Sprint, T-Mobile CEOs brawl over Super Bowl ads

The CEOs of Sprint and T-Mobile fought on Twitter over their respective Super Bowl ad spots.

HONG KONG (CNNMoney)

T-Mobile (TMUS) CEO John Legere took his first shot after Sprint's commercial aired, tweeting: "Half-assed commercial, half-assed data speeds. #typical @sprint. #SprintLikeHell."

Legere was referencing a Sprint ad that offered to cut the bills of Verizon and AT&T customers in half if they switched carriers.

"Dear Verizon (VZ, Tech30) and AT&T (T, Tech30), Sprint would like to apologize for calling you a ..." the ad said before cutting away to a bleating sheep. T-Mobile was not mentioned.

Meanwhile, Sprint (S) CEO Marcelo Claure was busily retweeting user comments that praised his company's ad, or bashed a T-Mobile spot featuring Kim Kardashian.

Related: NFL's domestic violence Super Bowl spot: 'It's up to us to listen'

The T-Mobile ad featured Kardashian in a spoof public service announcement: "Each month, millions of gigs of unused data are taken back by wireless companies -- tragic. Data you paid for that can be used to see my makeup, my backhand, my outfits, my vacations, and my outfits. Sadly, all lost. Please help save the data."

Claure used an image to respond to Legere's "half-assed" tweet. The message was: "Never sacrifice your class to get even with someone who has none. Take the high road."

Legere responded, "Oh look! You learned how to use the "respond" button. I thought you only knew how to use the retweet button."

The Twitter fight showed no signs of slowing. Even after the clock expired, Legere was still firing off messages.

Related: Kim Kardashian's selfies coming soon in hardcover

Read next: Top Twitter moments of 2014: Celebrities, social activism, sports

First Published: February 1, 2015: 11:54 PM ET

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These Super Bowl ads made this Dad cry

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

So I am not ashamed to admit that several of this year's Super Bowl ads had me reaching for the box of Kleenex.

Call it "dad"-vertising if you will. Or "pa"-rketing. It was refreshing to see Nissan (NSANF), Toyota (TM) and Unilever's (UN) Dove Men make commercials that had positive things to say about fathers.

Advertisers have often relied on lazy, easy joke stereotypes -- treating Dads like bad sitcom characters. Think Al Bundy.

Related: Check out a gallery of this year's Super Bowl ads

But this year's ads celebrated fatherhood and acknowledged that many children have fond memories of their dads.

It's about time. My kids come first. And I know I'm not alone.

It's amazing that it took this long for marketers to realize that ads that tug at the heartstrings of emotionally engaged fathers can be as effective (if not more so) than scantily clad women drinking beer or modeling lingerie.

The commercials for Toyota and Nissan were both very sentimental. I teared up a bit during the Toyota one, which featured a proud dad interacting with his daughter as she grew up.

The Nissan ad was touching but a little too long. I also couldn't get over the fact that a car company chose to focus on the dangerous sport of race car driving and use a song by a singer (Harry Chapin) who was killed in a car crash. But I'm nitpicking.

Still, the Dove ad was the best. It really struck a chord. I thought that it was the most poignant, showing several kids calling for their daddy. I lost it during that one.

It was tough for me to watch this year's Super Bowl without my Dad around. Sports were a big part of our bonding experience -- football in particular.

My Dad would have enjoyed this year's Super Bowl -- and the ads celebrating fathers.

My father took me to my first football game when I was seven. It was a frigid and windy mid-December day in 1980. The New York Jets played the New Orleans Saints at Shea Stadium.

The Saints were 0-14 at the time. Archie Manning -- father of Peyton and Eli -- was their quarterback. The Jets lost. By one point.

I still had a great time with my Dad at the game. But it didn't take long to figure out that I'd be happier as a Giants fan. (Four Super Bowl victories later, I can definitely say, "Thanks, Pop!")

Related: Super Bowl advertisers 'are on trial'

But I now feel conflicted watching football with my sons.

Given all that is wrong with the game -- domestic violence and the history of concussions are just the tip of the iceberg -- I do wonder if the NFL will be around by the time I have grandchildren.

