Read: The Eight Brands That Wasted the Most on the Super Bowl

Between 2002 and 2011, companies spent $2.5 billion on Super Bowl advertising, based on 24/7 Wall St.’s estimate. The top 10 spenders were responsible for more than one-third of that. And one company, Budweiser maker Anheuser-Busch, spent almost $250 million over the past 10 years on Super Bowl ads, or a whopping one-tenth of all Super Bowl ad spending.

24/7 Wall St. ranked total spending for all of the companies that advertised during the Super Bowl in the past decade. An analysis of the top spenders reflects how bad this investment can be. While some, such as Hyundai and Toyota have improved market share over that time, most have not. Based on total ad spending, product failures, change in market share, share price and sales, we identified the eight brands that wasted the most on the Super Bowl, including mega brands such as Coke, Budweiser, GM and Ford.

Based on 24/7 Wall St.’s analysis of Super Bowl ad spending, the top spenders fall into four major categories: automotive, film, food, including snacks and fast food, and beverages. Four of the top 10 Super Bowl advertisers are auto companies. Another four of the 10 are food and beverage manufacturers. Three movie studios are in the top 25.

Because Super Bowl ads are used by a small number of industries, many companies in those industries are forced to advertise just to keep up. Most of the top 10 spenders are perennial also-rans. Yum! Brands, owner of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, spent $67 million over the past 10 years. Meanwhile, McDonald’s, the indisputable market leader, spent less than half that amount and is not a top 10 spender. Similarly, E*Trade, well-known for the talking baby campaign, spent more than any other online brokerage firm, yet remains fourth in the industry.

Also Read: AMR – Saving Corporate America one Bankruptcy at a Time

24/7 Wall St. tabulated all of the commercials from the past 10 Super Bowls, as archived by Adland, the “world’s largest archive of Super Bowl commercials.” Using that data, 24/7 calculated the number of commercials each company bought, as well as their length, including any available pregame, postgame and prime advertising commercials. To estimate the total amount each company spent on Super Bowl advertising in the past decade, we used the average costs of a 30-second commercial spot each year and the total number of minutes of advertising time recorded by Adland.

These are the eight brands that wasted the most on the Super Bowl.

Advance Auto Parts. Inc. (NYSE: AAP) cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) added to Strong Sell List at Zacks.
Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE: BUD) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
Carbonite, Inc. (NASDAQ: CARB) Reiterated Buy with $16 target at Canaccord Genuity.
Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank; Raised to Buy at Citigroup; Target raised to $26 from $25 at Credit Suisse.
Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
Dean Foods Company (NYSE: DF) Cut to Sell at S&P Capital IQ (late-Wednesday); Maintained Buy at Bof A/ML.
Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD) named Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Hospira, Inc. (NYSE: HSP) named Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT) Reiterated Buy with $40 target at Argus.
Logitech International SA (NASDAQ: LOGI) Raised to Hold at S&P Capital IQ (late-Wednesday).
Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK) maintained Hold with $7.50 target at Canaccord Genuity.
PG&E Corporation (NYSE: PCG) cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
SandRidge Energy, Inc. (NYSE: SD) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Spreadtrum Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: SPRD) Reiterated Buy and raised estimates at Canaccord Genuity.
SurModics Inc. (NASDAQ: SRDX) named as Aggressive Growth at Zacks.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: VRTX) Raised to Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley.

