Logo

ford drives ads

Jan 19, 2004  •  Post A Comment

It seems appropriate that the Ford Motor Co. hopes to drive sales of its Centennial Supercar, a k a the 2005 Ford GT (based on a muscle car built for the Le Mans race circuit) with the Super Bowl pregame show on CBS. Ford then plans to leave tire marks all over CBS’s prime-time and late-night schedule Monday, Feb. 2, with the purchase of a commercial in every national pod on every show in the CBS lineup, including top-rated “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “CSI: Miami” and “Late Night With David Letterman.” With at least three spots per hour, Ford is shelling out at least $2 million-about the cost of a Super Bowl spot. A CBS spokesman could not be reached and a Ford Motors Media executive did not return calls.
As of late last week, CBS had only three or four ad spots left to sell in the big game itself, at around $2.2 million each. It has already sold at least 61 spots in the game, for more than $134 million, according to sources, and another $60 million worth in the pregame and postgame shows. It could have sold more. Last week CBS rejected ads from animal activists PETA and political group Move On due to a longstanding policy against advocacy advertising.