Anheuser-Busch Wins 10th USA TODAY Ad Meter Title

MCLEAN, Va., Feb. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Anheuser-Busch grabbed the top spot in
USA TODAY's Super Bowl Ad Meter for a record tenth year in a row. Anheuser-
Busch's Budweiser ad featuring a Dalmatian training a Clydesdale to make the
beer wagon team was the most popular, according to USA TODAY's Ad Meter.
Volunteers gave the ad a score of 8.73 (on a scale of 0 to 10).
For the first time, USA TODAY Ad Meter's second-by-second responses of the
consumer ad testing panel are available to review. Go to USATODAY.com to see
the 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. Anheuser-Busch/Budweiser -- Dalmatian trains Clydesdale to make beer
wagon team -- 8.73
2. FedEx -- FedEx beats giant carrier pigeons -- 8.26
3. Bridgestone -- Critters scream with squirrel missed by car -- 8.11
4. Doritos -- Giant rat goes for guy's bag of chips -- 7.94
5. Anheuser-Busch/Bud Light -- Fire-breather heats up romantic dinner --
7.84

2008 marked the 20th USA TODAY Ad Meter. 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 Chicago, Ill. and McLean, Va. 234
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:
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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SOURCE USA TODAY

Heidi Zimmerman, Director, Communications, +1-703-854-5304,
hzimmerman@usatoday.com, or Alexandra Nicholson, Manager, Communications,
+1-703-854-5872, anicholson@usatoday.com, both of USA TODAY