Tune in to CBS's telecast of Super Bowl 50 on Feb. 7 for a commercial from … Chubbies Shorts, Death Wish Coffee Company or Vidler's 5 & 10?
Those are the top-three finishers, culled from thousands of entries, in software company Intuit's "Small Business, Big Game" contest. The winner will have a spot produced by RPA air on the Super Bowl, where the price for half-minute slots has reached $5 million this year. (Voting has concluded, and the winner will be announced in January. The second- and third-place finishers will each receive $25,000 and local advertising valued up to $15,000.)
Intuit, provider of accounting and financial programs like QuickBooks and TurboTax, held a similar competition in 2013-14, won by GoldieBlox, the maker of engineering-themed toys and games for girls. Its big-game spot riffed on the head-bangin' Slade tune "Cum on Feel the Noize." It ran during the third quarter and finished 30th (middle of the pack) in USA Today's Super Bowl Ad Meter.
Let's lake a closer look at this year's "Small Business, Big Game" final three:
• Chubbies Shorts in San Francisco describes itself as "basically a jetpack time-machine disguised as a clothing company," dedicated to propelling dudes "out of the age of capris and shants, and back to the boldly radical shorts era epitomized in the '80s by guys like Larry Bird, Tom Selleck, John McEnroe and everyone's dad."
• Death Wish Coffee of Round Lake, N.Y., claims to make the world's strongest coffee. "Some may say coffee this strong is irresponsible," the company says. "We like to think of it as revolutionary." (Judging by Chubbies' overheated self-description above, I think the staff's been nipping at some of that Death Wish brew.)
• Vidler's 5 & 10 in East Aurora, N.Y., is an old-fashioned five-and-ten-cent store, owned by the same family for 85 years, with, apparently, no plans to foment a revolution or travel back in time to a boldly radical shorts era.
Tell us in the comments which you'd like to see on Super Bowl 50, where an estimated 115 million viewers or more will tune in to watch the New England Patriots trounce some other team nobody cares about. Go Pats!