Super Bowl Advertisement Captioning Report

By Cheryl Heppner

Editor: Cheryl Heppner has again documented the captioning status of the Super Bowl ads, including some of the pregame and postgame ads. The overall results are pretty dismal, with almost twice as many ads NOT being captioned as captioned! Here's Cheryl's report.

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February 2009

Location: Fairfax, VA
I watched Super Bowl 2009 on television using:- Verizon Fios
My television: Digital TV, HD - Panasonic TH-42PX6U

Super Bowl Ad results for 129 ads: 48 captioned, 80 not captioned, 1 unknown

STARTING WITH PREGAME SHOW, 6 pm ET
1. Sprint - cc
2. Subway - cc
3. Kay Jewelers - no cc
4. ?Ad Council/Olympics? - cc
5. Hyundai - no cc
6. NBC Today/MSNBC - no cc
7. State Farm - partially cc (some captions missing in beginning)
8. Best Buy - cc
9. Universal Orlando Resort - no cc
10. Verizon - no cc
11. Subway - cc
12. Universal (Duplicity preview) - no cc
13. NFL Awards - cc
14. Columbia Pictures (GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra) - no cc
15. Avon careers - cc
16. McDonalds (McDonalds House) - cc
17. NFL (Kurt Warner) - no cc
18. NBC (shows) - no cc
19. Hyundai (Genesis) - no cc
20. Hyundai (Smashing Pumpkins music) - no cc
21. Bud Light - cc
22. Sony (Angels & Demons) - no cc
23. Audi - no cc
24. Pepsi - cc first set of captions overlapped and just flashed on and disappeared
25. Doritos (globe) - cc
26. Bud Light (tossing guy out of window) - cc first couple lines of captions missing
27. Year One - no cc
28. Toyota Venza - cc
29. Bridgestone - no cc
30. NBC shows - no cc
31.Bridgestone (Potato Head) - cc
32. Universal (Fast & Furious 4 preview) - no cc
33. Castrol Edge - cc
34. NBC - no cc
35. Universal (Land of the Lost) - no cc
36. Doritos - cc the "crunches" of biting into the Doritos were captioned!
37. NBC - no cc
38. GoDaddy.com (Danica Patrick) cc
38. NFL (Ben Roethlisberger) no cc
39. Pepsi Max cc captions from the game ran into the beginning
40. Pedigree - no cc
41. Budweiser (horse playing fetch) - cc
42. NBC (Heroes) - no cc
43. Bud Light (logo) - no cc
44. Budweiser (Loverboy) - cc
45. Paramount (Star Trek) - no cc
46. NFL Super Bowl Sponsor list - no cc
47. MissionG.com - cc run-in from game captions increasing
48. Cars.com - cc
49. NBC (programs) - no cc
50. Hyundai - no cc
51. E-Trade (babies) - no cc
52. NBC (3-D) - no cc
53. Disney (Pixar "Up") - no cc
54. Bud Light - cc
55. H&R Block - cc
56. Teleflora - no cc captions from H&R Block ran into beginning
57. Monster.com/NFL - cc
58. NFL - United Way - no cc, but last few words of ad had text
59. Cheetos - cc captions started very late
60. Dreamworks, Intel, etc. - no cc
61. SoBe ("Swan Lake") - cc
62. NBC shows - no cc
63. Sprint/Nextel - cc
64. NFL - no cc
65. NBC (Heroes & football) - no cc
66. Priceline.com - no cc
67. Overstock.com (Carlos Boozer) - no cc
68. Universal Orlando - no cc
69. NBC shows (LMAO) - no cc

Second Half
70. NBC Today Show - no cc captions from Superbowl commentators were still continuing
71. Freightrainworks.com - no cc
72. Lexus - no cc
73. CTIA - cc
74. Best Buy - cc
75. Carmax.com - no cc
76. Coca-Cola - cc
77. Bridgestone (Moon Walk) - cc
78. Dennys - no cc
79. Monster.com - no cc
80. Budweiser (Jake-destiny in America) - cc
81. Disney (Race to Witch Mountain) - no cc
82. NBC (The Office) - no cc
83. Dreamworks (Transformers: Revenge) - no cc
84. Careerbuilder.com - no cc
85. NBC (Heroes) - no cc
86. Coca Cola - cc
87. Kelloggs - cc
88. NBC (Conan O'Brien) - no cc
89. NFL (Usama - NFL.com) - no cc
90. Heineken (John Turturro) - no cc
91. Comcast - no cc
92. Giant - cc
93. NBC - no cc
94. Cox cable - no cc
95. Acura - no cc
96. NFL Pro Bowl - no cc
97. NBC (Celebrity Apprentice) - no cc
98. Hyundai - no cc
99. Coke Zero (Polamalu) - cc
100. Cash4Gold.com - no cc
101. NBC (Medium) - no cc
102. Vizio - no cc
103. Taco Bell - no cc
104. GE Smart Grid - cc
105. ??? may have missed one???
106. Hulu.com - cc
107. NBC shows - no cc captions from Hulu.com "bled" into this ad
108. General Electric (GE) - cc
109. Pepsi (MacGruber) - no cc
110. Bud Light - cc
111. NBC Pro Bowl - no cc
112. NBC (The Office) - no cc

After the Game
113. USA network programs - no cc
114. Honda - no cc
115. Islands of the Bahamas - no cc
116. Amtrak Acela - cc
117. Freightworks.com - no cc captions from Amtrak carried over into this
118. E-Trade - no cc
119. Dennys - no cc
120. Nissan Altima - cc
121. Marquis Jet/NetJets - no cc
122. Sprint (BlackBerry Curve) - cc
123. NFLShop.com - no cc
124. NBC shows - no cc
125. Cadillac - no cc
126. Carnival cruise - cc
127. The Laddes - cc
128. NFL.com - no cc
129. NBC (The Office) - no cc

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