With advertising rates for the 2009 Super Bowl running as high as $3 million for a 30-seconds, some marketers are wondering whether they can afford the big game during such tough economic times. Even regular-player FedEx is concerned about shelling out big bucks --and holding out to see if it can get a bargain. FedEx's hesitation is raising eyebrows on Madison Avenue because it has advertised in 12 of the past National Football League championship games.

Advertisers taking a pass on Super Bowl XLIII altogether include beleaguered General Motors, which has been in 16 games, and Garmin Ltd., the maker of GPS devices, which had advertised in the past two games. A company spokesman for Garmin says its decision to sit out was "unrelated to the economy."

General Electric's NBC had sold most of its Super Bowl ad inventory by early September, prior to the meltdown on Wall Street. Advertisers gobbled up the available slots even though NBC raised its price sharply, compared with the previous Super Bowl.

NBC is in better shape than Fox was during the past recession. In 2002, Fox, whose parent also publishes The Wall Street Journal, had about 10% of its ad time unsold just two weeks before the game.

The Super Bowl has shown no signs of flagging in the ratings. The nail-biter between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots drew 97.4 million viewers, the biggest TV audience for a U.S. sporting event.

Advertisers in 2009 will include Anheuser-Busch, CareerBuilder.com, Hyundai Motor, PepsiCo, Viacom's Paramount Pictures, Cars.com and Coca-Cola.

New marketers include Pedigree, the dog-food brand owned by Mars. Even Monster.com, the online job site owned by Monster Worldwide, is currently in talks to jump back into the game after sitting out the past few years.

Read the details and full article from the Wall Street Journal here: