The 30-second nuggets of commercial time wedged between Colts drives and Bears stops won't be the sole stage for this year's crop of Super Bowl advertising, with many online components of Big Game campaigns already live in advance of this Sunday's pigskin extravaganza. Leading the charge is Snickers, which attempts to satisfy football fans' hunger for interaction by previewing the first few seconds of its TV spot at SnickersSatisfies.com, then entreating viewers to return to the site after the full spot airs on Sunday to vote on three alternate endings. "We wanted to explore any idea that would extend the life of a Super Bowl ad, both before and after game day," says creative director Ian Reichenthal of TBWA\Chiat\Day New York. "Alternate endings suited this spot quite well because the story truly could resolve itself in many different ways. From there, we involved the Super Bowl players and ultimately the viewers in choosing their favorite version of the spot."

Meanwhile, Pepsi is emailing a unique code to everyone who registers online for a sweepstakes that will net one Super Bowl viewer the gaudy Super Can (a diamond-encrusted Pepsi can worth $100,000), and Anheuser-Busch plans to supplement its usual barrage of spots with in-game texts to beer drinkers asking them to vote on their favorite, as well as the post-Super Bowl launch of its online video network Bud.TV. Footlocker will give the Tivo-busting "embed-content-within-TV-spot" tack a try by hiding a secret website URL somewhere in its new Kevin Garnett ad, while Geico's kitschy cavemen are getting in on the party-hardy atmosphere by inviting websurfers to poke around their humble abode via the Cavemans Crib website. Then there's the quirky "monster vs. robot" spot from first-time Super Bowl advertiser Garmin (Hummer "Monsters," anyone?) that's benefited from online buzz courtesy of its own blog and a microsite scheduled to go live on Saturday. And finally, "When in Doubt, Go User-Generated" seems to be the mantra of every other marketer who couldn't be bothered to create their own advertising, as the fruits of Chevy, Doritos, Alka-Seltzer and the NFL's labors (or, more accurately, the labors of their consumers) will finally see the light of broadcast during the game.