Still, that's a topic for another time.

I'm just glad that on football's (and advertising's) biggest night, some marketers decided to stop showing fathers as idiots who can't change stinky diapers or pay attention to their kids because they are too busy working or watching TV.

Instead, they highlighted the important, hands-on role that many involved fathers play in their kids' lives.

Now will these dad-vertisements make me want to go out and buy a brand new Nissan Maxima or Toyota Camry? No.

But I might consider changing my face wash from Neutrogena to Dove.

First Published: February 1, 2015: 11:10 PM ET

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Super Bowl advertisers 'are on trial'

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

There were babies, dads, dogs, celebrities, athletes, and more babies. But there was also a minute-long message about domestic violence and a dead child who "couldn't grow up."

The provocative messages were meant to stand out from the dozens of other spots competing for attention. They might have made for a few awkward moments at viewing parties, but there were still plenty of ads that elicited smiles.

Well-received spots included Budweiser's "Lost Dog" commercial; BMW's humorous ad with Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel; and a serious Coca Cola ad rebuking Internet "haters." Other hits included a throw-back Snickers ad starring Danny Trejo and Steve Buscemi and an almost universally praised Dodge ad featuring senior citizens.

Related: Seahawks and Patriots fans face off

For the companies, Sunday was a $4.5 million moment. Months of planning and weeks of promotion culminated in 15 to 60 seconds in front of more than 100 million viewers -- and those viewers instantly delivered their verdicts via the Internet.

"Advertisers are on trial via social media," said media strategist Shari Anne Brill.

Companies facing negative reviews on Sunday night -- but still lots of chatter about their ads -- included Nationwide Insurance, T-Mobile and GoDaddy.

Nationwide's ad showed a boy speaking about the life he would have lived, had he not been killed in an accident.

"I'll never learn how to ride a bike. Or get cooties!" the character said.

"That Nationwide ad just knocked me off my chair," CNNMoney's Frank Pallotta tweeted.

As criticism mounted on Sunday night, Nationwide felt compelled to issue a statement: "The sole purpose of this message was to start a conversation, not sell insurance."

The conversation Nationwide wanted to start was about how "preventable injuries around the home are the leading cause of childhood deaths in America."

Instead, the boy became a meme even before halftime.

"The second I see a kid in one of these commercials I immediately assume they're going to die. Thanks, Nationwide!" comedian Patton Oswalt tweeted.

Related: Will the Super Bowl get record ratings?

Paying an average of $4.5 million for 30 seconds of air time, advertisers during the four quarters of the Super Bowl face extraordinarily high stakes. (And that's just the price paid to NBC -- companies pay huge amounts of money to get the ads produced.)

One ad right before kickoff that drew immediate commentary: a spot by Chevrolet about the wireless Internet capabilities of its Colorado trucks.

"Chevy trucks advertising 4G LTE instead of driving through gratuitous mud. The world has truly gone tech," Mashable chief strategy officer Adam Ostrow wrote on Twitter.

The all-important first ad position after kick-off belonged to Toyota, (TM) which had a feel-good ad starring Paralympic athlete Amy Purdy.

A few minutes later, commenters on Twitter were surprised by an ad for a mobile game called "Game of War."

The game's creator, Machine Zone Inc., isn't alone -- mobile developer UCool had a spot promoting its game "Heroes Charge" later in the evening.

Some advertisers have tried to capitalize by releasing their ads days ahead of time, and promoting them with YouTube teasers, Facebook messages and tweets.

"Puppies, laughs, celebrities, sex and family values continue to drive advertising creatives," said Sean Muller, the CEO of iSpot.tv, which tracks online views of Super Bowl ads.

What's different this year, he said, is "the volume of pre-releases/teasers."

Muller said some advertisers are using Facebook's relatively new video features to get attention, and it's "driving up viewing and social activity significantly."

But "the volume of views and activity on Facebook appears to be an additive, meaning it's not taking away from activity on other platforms," like YouTube, Muller said.

