Super Bowl ads not so supa dupa.

Put this in your "Gee, that's a surprise...just kidding" file.

Turns out that many of the $2.5MM spots went at a discount, as Ad Age reports:

It has become a tough sell, and never more so than in 2005, as the bench of go-to Super Bowl advertisers thins and networks try to pump up prices. This year marketers snapped up last-minute ads at 40% discounts as ABC scrambled to sell a number of spots going into the weekend. Three-and-a-half minutes of advertising -- including at least two spots sold over the weekend -- went to ABCÂ’s corporate siblings, making the Walt Disney Co. the second-biggest advertiser in the game.

Worse, the online magazine reports that five advertisers repurposed creative instead of shooting new spots just for the game. Only one company did that last year.

And the meaning of all this? I think it's pretty clear. Ads are too expensive to buy and produce relative to their effectiveness, so prices need to come down.

For large, omnipresent brands like Budweiser this poses a real problem: What to do when you're an established part of the media landscape? No one switches to Bud because of their ads, but everyone would notice if they stopped advertising. I don't have an answer for that one.

You'd have to talk to a knowledgeable media person to be sure, but I imagine that most ad space is way overvalued--if you believe like I do that they're just one, shrinking part of the multi-faceted marketing approach companies need to connect with people in a helpful, meaningful way.

The inmates have become the asylum's board of directors. We don't realize it yet, but it's true. (Interesting quote from P&G's Lafley on this general idea from Andy Lark at BrandShift.)

Here's the AdAge article if you want to read more. It requires a login.