Super Bowl XLIII marked the first time that a 30-second commercial time slot cost up to $3 million US for the airtime alone, excluding production and talent costs. Many traditional advertisers, such as Anheuser-Busch and PepsiCo, was able to buy multiple ads at discounted rates…that’s a few millions in savings during difficult economic time! Surprisingly, all advertising slots were sold out one day before the game, resulting in sales of $206 million US.

The weak economy didn’t stop some companies from spending ‘ big’ on advertising this year at the Super Bowl XLIII game. SoBe and DreamWorks Animation aired a 3-D trailer for the upcoming film Monsters vs. Aliens, along with a 3-D ad for Sobe Life Water. To make their ad campaign more effective, they also gave away about 150 million “ColorCode 3-D” glasses at grocery stores across the country for the ad. With the Big Three US automakers passed up on buying air time, Hyundai took advantage of the opportunity to advertise their new Genesis Coupe in two 30-second commercials.

YouTube’s top five in “Ad Blitz 2009″ saw the two Doritos ads finish first and fifth. The middle three featured E*Trade’s Singing Baby ad, CareerBuilder.com’s “The Official 2009 Super Bowl Commercial” and Pepsi Max’s “I’m Good” finish second through fourth respectively. Now sit back, relax and enjoy the Part III of the Super Bowl XLIII commercials.