"And secondly, some brands aren't utilizing it yet -- I suspect that will change next year."

Sunday's game was expected to feature 15 first-time Super Bowl advertisers.

"If you would have told me 10 years ago that Chevy wouldn't be in the Super Bowl, but that Wix.com or Dove products for men would be, I'd be very surprised," Richard Kirshenbaum, the CEO of ad agency NSG/SWAT, said on CNN's "New Day."

"But there's a new lineup. There's a new America," he added.

Super Bowl regulars like McDonald's (MCD), Coca-Cola (KO), Budweiser, and BMW will be present, too.

Perhaps the most thought-provoking ad of the game was the one commissioned by the NFL for its "No More" initiative, intended to stop domestic violence and sexual assault.

"The spot, which features a woman calling 911 and pretending to order a pizza because her husband is in the room, is based on a real 911 call," said the ad blog Spot Bowl, which called it a "game-changer."

It said the NFL was giving over "some of the airtime it normally reserves for light-hearted self promos" for the PSA.

Brill, a former executive at the ad agency Carat, noted that the NFL says it is contributing $5 million per year for the next five years to the National Domestic Violence hotline.

"It's about time," she said.

First Published: February 1, 2015: 7:21 PM ET

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In football they trust: Polynesians' pipeline to the American dream

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

"As Polynesian kids, we were much bigger than the other kids in high school so it was natural for us to excel and do well in football, said Tongan Tony Vainuku.

Vainuku is the director of the documentary, "In Football We Trust," which debuted at the Sundance Film festival this past week.

The film chronicles the lives of four young NFL hopefuls in the Salt Lake City area, which boasts one of the largest Polynesian communities outside of Samoa and Tonga.

"The Polynesian football phenomenon is a big thing but not many people including our own community in Salt Lake City and Utah know anything besides that," said co-director and producer Erika Cohn.

Related: NFL gets billions in subsidies from taxpayers

For many Polynesian families, playing football is the road to a good education and way to support the entire family.

But that journey to the top isn't all glitz and glamor.

Recruited and groomed for the NFL

Al Lolotai. Manu Tuiasospo. Haloti Ngata. Troy Polamalu.

Their names have filled college and NFL rosters in the last several decades. There have been more than 200 Polynesians who have played professionally in NFL and CFL.

Getting to play at a top college and eventually the NFL like their peers before them has inspired many Polynesian youth to start young and play football in high school.

"If I keep making the right choices and keep my head straight, things start falling in place you know, I'll get my degree. I'll go on and get a good paying job in the league. If I'm in the league you know, the first couple checks go to the family," said Harvey Langi, one of Utah's top high school running backs interviewed in the film.

The average salary range for a NFL player ranges from $750,000 to $22 million for top players, according to Spotrac.com.

Related: Who is the richest NFL team owner?

During his senior year in high school, Langi received football scholarships offers from almost every top Division I school. But a trespassing incident that involved suspected marijuana use limited those choices as schools withdrew their scholarship offers.

"It's just so much pressure on your shoulders. It's like I could hardly carry it sometimes," Langi said in the film.

"If you fail this Harvey, all of your scholarships will be gone. That's when it hit me. If it's in my system and I test positive, I'd get just a regular job and be a normal person and if it comes out negative, I tell myself I'm going to make it today in the field," he said.

Langi tested negative for marijuana and was suspended but allowed to stay on the football team at Bingham High School in South Jordan, Utah.

"The thing that's difficult for the kids that are growing up is that their parents expect them to play in the NFL at the cost of everything else. It's hard to get in there. It's even harder to stay. And if kids grow up thinking well that's what I'm going to do and nothing else, they're a long shot to success in life period," said former Green Bay Packer and Philadelphia Eagle player Vai Sikahema, the first Tongan to play in the NFL.

Langi ended up committing to the University of Utah but after a year he decided to go on a mission with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for two years.

"A lot of people think I'm just doing my mission because maybe I'm scared of football -- scared of not playing because I didn't do good my first year. I'm not scared. I can still play ball. I want to be a running back. I want to show that Polynesians can be a running back in the league. And I know I have the ability to do it," Langi said in the film.

