Super Bowl advertising is far more often a brand-building exercise than a venue for direct-marketing calls to action, but Soloflex bucked the pattern in 1985 and 1987 with one spot, "Work of Art," and again in 1995. (See its other 1995 spot here).

Company founder Jerry Wilson recalled to Ad Age years later that the investment was perhaps less a calculated business decision and more an emotional move. “They were national, international I suppose,” he said in an email in 2015. “It was nay impossible to track the costliness. Probably my own ego just wanting to reach the Superbowl ourselves.” Asked whether he was nervous about the risk, he replied, “No, I had the cash to gamble.”

Super Bowl XXIX was the last big-game appearance for Soloflex, however. “Sales declined over the years,” Wilson explained. “We'd been there, good enough for me.”

BRAND: Soloflex

YEAR: 1995

SUPERBOWL: XXIX