Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Count Microsoft Corp., Burger King Holdings Inc. and Gillette among advertisers who will sit on the sidelines at this Sunday's Super Bowl.

Gillette and Burger King each said they bought ads last year and decided not to return. Microsoft, in the middle of a campaign for its Windows Vista operating system, won't make its pitch to about 90 million U.S. viewers who will watch the Feb. 4 National Football League championship telecast on CBS Corp.

Microsoft's absence is notable because companies often use the event to advertise a new product or sell a message. Burger King reintroduced its ``Have It Your Way'' slogan at the game last year, said Jeff Hicks, president of the company's ad agency. A number of marketing executives said spending as much as $2.6 million for an ad at the Super Bowl, the world's biggest one-day advertising showcase, doesn't always pay.

``Advertising on the Super Bowl is a career risk,'' said Ken Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. ``The last thing a marketer should do is assume that they need to be on the Super Bowl.''

Brands including Cadillac and AOL, the Internet unit of Time Warner Inc., have ousted marketing executives or switched ad agencies after Super Bowl promotions failed to increase sales, Calkins said. The pressure-cooker environment puts advertisements under intense scrutiny, he said.

Replacements

Cadillac replaced agency Leo Burnett Co. last year as part of a plan to pursue a younger image, said Ryndee Carney, a spokeswoman for the car company's parent, Detroit-based General Motors Corp., the world's largest automaker. Last year's Super Bowl ads for Cadillac showed an Escalade on a catwalk.

An AOL executive resigned in 2004 after convincing bosses to sponsor the halftime show where singer Justin Timberlake, in a dance routine, exposed Janet Jackson's breast. Andrew Weinstein, a spokesman for Dulles, Virginia-based AOL, declined to comment.

Gillette and Burger King each will miss the Super Bowl after campaigns last year. Boston-based Gillette doesn't have a product to match last year's debut of the Fusion razor, said Kelly Vanasse, spokeswoman for the unit of Procter & Gamble Co., the largest U.S. consumer products maker.

Burger King, the second-largest U.S. hamburger chain behind McDonald's Corp., dropped out because it didn't have any business as pressing as the new slogan was in 2006, said Hicks, who heads Miami-based agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky.

Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker, is introducing the first new version of its operating system in five years. The Redmond, Washington-based company decided to use its money on ``CSI,'' the crime drama on New York-based CBS, and the Academy Awards broadcast, where there is less competition, Windows communications manager John Williams said.

Ad Sales

CBS had sold more than 90 percent of the ads for the telecast by Jan. 30 at a peak price of $2.6 million, executive vice president John Bogusz said in an interview.

At an average price of $2.2 million, projected by Los Angeles-based Sanders Morris Harris analyst David Miller, 60 of the 30-second spots during the game will generate about $132 million in revenue for CBS. TV's most-expensive recurring show is Fox's ``American Idol'' at $620,000 per spot, according to Advertising Age magazine.

CBS paid $3.7 billion in November 2004 for rights to carry this year's Super Bowl and American Football Conference games for six years. Shares of the company, split from Viacom Inc. at the beginning of 2006, have jumped 20 percent in the past 12 months. Profit from continuing operations climbed 20 percent to $1.05 billion in the nine months ended Sept. 30.

Companies are using the Internet to broaden their Super Bowl advertising. Doritos and Chevy, and the NFL itself, are involving consumers in the creation of the ads to generate publicity and online buzz.

`Wilder Ideas'

PepsiCo Inc.'s Doritos chips will choose its ad from five finalists. Chevrolet, also owned by GM, drew suggestions from 800 teams of college students and made an ad based on the winning idea.

The NFL made an ad based on an idea that Gino Bona, a 33- year-old ad-agency salesman from New Hampshire, first pitched to a panel of judges at Giants Stadium in New Jersey.

``You get fresher thinking and wilder ideas,'' said Bill Ludwig, chief creative officer at Chevrolet's Warren, Michigan- based Detroit-based agency, Campbell-Ewald Co.

While risky, an effective Super Bowl ad also promises a payoff. Extra hits on company Web sites, mentions on blogs and attention from advertising critics can make a $2.5 million ad worth as much as $12 million, said Bob Parsons, chief executive officer of Go Daddy Group Inc. of Scottsdale, Arizona.

The registrar of Internet domain names saw traffic spike more than 16 times after its first Super Bowl ad in 2005. The spot, featuring a buxom female model, poked fun at the Jackson ``wardrobe malfunction'' from the prior year and led News Corp.'s Fox to pull a second showing of the commercial during the game.

``Our market share shot up from 16 percent to 25 percent,'' Parsons said in an interview. Go Daddy will be there again, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tim Mullaney in New York at tmullaney1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 2, 2007 07:55 EST