After returning from his mission, Langi is now playing football at Brigham Young University.

A vehicle to stay out of trouble

For other families, football was a means to stay out of bad situations and finance an education.

"It does take a toll on your family. Sacrifice is something huge for us where we feel we're going to do whatever we need to do with whatever means we have," said Kauta Bloomfield, mother of Leva and Vita -- brothers who were profiled in the film as they struggled to disassociate their ties from gangs while playing football. Leva was sent to juvenile detention after he brought a gun to school.

Their father Fua was a former Brigham Young University running back who founded one of Utah's first Polynesian gangs.

"When I look back we did invest a lot in Leva and Vita because they were the oldest of the nine (children). We always figured that we invest all of this time and money into them it's all going to pay off -- which it did, they got full ride scholarships, however it did take a lot of time from our younger kids," Bloomfield told CNNMoney by phone Friday. "So when they did make bad choices it did make me question myself as far as parenting -- where was it worth all of that, because they still ended up making other choices."

Leva and Vita completed their high school coursework and Leva is now playing football at Snow College and Vita is a football coach at the University of Utah.

A means to something greater

For Fihi Kaufusi, football was never the end game.

"Football is not always going to be there for me. I may have a good body -- body type for speed and stuff but that's going to only last so long. I got to figure it out...school job and a career," Kaufusi said.

As the oldest in his family, Kaufusi's mother pushed him to set an example for his other brothers and sisters.

After returning from his mission with the LDS church, Kaufusi is now playing football at Weber State University.

"I used football as a means of transportation to get where I needed to go. I knew in my heart, football was going to be done soon for me and I wouldn't be able to continue on after college," Kaufusi said by phone Friday. "But I can use it to get me to college and to get my degree and that would do a lot for my family."

First Published: January 31, 2015: 10:34 AM ET

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2.1 million cars recalled for crash sensors

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

All the vehicles had previously been recalled for this issue but the manufacturers' repairs have not stopped the problem. The sensors, which are designed to sense a serious impact, were made by auto parts supplier TRW (TRW).

The earlier fix, which involved installing devices to protect the airbag sensor module from electrical surges, was very effective, reducing inadvertent airbag deployments by about 85%, according to NHTSA. But some unwarranted deployments were still occurring.

Manufacturers will now entirely replace the impact sensors with new units. It will take some time to have the new sensors ready. Meanwhile, NHTSA is instructing vehicle owners who have had not had the initial recall fix done to contact their dealers had have it done.

Related: Cars with the best resale value

"Even though it's a temporary solution until the new remedy is available, they and their families will be safer if they take the time to learn if their vehicle is covered and follow their manufacturers' instructions," NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind said in an announcement. "A hassle is much better than a family tragedy."

About half of the vehicles were also involved in recalls for faulty Takata airbags. Those airbags have faulty inflators that can explode, shooting out sharp metal fragments.

Related: Ford recalls police cars

That makes attention to this recall especially important, NHTSA said, since occupants in those cars can be badly injured by their airbags.

The vehicles involved are Acura MDX, Dodge Viper, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Jeep Liberty, Honda Odyssey, Pontiac Vibe, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Matrix and Toyota Avalon.

Related: Honda hit with $70 million in fines for failing to report accidents over 11 years

The vehicles involved are all from model years 2002 through 2004. The age of the vehicles can make it difficult to track down current owners since many of these cars and trucks will be with their second or third owners. For that reason, NHTSA as taking extraordinary steps to get out word of this recall.

For more information car owners should go to http://www.safercar.gov/.

First Published: January 31, 2015: 11:59 AM ET

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What Super Bowl? The Ad Bowl has already begun

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Some Super Bowl advertisers have been previewing their ads for days, trying to maximize their multimillion dollar investments. Others are keeping their ads under wraps until game time, believing that's the best way to stand out.

At an average cost of $4.5 million per 30-second ad, the stakes are obviously high.

NBC said ad time during the four quarters of the game officially sold out earlier this week. Almost as valuable is the commercial time during the network's six-hour pre-show -- and after the game, when NBC will show its popular drama "The Blacklist."