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JON C. OGG

Inflation in China drops in October. (Reuters)

Olympus investment losses may have gone above $1 billion. (Reuters)

Silvio Berlusconi leaves as prime minister of Italy. (Reuters)

Investors will focus on General Motors’ (NYSE: GM) $20 billion unfunded pension liability as it releases earnings. (Reuters)

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Aol (NYSE: AOL) and Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) set a new advertising sales partnership. (Reuters)

Samsung will invest nearly $34 billion in R&D next year. (Reuters)

An Informa study for the Wireless Broadband Alliance says Wi-Fi hot spots will grow by four times by 2015. (Reuters)

Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) releases new products for tablet PCs. (Reuters)

Yelp hires banks to take it public. (Reuters)

Carlyle Group sharply cuts fees as it tries to raise money for a $$2.3 billion real estate fund. (WSJ)

Investors aggressively sell Italian bonds. (WSJ)

Foreign markets help AB Inbev’s (NYSE: BUD) earnings. (WSJ)

Vivendi makes a bid for EMI. (WSJ)

Fannie Mae wants another $7.8 billion from the government. (WSJ)

The number of U.S. job openings rose to 3.4 million in September from 3.1 million in August. (WSJ)

President Obama approves very limited off-shore drilling. (WSJ)

The State Department may agree to move the Canada-to-U.S. pipeline around a section of Nebraska. (WSJ)

Amylin (NASDAQ: AMLN) and Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) kill their diabetes drug partnership. (WSJ)

Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) cuts 750 jobs. (WSJ)

Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS) will give the U.S. names of clients who may have evaded taxes. (WSJ)

The FCC wants to expand low-income family access to high-speed internet. (NYT)

The head of HSBC (NYSE: HBC) says Asia faces a shortage of available credit. (FT)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA (NYSE: BUD) is up 0.25% at $52.84 and the 52-week range is $49.05 to $64.77.

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE: MO) is FLAT at $26.81 and the 52-week range is $23.20 to $28.13; Reynolds American Inc, (NYSE: RAI) is up 0.3% at $37.60 and the 52-week range is $29.05 to $39.87.

Campbell Soup Company (NYSE: CPB) is up 0.7% at $32.59; 52-week range is $29.69 to $36.99.  ConAgra Foods, Inc. (NYSE: CAG) is down “only” 0.4% at $24.12; 52-week range is $21.02 to $26.60.

Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NYSE: KMB) is up $0.03 at $71.04; 52-week range is $61.00 to $71.78.  Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG) is up $0.05 at $63.23; 52-week range is $57.56 to $67.72.

Sometimes a little win or a small loss feels like a big victory.  With just under an hour until the market close, the DJIA is down almost 200 points at 10,720 and the closest handle on the S&P 500 down almost 2.1% is 1,108.  Another day, another bunch of lost dollars for the public.

JON C. OGG

The acquisition should also give a boost to Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO), which owns a 27.1% stake in SABMiller from Altria’s sale of Miller Brewing to SAB in 2002. Molson-Coors Brewing Co. (NYSE: TAP) and Boston Beer Co. Inc. (NYSE: SAM) are both much smaller than either InBev or SABMiller, and could be additional targets for the Big Two as the beer business continues to consolidate.

SABMiller derives about 80% of its revenue from emerging markets, with China’s Snow brand the largest seller in the world and China the biggest consuming nation in the world. US consumption was about half that, but still the second-largest beer consumer.

Chinese beer drinkers downed nearly 12 billion gallons of brew last year, topping the world beer rankings. InBev’s Bud Light and Budweiser and Brazilian brew Skol followed.

But the outlook for beer in emerging markets is getting softer, and SABMiller wanted to make an acquisition in a developed market, and Foster’s is the largest brewer in Australia. Foster’s also has a significant presence in Asia, so SABMiller gets to increase its footprint on two continents.

US beer consumption is growing in the craft beer and high-priced beer segments, and imported beers have also seen increases. Import sales remain about -11% below pre-2008 levels. Overall, though, there are some big losers in beer sales.

Beer industry growth has been increasing since the very slow days of 2009, when growth was a meager 0.4%. In 2010 that figure grew to 1.6%, and is expected to reach 2.5% this year. Europe and the US contribute about 1% growth each, and the emerging nations of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East contribute up to 5% of the growth.

