Doritos Brand Reveals Five Consumer-Created Commercials Vying for $1 Million Payout and Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity to Work With The Lonely Island

Unique Contest Twist Now Offers Two Would-Be Ad Makers the Chance to See Their Homemade Spots Air during the Super Bowl Broadcast


After a record-setting submission phase and review of more than 6,100 entries in this year's Crash the Super Bowl contest, the Doritos brand today revealed the five finalists that will now compete through consumer voting for the chance to have their ads aired during the Super Bowl XLVI broadcast on Feb. 5, 2012 on NBC. This marks the sixth year in a row consumers have created Super Bowl ads for Doritos, one of the flagship brands from PepsiCo's Frito-Lay division, and the stakes have never been higher.

The Doritos brand has put a $1 million cash bonus prize on the line if a consumer-created Doritos ad scores the No. 1 spot on either the traditional USA TODAY Ad Meter or the recently created USA TODAY Facebook Super Bowl Ad Meter. Plus, in an exciting twist to the this year's contest, the maker of the consumer-created Doritos ad that receives airtime on Super Bowl Sunday will win one of the most exciting contest grand prizes to date: a guaranteed opportunity to work on a future Doritos brand project with one of the hottest entertainment teams in the industry today – the award-winning trio of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone that make up The Lonely Island.

Founded in 2001, The Lonely Island has become one of the most sought-after creative teams in the entertainment business with success in television, film, music and on the web. The Emmy-winning trio is best known for directing, writing and starring in hilarious, off-the-wall digital shorts, including Grammy-nominated "I'm On A Boat," "Lazy Sunday," and a series of popular SNL digital shorts with Justin Timberlake.

The five Crash the Super Bowl finalist ads (in alphabetical order) are:

"Bird of Prey" by Joby Harris
"Dog Park" by Tyler Dixon
"Hot Wild Girls" by Brad Scott
"Man's Best Friend" by Jonathan Friedman
"Sling Baby" by Kevin T. Willson
As a part of its partnership with the Doritos brand, The Lonely Island set out to create a Doritos Super Bowl ad of its own, but after seeing the unprecedented consumer enthusiasm around this year's contest and the creativity would-be ad makers brought to the table, The Lonely Island today announced an incredibly generous gesture aimed at helping Doritos fans pursue their Hollywood dreams – The Lonely Island will donate its :30 slot of Super Bowl airtime to one of the five consumer finalists, allowing two aspiring filmmakers to have their work aired during the Super Bowl XLVI broadcast. The Doritos brand team will select the second spot to air from the five consumer finalists, with The Lonely Island serving in an advisory role.

This offer opens up the door for two Doritos fans to win guaranteed opportunities to work with The Lonely Island on upcoming Doritos brand projects, and have a shot at million-dollar bonus prizes, based on their rankings on either the traditional USA TODAY Ad Meter or USA TODAY Facebook Super Bowl Ad Meter rankings.

"We've been truly impressed with the creativity and passion of people entering the contest," said The Lonely Island members Samberg, Schaffer and Taccone. "What drew us to partnering with Doritos for this program was the opportunity to help someone pursue their career dreams and open up a door of opportunity, and we felt that there was no better way to demonstrate that than by helping another talented up and comer get his or her big shot."

"The Lonely Island guys are a class act, and they have embraced what this contest is about beyond our expectations," said Tony Matta, vice president of marketing, Frito-Lay North America. "Their generosity will now create a life-changing opportunity for two of our consumers, and we plan to pay that forward by making a donation of $250,000 to the charity The Lonely Island was competing for, the Berkeley Unified School District."

Since Crash the Super Bowl began in 2007, consumer-created Doritos ads have consistently ranked within the top-five spots of the traditional USA TODAY Ad Meter, and two of the last three years they have scored the No. 1 ranking. Beginning today through Jan. 29, 2012, fans can vote for their favorite submissions, with the consumer-created Doritos ad receiving the most fan votes airing during the Super Bowl broadcast, in addition to the spot selected by the Doritos brand team.

The Doritos brand also is putting cash sweepstakes prizes on the line to encourage consumer voting in this year's contest, with the potential to give away up to $100,000 to fans just for having a say in how the Doritos brand uses its Super Bowl air time. The amount of cash awarded will be based on the number of total fan votes – the more fan votes, the more money fans can potentially win.

The Doritos brand will give away one $10,000 cash prize to a fan who votes in the contest every time the total number of votes across all voting platforms reaches a 100,000 vote milestone. They will continue giving away these $10,000 cash prizes at each 100,000 vote milestone until they reach one million votes across all voting platforms and have given away a maximum of $100,000. To vote for this year's winner and enter for a chance to win, consumers can visit the official contest website, www.crashthesuperbowl.com. Consumers can also vote through their smart phones at m.crashthesuperbowl.com and via Xbox LIVE®. Complete details are available on the website.

Each of the five finalist ad makers will win $25,000 and a trip to Indianapolis to attend Super Bowl XLVI, where they will learn for the first time during the broadcast which two ads will air for a worldwide audience. Bonus prizing will be awarded, based on how each ad ranks on the USA TODAY Ad Meters:

$1 million will be awarded for an ad that scores the No. 1 spot on either the USA TODAY Ad Meter or the USA TODAY Facebook Super Bowl Ad Meter
$600,000 will be awarded for an ad that scores the No. 2 spot on either the USA TODAY Ad Meter or the USA TODAY Facebook Super Bowl Ad Meter
$400,000 will be awarded for an ad that scores the No. 3 spot on either the USA TODAY Ad Meter or the USA TODAY Facebook Super Bowl Ad Meter
Each winning consumer finalist is only eligible to receive one cash bonus prize and the amount will be determined by the Ad Meter in which the commercial receives the highest spot.

The traditional USA TODAY Super Bowl Ad Meter tracks the second-by-second responses of a panel of viewers to ads during the national broadcast of the Super Bowl and ranks them favorite to least favorite. Created in 1989, it has been regarded as the most influential Super Bowl ad rating in the advertising industry. The recently announced USA TODAY Facebook Super Bowl Ad Meter allows consumers for the first time to view and vote on the ads, see how other people rank the ads and share their favorites with Facebook friends. The USA TODAY Facebook Super Bowl Ad Meter consumer ratings will take place via an application hosted on Facebook and USATODAY.com, both online and via mobile.