Wow, where did January go??  Voting is now over in Doritos’ Crash the Super Bowl contest.  The contest site has been keeping track of the voting and it looks like just under half a million votes were cast!  There were only five finalists so (obviously) that’s about 100,000 votes per video.  With numbers like that, you have to wonder if an individual finalist’s efforts to get people to vote for them are just a waste of time.  Think about it; let’s say you have a social network of 300 people.  Even if every one of those people voted for you every day for 30 days that would only equal 9,000 votes.  But unlike most video contests, people vote in the CTSB contest because Fritolay gives out big cash prizes to random voters….not because they know one of the finalists.  So this may be the only video contest in history where “the public” really does pick the winner.  Despite the big numbers, the 2012 finalists still campaigned like crazy.  Last week a reader name Chad e-mailed me about something funny he saw on TV that morning.  Here’s what he said:

I was watching the Today Show this morning and they were interviewing Michelle Williams when my mouth dropped to the floor.  Just look in the background of the photo I attached to see what I mean.  And no, there was nothing on the show program today that even mentions CTSB.

And here’s the photo he sent me:

Sling Baby is of course one of the five Crash the Super Bowl finalists.  That stunt was funny but I’m not sure that type of thing will generate a lot of votes.  So anyway, who will win?  Damned if I know.  But I’m predicting HOT WILD GIRLS will wind up receiving the most votes.  Why?  Because its title is “Hot Wild Girls!!”  Imagine you were a random guy who didn’t enter the CTSB contest.  But you saw an ad online and you decided to to cast a quick vote so you could have a shot at winning one of the Voter Prizes.  Which of these 5 ads would you want to click on?

Just from the titles and the thumbnails you can tell that two commercials are about dogs and one is about a baby.  “Bird of Prey” just looks like it’s about some guys in an office.  So I think most people (both men and women) would click on Hot Wild Girls just out of curiosity.  And if you don’t care much about who wins, you’re just going to vote for the first video you watch.

Final predictions:  Doritos is scheduled to air 2 commercials on Sunday but I bet they’ll air three.  I think Hot Wild Girls will get the most votes and I think Fritolay’s picks will be Bird of Prey and Man’s Best friend.  That’s a nice mix; you get one ad about a hilariously giant dog, you get one about a crazy bird man and you get one that’s about technology….and rottweilers.  The other two ads, Sling Baby and Dog Park are getting crushed in the unofficial view count race on the CTSB .  So I think Doritos will have to go with the most popular, most exciting ads.  But I don’t think any CTSB ads are going to land in the Top 3 on the USA Today ad meter.  A lot of this year’s Superbowl ads have already been made public and the competition is looking very, very tough.  Seriously….have you seen Volkswagen’s official Super Bowl commercial??  Holy shit!  Not only does it have a dog, it has Hammerhead and Ponda Baba from the original star wars!  If you haven’t seen it, to check it out.  And man, don’t even get me started on that Ferris Bueller ad.  If a CTSB entry lands in the Top 3 this year it will really be an amazing accomplishment.

Quick Note:  We’ve got a big post in the works so check back tomorrow for some very interesting inside information about the Crash the Super Bowl contest.  Quick Update:  Actually, I’m going to wait to post that story until after the Super Bowl.  More details coming soon!