Google - Is running a super bowl ad , in the 3rd quarter ?

Is Google Running a Super Bowl Ad?

By  HELFT

Over the weekend, the tech blogosphere was abuzz over the expectation that Google, a company that build its brand almost entirely through word of mouth, was going to air an ad during the Super Bowl. John Battelle, the author of The Search, the 2005 book about Google, wrote on his blog that “Google plans to hit the branded advertising big leagues this Sunday,” citing an unnamed source.
Sometime later, Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, posted the following message on Twitter: “Can’t wait to watch the Superbowl tomorrow. Be sure to watch the ads in the 3rd quarter (someone said ‘Hell has indeed frozen over.’)”
No official word from Google yet, and a Google spokesman did not immediately respond to an e-mail request for comment.
A Super Bowl ad would be quite a departure for Google. The company, which makes more money from advertising than any media company in the world, is hardly traditional when it comes to its own advertising. The company spends plenty on online advertising. But most of those ads are the kind of utilitarian ads intended to get people to click on a link to learn about a specific product or service, like its AdWords advertising system, its digital maps or its new Nexus One mobile phone. Google has also dipped its toes in television advertising, with a series of clips promoting the Chrome browser.
But the company, which famously says that ads are information, has shunned brand messages. Perhaps now that Google is ramping up its own display advertising business, it feels that it needs to be a player in brand advertising as well.
It is not clear what ad Google may air. Mr. Battelle said it will be one of the “search stories” ads that the company created last year and has been showing online. That ad, which has already had plenty of spoofs, including this one poking fun at Tiger Woods, was produced by Google in-house mini-agency. Others speculate it may be an ad for the Nexus One.
There are no indications that the Super Bowl ad, if it airs, will be the beginning of a broader marketing campaign..