U.S. car companies embrace spartaneity at Super Bowl XLIII[SIZE=-1]With NBC's Super Bowl XLIII rate chart asking for $3 million for a 30-second spot, cash-starved Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors decided not to advertise during last night's 27-23 thrilling victory by the Pittsburgh Steelers over the Arizona Cardinals.
It's unclear whether the automaker's decision to skip the game was a sign that the Big Three have embraced our latest Buzzword?spartaneity?or that they simply recognized that Americans aren't buying as many new cars. GM, a National Football League advertiser, went a step further and halved the number of courtesy vehicles it provided the league in Tampa. What's more, said GM spokeswoman Kelly Cusinato before the Super Bowl, "we are not hosting any dealer meetings and no GM executives are attending the game."
Bank of America, which has tapped into $45 billion of TARP money, has not jumped on the spartaneity bandwagon. Check out this story by Brian Ross from today's Good Morning America on ABC.
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