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Last week, Volkswagen and Deutsch, Los Angeles, unveiled a 60-second Super Bowl teaser on YouTube and then on broadcast TV during an episode of "The Middle" on ABC. The spot stars mutts barking a canine rendition of "The Imperial March," aka "Darth Vader's Theme," the track featured in last year's VW Super Bowl darling, "The Force."

The dozen dogs, selected from a pool of 40 who "auditioned," were chosen not for their vocal chops but, in some cases, for their resemblance to "Star Wars" characters, according to Tim Mahoney, chief product and marketing officer for Volkswagen of America. "See if you can find Chewbacca," he said, adding, "If you have a pet in the house, this ad drives them crazy."

The ad was directed by Keith Schofield of Caviar Content, who said the dogs were shot together and then separately on the set, barking to a temporary track created by Endless Noise's Jeff Elmassian, who was also behind the arrangement of John William's original Vader march for "The Force." Prior to production, "we talked about how this should probably be handled like a music video," said Deutsch Director of Integrated Content Vic Palumbo. "We needed to create the track first and then figure out who the dogs are, what notes they're going to be singing."

The commercial also ushered in an era in Super Bowl advertising that we still inhabit: the ad as entertainment.

That we expect ads during the Super Bowl to be as entertaining as the game itself can largely be traced back to "1984."

In 1989, just a few years after "1984," the national newspaper introduced a revolutionary concept -- and a marketing masterstroke. Take a small panel of people, isolate them in a room with a meter and tell them to constantly turn a dial rating what they're seeing on a scale from one to 10.

Ms. Brown is the second female in the M&M’s cast, after Ms. Green, and like her colorful counterparts she will be imbued with a distinct personality. Ms. Brown is an intelligent woman with a sharp wit who finally decided to reveal herself after working for decades behind the scenes as “chief chocolate officer.”

Their devotion to the Super Bowl comes at no small cost. NBC is charging an average of $3.5 million for each 30 seconds of commercial time in the game, compared with an average of $3 million for each 30-second spot in Super Bowl XLV on Fox in February 2011. Even at that price, commercial time for Super Bowl XLVI has been sold out since Thanksgiving, NBC recently disclosed.

One way to ensure that a Super Bowl commercial is “not a splash, a flash in the pan,” Ms. Sandler said, is to make it the centerpiece of an elaborate campaign that takes place before, during and after the game. In fact, the spot will serve to “kick off a year of activity” to introduce Ms. Brown, she added.

Ad pages at Newsweek dropped 16.8% in 2011, but its fortunes seemed to improve after Ms. Brown's March 14 redesign. Ad pages in the first quarter were down 30.8% from the year-earlier period, then dropped 24.5% in the second quarter, 10% in the third and 3.6% in the fourth, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. Newsweek said its December ad pages were up 15% from December 2010.

The "Mad Men"-themed issue, which will be dated March 19, will include a cover story on the series and a feature on the role of advertising in U.S. culture.

Unknown to Duick, someone had signed her up for the campaign at YourOtherYou.com, a web site set up for the prank. The campaign was aimed at 20-something males because the company’s advertising firm, Saatchi & Saatchi LA, determined that the demographic loves to punk their friends.

Today, AdFreak celebrates seven years of CP+B and Burger King with a list of the 15 campaigns we're still talking about, for better or worse.