“I’d only been playing for two or three months when I won on Friday, Jan 1, 2010,” she said. “I really didn’t expect to win that quickly. But I read on the site where some people won early, like me. That’s really encouraging. If you do it every day your chances of winning are really good.”

An aspiring children’s writer and graduate student at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Lorraine appreciates a good commercial on several levels.  “Some of them are very, very clever. Sometimes they’re even kind of exciting. I have certain commercials I look for and watch over and over again. The commercial with the linebacker in the office--I could watch it every day. I love that one. I love the Starry-Eyed Surprise Diet Coke ad for the song.  And any Will Farrell video--the basketball player—they’re great. I like that you get to rate them and give the companies feed back. That’s really cool, too.”

Her enthusiasm for smart commercials spills over to AdJack.  “I think it’s great,” she says. “I signed up because it’s such a clever idea. Watching commercials for the possibility of winning something, and you don’t have to put any money into it? Well, yeah!”

A sweeps player for only about a year, he watches commercials every day on AdJack, then spends an hour or so entering other contests.  His diligence paid off with two cash prizes so far, but he’s still waiting to see if this sweepstakes thing is for real.

“A lot of my friends say ‘nah, you didn’t really win. I ain’t going to believe it until I see it.’ One friend of mine was shocked when I won this one, and then another one. My buddies say they’ll believe it when they see the checks,” and I say ‘you’re just like me. We’ll see what happens.’”

Jim called in from the road where he works construction in southeastern Utah. He doesn’t ski—“Why is it people expect everybody from Utah to ski? I’m afraid of heights,” he says—but he hunts and fishes, and goes four wheeling when he’s not out building or repairing roads to oil rigs in the Utah mountains.

When the AdJack check comes in, he’ll get to treat his buddies to a hot cup of we told you so.

Her husband is an AdJack member too, who encouraged her to start playing about three months ago.  “He’s been playing for a long time,” she says.  She won within a month of joining.

She’s at her computer before dawn most mornings, playing AdJack before she leaves for a day of delivering babies, a job she has been doing for the past 32 years.  It’s often 4:30 or 5 a.m. when she clicks on the E-Trade babies.  “I love those talking babies. Maybe it’s because of what I do for a living. I’m into babies. I saw on the Super Bowl that there’s a whole new series coming round.”

When she’s not working, she’s taking advantage of her adopted state’s big outdoors, or painting.

He plays at least a couple times each week, clicking on the E-Trade babies when they’re on the front page, and if they’re not, then he’s on the lookout for something else that’s fun. He has been playing AdJack for so long he says he was about to give up when he got the notice that he won on December 4.

He shares the $1,000 CrackaJack with two others who won on that day. 

NEW YORK (AP)—Game on! Super Bowl ads are returning to their goofy roots.

Men march across a hillside without pants, toys joyride in Vegas and the miserly Mr. Burns from “The Simpsons” loses his fortune but finds happiness. It’s a sign that people are feeling better—or at least want to feel better—about the economy, experts say.

The commercials Sunday on advertising’s most expensive showcase also aim to appeal to people’s focus on value.

The ad line-up includes everything from economy-priced televisions by Vizio to budget cars from Kia. Denny’s touts free Grand Slams again, Charles Barkley raps about $5 meal deals at Taco Bell, and the 1985 Chicago Bears’ resurrect their “Super Bowl Shuffle” for pre-paid cell phone brand Boost Mobile.

Super Bowl ads are a much anticipated, and usually funny, sideshow. The broadcast is watched as much for its commercials as it is for the game itself. (This year’s extravaganza on CBS pits quarterback Drew Brees’ New Orleans Saints against Peyton Manning’s Indianapolis Colts.)

Last year’s line-up had several uncharateristically somber ads. Anheuser-Busch’s Clydesdale ads were traditional and sweet, not funny. The more staid tone reflected the nation’s mood, still in shock and worry over how deep the financial crisis would get.

To be sure, the commercials aren’t all fun and games.

A prominent exception is an expected anti-abortion ad by conservative Christian group Focus on the Family. It stars former Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow, the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner who helped his team win two college football championships. Tebow’s mom was counseled to end her pregnancy but chose not to.

But overall, the laughs are back.

“Six months ago if you were optimistic or happy, it was awkward and people looked and said, ‘How insensitive can you be?’ “ said Allen Adamson, managing director of branding firm Landor Associates in New York. “Now it’s socially acceptable not to be sullen and depressed, but within reason. And I think the Super Bowl provides one of those venues where you can still kick back and have a good time.”

Advertisers recognize that and are still willing to pay top dollar for the exposure. The 30-second spots sold for a minumum of $2.5 million; some sold for more than $3 million. Last year’s game brought in $213 million, according to Kantar Media. CBS has not been claiming record prices, although it has said average prices are better than last year.

