Thanks to Catharine P. Taylor at Adfreak for pointing us to these telling facts and figures.
According to a new study by the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association (RAMA), a division of the National Retail Federation, many consumers rank the commercials as the most important part of the Super Bowl. The survey also found that the 145 million consumers who plan to watch the game will spend an average of $49.27, bringing total spending to $5.6 billion.