Watch: Super Bowl's strangest prop bets

More than ever, Super Bowl advertisers are supplementing their 15-, 30- and 60-second spots with viral online videos and what marketers call "social media war rooms."

But the spots are undoubtedly the most important part. On top of what's paid to NBC, companies pay advertising firms huge amounts of money to distill brand messages into funny, timely, celeb-filled, sex-soaked ads.

The game will feature 15 first-time Super Bowl advertisers.

"If you would have told me 10 years ago that Chevy wouldn't be in the Super Bowl, but that Wix.com or Dove products for men would be, I'd be very surprised," Richard Kirshenbaum, the CEO of ad agency NSG/SWAT, said on CNN's "New Day."

"But there's a new lineup. There's a new America," he added.

Wix, a website-building company, is one of the first-timers. Chief marketing officer Omer Shai told CNNMoney that it prepared almost a dozen "teaser" ads ahead of Sunday.

"We are updating and changing the campaign on a daily basis according to performance," Shai said. "This is the year that we're comfortable [taking] the brand to the next level."

Other newbies include the online insurance company Esurance, the glue brand Loctite, the toenail fungus treatment Jublia, and the mobile game maker UCool.

Related: Preview 17 Super Bowl ads

Household names like McDonald's (MCD), Coca-Cola (KO), Budweiser, and BMW will be present, too.

Coca Cola has a 60-second ad rebuking Internet "haters" that won't be seen until the game. But the company has already released clips with stars like Danica Patrick, Michael Sam and Robby Novak, better known as Kid President.

A Coke representative said the ad is "intended to disrupt the complacency that's set in around online negativity" -- something that anyone who's spent time on Facebook or Twitter knows about.

Perhaps the most thought-provoking ad of the game will be the one commissioned by the NFL for its "No More" initiative, intended to stop domestic violence and sexual assault.

"The spot, which features a woman calling 911 and pretending to order a pizza because her husband is in the room, is based on a real 911 call," said the ad blog Spot Bowl, which called it a "game-changer."

It said the NFL was giving over "some of the airtime it normally reserves for light-hearted self promos" for the PSA.

Marketers come to the Super Bowl with a wide variety of missions.

For Victoria's Secret, its ad is part of a weeks-long campaign leading up to Valentine's Day.

For TurboTax, the timing is right, too, because it's tax season.

Weight Watchers is using the stage to introduce a rebooted brand.

NBC will be promoting several of its forthcoming shows, like "Odyssey" and a variety show hosted by Neil Patrick Harris.

Most of the ads will, in one form or another, strive to make 110 million viewers laugh -- and, most importantly, remember the advertisers.

First Published: January 31, 2015: 3:58 PM ET

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Super Bowl tickets are most expensive ever

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The average ticket price so far is $3,554 -- about $1,000 more than last year, according to SeatGeek, which tracks online sales.

SeatGeek analyst Connor Gregoire said he does not expect the price for the few remaining tickets to come down before the Seahawks and Patriots face off on Sunday in front of 72,000 fans in Phoenix.

On Friday, the cheapest ticket was going for nearly $8,000 and the most expensive topped $24,000, according to SeatGeek.

And there are very few left -- only about 300 tickets on Friday. On the same day last year, there were about 4,000.

Related: Snickers cast Danny Trejo in Brady Bunch reboot

Getting a ticket to the Super Bowl is a tricky business. Only 1,000 are sold to fans at face value. The rest are divvied up among the league, which gives a lot to corporate sponsors, and the teams. Those tickets are either auctioned off to season tickets holders, or sold by brokers on the secondary market.

In the past few years, many buyers have held out until the last minute and, in fact, got a good deal as prices fell in the days leading to the game.

Game day is actually the busiest in the resale market, Gregoire said.

But this year prices have gone up. It's not entirely clear why. But there are fewer tickets than expected on the secondary market. That will leave some fans out of luck.

Related: Is a $45 million Super Bowl ad worth it?

First Published: January 30, 2015: 4:50 PM ET

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