They aim to entertain, but marketers also are trying to more directly link products to the content of the ads this year, said Laura Ries, president of marketing consulting firm Ries & Ries outside Atlanta.

“It used to be Super Bowl ads were nothing about what the product was or what it did or if it had any usefulness, and today we are seeing more ‘sell’ in the ads,” she said.

A third-quarter ad by Volkswagen features a twist on the popular “punch buggy” or “slug bug” game, which involves punching a friend when you spot a Volkswagen Beetle. The new version has people hitting each other when they spot any Volkswagen, including the Jetta sedan and Routan minivan. It’s the company’s first Super Bowl ad in nine years.

The ad is all about the cars, but the time was right to take a funny tone again, said Eric Hirshberg, a CEO and chief creative officer for ad agency Deutsch LA, which created the commercial.

“You can be another thing that reminds people of their problems—or you can be relief,” Hirshberg said.

A year after many lost their proverbial shirts, a lack of pants will be an undercurrent in some ads. Job-listings Web site Careerbuilder.com is choosing between fan-submitted ads, and one that involves taking “casual Friday” to a whole new level. An ad for Levi Strauss & Co.’s Dockers shows a dozen or so pantsless men singing about their, ahem, freedom.

The silliness may be a preview of advertising’s tone the rest of the year, Adamson said.

“It was such a deep ‘down,’ “ he said of last year’s economic woes, “that even the slightest sunlight is drawing people.”

“I’m not a big gambler or anything,” he says. “I’m not much for casinos, or Las Vegas, but I enjoy entering contests.  The Internet has made it a lot easier than it was in the old days, when you had to mail stuff in to enter. I enjoy AdJack because I see a lot of commercials I don’t see all the time on TV.  I get a kick out of the Budweiser ads.”

Robert trained as a pharmacy technologist, then worked in the grocery industry until he was laid off. “Last year was pretty lousy, generally,” he says, but in 2010, he’s hoping to train for work in a new field, and to lose some weight.  Right now, he’s taking care of his elderly mother, and playing AdJack every day. 

“A hobby of mine for the past ten years or so is to go on the Internet and find contests, and kind of just look around.  I was looking for those baby commercials; you know the ones.

“I enjoy all the commercials more than I enjoy television now. I look for things that are humorous these days. I don’t need all that gloom and doom on TV. I find a lot of comedic relief in the commercials. I don’t want to know about the darkness and problems in the world. I’d rather laugh.”

Tom found himself a rural retreat in Selinsgrove, PA several years ago, a tiny town that is home to Susquehanna University.  When the weather is good, you might find him at the fastest half-mile dirt track in the east, Selinsgrove Speedway. He cheered the high school football team to the state AAA championship this fall. He likes football commercials, too. 

The week of November 27 Tom says was a very good week.  He won the $1,000 CrackaJack, and was notified that he also won a 2010 Volkswagen GTI, the fourth of only six available in the contest.  “That’s by far the luckiest week I’ve ever had in my life.”

On a larger scale, Tom says he lucked out in daughters, claiming to have produced “the two greatest daughters in the world” according to the Haddon Daughtermeter. One graduated in May from Roger Williams University, and is on her way to law school. The other graduated two years ago from Bryant University and is a financial advisor in Providence. 

There was no word on how the CrackaJack will be spent. Perhaps on gas for the new Volkswagen GTI?

Ad man Richard Trentlage wrote the words in 1963 and Philip Bova wrote the tune. Americans have been singing it since the commercial made its national TV debut in 1965. 

The original Oscar Mayer had been dead for about ten years by that time.  He and his two brothers, immigrants from Germany, were responsible for setting their wieners apart from all others, first, by banding them with yellow paper, then following up with a whole branding campaign, one of the first of its kind. He came up with the wienermobile idea, too, in 1936. Carl Mayer came up with the indispensible weinerwhistle in 1952.

The brand’s new advertising agency hired a Nashville songwriter to come up with a new song.  Check back in 50 years to see if it’s still going strong.

From the Amazon review

Q. Should I read this book? 
Klosterman:  “Probably. Do you see a clear relationship between the Branch Davidian disaster and the recording of Nirvana’s In Utero? Does Barack Obama make you want to drink Pepsi? Does ABBA remind you of AC/DC? If so, you probably don’t need to read this book. You probably wrote this book. But I suspect everybody else will totally love it, except for the ones who absolutely hate it.”

From Reality Through the Prism of Technology by Anna Mundow, Boston.com:

Mundow: On advertising, are you saying we’ve internalized its messages?

Klosterman: “We’re used to the idea that advertising is sophisticated; that it is frivolous to discount advertising as an art form. So practically all advertising you see is treated intellectually. If you put up a billboard with just a glass of Coke on it, there would be talk about the brilliance of this. People would create explanations to project their own meaning because nobody ever assumes that things are devoid of meaning. They have become so good at finding a subtext that they will write it into their own minds.”

