Starwood took to Super Bowl XL in 2006 to promote its new smoke-free Westin hotels -- "the first major non-smoking hotel brand" -- in this simple-for-the-Super-Bowl, effective-as-a-result 15-second ad by Deutsch New York. (It was also Westin's first ad in the Super Bowl, not a frequent venue for hospitality commercials beyond the occasional Holiday Inn appearance.)

The decision to ban smoking in every room in 77 North American hotels starting that February gave Sue Brush, Westin Hotels senior VP-marketing, "a few sleepless nights," she later told Ad Age. Even though the company's research found that 92% of customers already requested nonsmoking rooms, "we were wondering how big of a risk were we taking," she said. "Who wants to slash 8% of your business? You're talking millions of dollars." 

But seven months later, Westin said it hadn't seen much falloff, and was saving money on room cleaning. The American Heart Association also signed a contract to return to the chain as a customer after five years. Other hotels followed that year, including Marriott. 

Director: Impactist Impactist. Production company: Hornet. Executive producer: Eve Kornblum. Creative directors: Scott Schindler, Bryan Black. Copywriters: Scott Schindler, Bryan Black.

BRAND: Westin

YEAR: 2006

AGENCY: Deutsch

SUPERBOWL: XL

QUARTER AIRED: Q4