Super Bowl Ads Sell Out, and 30 Seconds Cost...

Big money, big money, no whammies? When it comes to Super Bowl XLVI, the big money sure has poured in: The commercial slots are officially sold out, at a cost of about $3.5 million for 30 seconds. The no whammies part remains to be seen... The Wall Street Journal reports that, bad economy and all, the price took a big jump over last year's $3 million. And this year's figure represents a 59% increase since 2001, a year in which 30-second commercials ran about $2.2 million.

Who can viewers expect to be wowed—or disappointed—by on Feb. 5? GM, Volkswagen, first-timer Dannon yogurt, Teleflora, M&M, Pepsi, and Coke, among others. Anheuser-Busch InBev will, of course, be in the house, with a sizable four and a half minutes of air time. No-brainer quote of the day: "The NFL continues to be the gold standard of all programming," NBC Sports' VP of sales and marketing told the Journal, which backed up the claim with some put-it-in-perspective stats: Super Bowl XLV reeled in 111 million viewers; the No. 1 prime-time program last year, American Idol, averaged about 23.9 million. (Click to read about Rolling Stone magazine's planned Super Bowl debut.)