So, wow. I’ve been asserting all along that advertising is an art form. What? Sophisticates agree with me and a farm boy from North Dakota?  It’s truly a wonderful world.

When she got home on Friday, November 20, she checked her numbers and this time she couldn’t believe her eyes. “’Honey, I think I won,’ I said to my husband. I checked again. Then I looked at my account to make sure that I hadn’t written the numbers down wrong, and there it was. It said ‘CrackaJack.’ ‘Oh, wow!’ I said. I DID win! I never win anything!”

The $1,000 CrackaJack is the first big one for Phyllis, but she doesn’t let that stop her. “I love to gamble,” she says. “I might win a little bit, but I never win the really big money.

“I used to spend a lot of time entering sweeps, and I got some small stuff. I was spending too many hours in front of the computer. But then I came across AdJack. I quit entering everything else and I just do AdJack now. I’ve been entering for a about a year and a half.  I read about these people who win the first time they play, and I think, how do they do that?”

She said she’ll use her AdJack winnings to pad her checking account, and to prime the pump on her next trip to Biloxi.

In the meantime, you can bet she’ll be watching her favorite ads on AdJack every day.  So far, she has entered the sweepstakes more than 640 times, and has watched more than 3,200 ads.

“I like the funny ones,” she said. “If I’m in a hurry, I like the short ones. I tend to remember it if an ad appeals to me. There’s a few I don’t care for at all, their sense of humor or whatever it is they call it. I don’t gravitate toward those ads again, and I tend to shy away from those products, too. But I love AdJack. I’ve told everybody and his brother about it.”

Was she shocked to win so quickly?  Um, not particularly.  “My friends tell me I’m lucky,” she said.  “I win stuff all the time.”

The digital artist for a Sausalito advertising agency said she’s going to put her winnings in the bank, then had a second thought.  “Maybe I’ll take my boyfriend out to dinner.”

The University of Colorado graduate hit the job market last December with a degree in communications at one of the bleakest times to get a job in the past 80 years.  In February, she joined AdJack to take a break from the arduous task of job hunting.

“I actually don’t know how I found it, but I decided to join because I was interested in doing something with advertising.  I thought the site was fun, so I bookmarked it on my computer.”

She played every day for a while, then got caught up in a move across the country to San Diego, still on the hunt for a job.  After a couple of months, she decided to see what was up on AdJack.

“I lucked out!” she says.  “On the day I was notified that I won the CrackaJack, I also found out that I got the job I wanted.  It was a great day!”

“I won a 50-inch television, a $100 Amazon card, and also a $25 Visa gift card. When I won the AdJack Crackajack I was so stoked.  I had four entries that week.”

Kathy is the mother of three children who keep her busy with their sports activities.  Her high school senior will be the big beneficiary of her good Adjack luck. “We had no idea how expensive senior pictures and graduation gear would be,” she says.  “We’ll be paying off the credit card with my AdJack winnings.”

Crackajack Winner, Lisa Davis, meets former President Bush, with a little help from Photoshop

Lisa Davis’s AdJack win on July 31st couldn’t have come at a better time, financially and psychologically.  She’s a Colorado girl who finds herself in Topeka, Kansas, unemployed at the moment and looking forward to an upswing in her fortunes.

“When I first starting going to AdJack my mother said ‘You don’t get anything for free,’ but you know, the advertisers get product information out there, and the commercials are fun to watch.  I like the site a lot. It’s clean and straightforward, and I like it that I don’t get any junk.  Some of these sweepstakes things, you enter them, then you get hundreds of spam emails trying to sell you stuff.  They just want your email address, or your mailing address.  It’s a relief that AdJack doesn’t do that to their members. It’s upfront.”

Lisa has been coming to the site regularly since November, 2008.  “Sometimes I get busy and forget on Saturdays, but I try to get there every day.”

Dan, who won his first $1,000 CrackaJack the week of August 8, 2008, (see Blog) said AdJack could use the same picture as last year because he’s sitting in the same chair wearing the same hat. “I might have another grey hair and maybe a wrinkle or two more, but not much else has changed,” he says.

“AdJack is still an enjoyable thing to do.  It’s one of the few sites I get on.  I was totally surprised that I won again.  Now some of my friends who weren’t so interested before are asking if I might be able to give them the site address. I could hardly believe it myself, but yes, it’s definitely a good thing you’ve got going here.”

When last we spoke, Dan was looking forward to moving to the southwest where winters aren’t as severe as those in his native New Haven, Indiana.  “The economy took a turn for the worse, so I’ve stayed where things are working for me,” he says.  “But I keep telling myself that before this winter, I’m going to be back out west.  I’ve had to sit back and get things together, which AdJack is helping with a lot.  Thanks!” He added that he hopes to make winning on AdJack at least an annual event.