Super Bowl Sunday: The Biggest Day in Sports and Advertising

Super Bowl XLIV. Of all the events on the American sports landscape, this is the most important game of the year.

Kickoff is at 6:25pm ET in Miami, where the AFC Champion Indianapolis Colts will meet the NFC Champion New Orleans Saints to decide the NFL Champion. Football fans are anticipating a great game, featuring the cerebral control of Colts quarterback and regular season MVP Peyton Manning against the creative style of Saints quarterback Drew Brees.

Off the field and on screens everywhere, Madison Avenue heavyweights will be competing, as well. Advertisers are reportedly paying as much as $3 million for 30 seconds of your time in what promises to be an epic contest of brands, products and celebrity endorsers.

To whet your appetite for both competitions, our Ad Blitz channel, with pre-game videos sponsored by Kia Motors, is a one-stop shop for everything Super Bowl-related. YouTube partners have been busy making predictions, cooking up party recipes and generally dishing on all things related the big game:



During the game, we'll be adding all the 2010 Super Bowl commercials to a video wall on the Ad Blitz channel immediately after they air on TV. Come to the channel to watch and give each ad a thumbs up or down. Voting ends Monday, February 15, with the winner gracing our homepage on Thursday, February 18.

May the best team – and ad – win!

Andrew Bangs, Sports Manager, recently watched "If Filmmakers Directed the Super Bowl."

UPDATE: We’ve seen a fair amount of speculation online regarding a few Super Bowl ads that are currently missing from YouTube’s Ad Blitz. To be clear, each video uploaded to the Ad Blitz was authorized in advance at the advertiser’s request. (Not all Super Bowl advertisers gave us permission to include their ad.) Still, any advertiser airing an ad during the game can send us their ad and enter the Ad Blitz at any time before the end of the voting period, which closes at 11:59:59 PM (ET) on February 15, 2010. We expect to add additional videos to the Ad Blitz in the coming days.

And congratulations Saints!