Brewers also got a break this year on barley prices. The cold wet spring in North America and some of Europe delayed corn planting long enough that some farmers planted barley because prices at the time were over $350/metric ton and expected to rise. But the strong crop yields have pushed barley prices down below $250/metric ton in Canada, one of the largest barley growing regions in the world.

Foster’s fought off a $9.2 billion offer from SABMiller earlier this year, and the company’s patience paid off to the tune of about $1 billion. The deal looks like a winner for both sides.

Paul Ausick

The largest piece of the new contracts goes to the company’s wind turbine business, which added orders for 750 1.6-100 wind turbines. This brings total sales of this turbine to 1,248 since January. GE noted that the turbines are set to be installed in wind farms in North and South America.

In Iraq, GE will provide technology for an enhanced oil recovery project with BP plc (NYSE: BP) in the country’s huge Rumaila oil field. There are also contracts for oil and gas extraction projects in Australia and Brazil, a large wind farm in Brazil, gas-turbines in Egypt, and a floating LNG platform in Australia for the Prelude project operated by Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE: RDS-A).

In China, GE has entered an alliance with Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE: BUD) in which the company will provide energy efficiency and water saving technology in InBev’s existing and new brewing facilities. GE noted that this is its first effort in the food and beverage industry.

GE’s Energy Infrastructure business generated $10.4 billion in revenues in the company’s second quarter. That’s about $40 billion annually, which means the new contracts represent about 7.5% of the division’s annual revenues. That’s good, but not eye-popping.

The problem the company faces in its Energy business is profitability. Last quarter revenues increased by 9%, but profit fell by -19%. The culprits were rising costs and lower prices.

New contracts need to boost profits, not just add to GE’s revenue. While the wind turbine deal is the largest, it is likely that it was also the most competitive and doesn’t offer much in the way of increased profitability. Same with the oil and gas deals.

The entry into the food and beverage sector could be the most important from a profitability viewpoint, but it won’t change much in the short-term. The deal is really not a contract, only an agreement to work on something new. GE needs to turn this opportunity into revenue and profit.

GE shares are up about 0.4% just after the market opened this morning, at $16.24, in a 52-week range of $14.72-$21.65.

Paul Ausick

Abaxis, Inc. (NASDAQ: ABAX) maintained Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE: BUD) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) Reiterated Buy with $19 target at Argus.
The Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE: COF) Raised to Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Career Education Corp. (NASDAQ: CECO) maintained Buy but cut target to $21 from $28 at Argus.
Dover Corporation (NYSE: DOV) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Humana, Inc. (NYSE: HUM) Reiterated Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
JDS Uniphase Corporation (NASDAQ: JDSU) Started as Hold at Kaufman Bros.
Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
NASDAQ OMX Group (NASDAQ: NDAQ) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
RF Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: RFMD) Started as Underperform with $5.50 target at BofA/ML.
Skyworks Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ: SWKS) Started as Buy with $25 target at BofA/ML.
Tim Hortons Inc. (NYSE: THI) Reiterated Buy with $56 target at BofA/ML.
TriQuint Semiconductor, Inc. (NASDAQ: TQNT) Started as Underperform with $6.75 target at BofA/ML.
Wyndham Worldwide Corporation (NYSE: WYN) named value stock of the day at Zacks.

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JON C. OGG

The big winner from “The Munchies” of course would be Pepsico, Inc. (NYSE: PEP) as it owns Frito-Lay, Ruffles, Doritos, Cheetos, and more. Calls to Frank and Paul’s staff were not returned.   How many presidential candidates have co-authored legislation that would effectively legalize pot?

• Here are the states which profit the most from taxing sin (and selling it).
• Also, there was earlier a move for a marijuana technology company for an IPO, although we have not followed this closely of late and that news may have dated by now.
• Also, keep in mind that PROP 19 failed.

The new broad laws covering financial regulation usually fall under the umbrella of what is called “Dodd-Frank” by the public, but this is formally named Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.  If this does actually make it to law rather than just legislation, it would seem that the bill might be called “Pot-Frank.”

