30 second Super Bowl Ad

A 30 second Super Bowl add is $3 million. This is up from 2.7 million in 2008. Or is it? Yesterday, Patrick Reusse had a professor of economics on who has spent tax payer money on researching the economics of sports. He said that while everyone thinks ads will be $3 million, they won't due to a bad economy.

NBC will never say this as it may harm their viewership. So what do they do? They charge 3$ million, but include incentives like reduced price adds following the game. Let's say "Mac's Cheep Shit Shop" wants to buy a Super Bowl add. Instead of paying $2.5 million for the Super Bowl ad (I should get a discount due to a bad economy) and $1 million for an ad during The Office, I pay $3 million for the Super Bowl and $.5 million for The Office.

This is how big companies do things. To make their numbers, they simply adjust the numbers to make things look good.