a Clydesdale kickoff, though. After a couple of years of pitching quality, Bud is likely to use humor to push the suds this time, with stars such as Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jay-Z, and Carlos Mencia.

Anheuser-Busch, the exclusive alcoholic beverage sponsor until 2012, has purchased five minutes to split between Bud and its skinny cousin, Bud Light.

Other companies planning to unveil new ads include Pepsi (NYSE:PEP), the halftime show sponsor who will offer a jewel-encrusted Pepsi Super Can worth 100 grand, Doritos, Cadillac, Motorola, FedEx (NYSE:FDX), and Sprint.

In a nice twist on ad development, the NFL ran a contest inviting fans to send in pitches for what they thought would make great Superbowl ads. A video of the winner, Gino Bona's, pitch is up on their site.