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'Aliens' makes Super Bowl play

DreamWorks Animation buys 90-second spot

By MIKE FLAHERTY

DreamWorks Animation's 3-D pic 'Monsters vs. Aliens' will get a primo promo push during Super Bowl XLIII on Feb. 1.

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Any Super Bowl ad is a gamble, but DreamWorks Animation is betting a lot of chips on a 90-second spot in 3-D for March toon "Monsters vs. Aliens."

Topper Jeffrey Katzenberg said the ad, including the giveaway of 150 million pairs of glasses, "involves tens of millions of dollars." He calls it "perhaps the biggest media-advertising event in history."

Glasses will be given away at 28,000 retail locations as part of Pepsi/SoBe Life displays. (Pepsi is a DreamWorks marketing partner.)

"God bless them," said TargetCast senior veep and director of national broadcast Gary Carr. "I think it's a great ploy -- that in a bad economy like this, a company is willing to plunk down that kind of money."

In an ad market that is the toughest in decades, 30 seconds of airtime during the big game is costing about $3 million. Car companies, typically a mainstay, will likely pull back their spending. Hollywood has plenty of product to promote -- and in a sense DreamWorks Animation's push for a spring release makes more sense than a summer promo -- but the roster of pic ads is far from set.

NBC, which is airing Super Bowl XLIII on Feb. 1, plugged the supersized trailer during its Saturday broadcast of the wildcard playoff game between the Indianapolis Colts and the San Diego Chargers.