Frito-Lay Wins First USA TODAY Ad Meter Title

February 2, 2009 | 1:01 am

MCLEAN, Va., Feb. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Frito-Lay grabbed the top spot in USA TODAY’s Super Bowl Ad Meter for the first time. Frito-Lay’s Doritos ad featuring an office worker using a crystal ball to free Doritos was the most popular, according to USA TODAY’s Ad Meter. Volunteers gave the ad a score of 8.46 (on a scale of 0 to 10).

Go to admeter.usatoday.com to see full USA TODAY Super Bowl Ad Meter results, watch all the Super Bowl ads, rate the ads yourself and see what others think. Complete results are also available in today’s editions of USA TODAY.

          The top five ads and final ratings are:
          1.  Frito-Lay Doritos - Crystal ball sees free Doritos - 8.46
          2.  Anheuser-Busch Budweiser - Clydesdale’s romance with circus
              horse - 8.42
          3.  Anheuser-Busch Budweiser - A Clydesdale can fetch - 8.26
          4.  Bridgestone - Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head take a drive - 7.83
          5.  Frito-Lay Doritos - Superpowers of Doritos’ crunch - 7.79

USA TODAY created the Super Bowl Ad Meter in 1989 to gauge consumers' opinions about TV's most expensive commercials. This year Ad Meter was held in McLean, Va. and Portland, Ore. 288 volunteers charted their second-by-second reactions to national Super Bowl commercials using hand-held meters to register how much they liked or disliked an ad. A computer averaged the scores continuously.

           Previous Ad Meter winners:
           2008 - Anheuser-Busch - Dalmatian trains Clydesdale to make beer
                  wagon team - 8.73
           2007 - Anheuser-Busch - Crabs worship a cooler of Budweiser on the
                  beach - 8.56
           2006 - Anheuser-Busch:  Secret refrigerator stocked with Bud Light
                  - 8.39
           2005 - Anheuser-Busch:  Pilot jumps out of airplane for Bud Light -
                  8.65
           2004 - Anheuser-Busch: Owners demonstrate how their dogs fetch Bud
                  Light - 9.04
           2003 - Anheuser-Busch: Replay - 8.99
           2002 - Anheuser-Busch: Satin Sheets - 9.11
           2001 - Anheuser-Busch: Cedric’s dream date - 8.63
           2000 - Anheuser-Busch: Rex the Dog recalls his worst day - 8.09
           1999 - Anheuser-Busch: Separated at Birth - 8.01
           1998 - Pepsi: Flying Geese - 9.08
           1997 - Pepsi: Dancing bears - 8.22
           1996 - Pepsi: On security camera, Coke driver nabs Pepsi - 9.42
           1995 - Pepsi: Boy gets sucked into bottle - 9.66
           1994 - Pepsi: Chimp escapes lab, hits the beach - 9.34
           1993 - McDonald’s: Jordan and Bird shoot hoops - 9.00
           1992 - Nike: Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan team - 8.51
           1991 - Diet Pepsi: Ray Charles’ new jingle catches on - 8.52
           1990 - Nike: Famous announcers call imaginary game - 8.17
           1989 - American Express: Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz travel to the
                  Super Bowl - 7.52.

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