JON C. OGG

Analysts at Citigroup have raised both Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT) and Mosaic Co. (NYSE: MOS) from ‘hold’ to ‘buy’. Citi also raised Mosaic’s price target from $84/share to $85, and raised its price target on shares of Agrium Inc. (NYSE: AGU) from $94/share to $96, while maintaining a ‘hold’ rating on the shares. Fertilizer makers have gained anywhere from about 40% to more than 120% in the past 12 months.

CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CF) is the big gainer and the stock is trading off slightly today, at $153.03, down about -1.4% in a 52-week range of $57.56-$158.42. CF gained more than 12% just last week. Monsanto Co. (NYSE: MON), which has posted a 40% share price gain in the past year, and Syngenta AG (NYSE: SYT), up about 50% in the same period, are just following along.

There’s no big mystery about what’s going on. Demand for food is up and perhaps the cheapest way to grow more food is to add more fertilizer. It beats clearing new land (if that’s even possible).

A dry year so far has boosted prices for malting barley in Europe. Prices have jumped from about $300/metric ton in November 2010 to around $380/metric ton in May.

The long delays in corn planting in some parts of the US could lead farmers to plant barley, a crop that can thrive with a shorter growing season. The drought in Europe has hit the barley crop very hard, and the number of US acres already set for planting is just 2.95 million acres, the second lowest total on record. Canada’s recently boosted its barley price to about $360/metric ton.

Rising prices for barley are not the only thing hurting brewers — demand is falling as well. Anheuser-Busch InBev SA (NYSE: BUD), Molson Coors Brewing Co. (NYSE: TAP), and Boston Beer Co., Inc. (NYSE: SAM) are all feeling the effects of lower sales, and the coming rise in barley prices won’t help. Anheuser-Busch InBev is trading up about 3% today, at $60.32, in a 52-week range of $46.19-$60.38. Molson Coors is trading down fractionally at $46.59, in a 52-week range of $40.35-$51.11. Boston Beer is down about -0.5%, at $82.97, in a 52-week range of $60.95-$100.93.

Finally today, Russia announced over the weekend that it would resume wheat exports in July. The country could export up to 20 million metric tons of wheat out of a crop that could be as high as 85-90 million metric tons. The news has hit European markets hard and US wheat futures in Chicago are down more than -5%, at about $7.78/bushel.

The PowerShares DB Agriculture Fund (NYSE: DBA) is off about -0.4%, at $32.70, in a 52-week range of $22.85-$35.58. The Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF (NYSE: MOO) is up nearly 1%, to $55.22, within a 52-week range of $35.62-$57.93.

Paul Ausick

Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE: BUD) Cut to Neutral at BofA/ML.
Atmel Corporation (NASDAQ: ATML) Reiterated Buy and raised target to $17 at Gleacher & Co.
Dow Chemical Co. (NYSE: DOW) Raised to Buy with $49 target at Argus.
Eastman Chemical Co. (NYSE: EMN) Maintained Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES) Raised to Buy at Argus.
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) Reiterated Outperform with $28 target on Focus List at Credit Suisse.
JA Solar Holdings Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ: JASO) Cut to Sell at S&P Equity Research (late Wednesday call).
Lithia Motors, Inc. (NYSE: LAD) Maintained Buy as Value stock at Zacks.
McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) Started as Neutral at JPMorgan.
OpenTable, Inc. (NASDAQ: OPEN) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
PMI Group, Inc. (NYSE: PMI) Called as Bear of the Day with $1.75 target at Zacks.
P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, Inc. (NASDAQ: PFCB) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
Time Warner. Inc (NYSE: TWX) Reiterated Outperform with $40 target on Focus List at Credit Suisse.
Trimble Navigation Limited (NASDAQ: TRMB) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.

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JON C. OGG