By now you know the strategy: Nearly $4 million is a lot of dough for a 30-second Super Bowl ad, so marketers taking the plunge are under more pressure than ever to make it count. That now generally means releasing the ad, and teasers, on the web early and unleashing huge PR and social media campaigns to gather up as many impressions as possible before and after the actual game.

Over the past few years, Honda ‘s Ferris Bueller ad and Volkswagen ‘s “The Force” worked that pre-game strategy to perfection . In Volkswagen’s case that was after a heated internal debate over whether to release the spot early at all and thus ruin the surprise; it decided to risk it.

This year, another automaker is a clear pre-game winner: Toyota . As of Friday morning, the automaker has more than 11 million views on its “Wish Granted” campaign, including 3.2 million on this excellent teaser , according to Visible Measures, which tracks all views across the web, not just YouTube.

Volkswagen came in at No. 2, with a little over 6 million views, no doubt in part driven by the controversy over “Get Happy,” but also driven by a teaser with nearly 1.5 million views .

What we’ve learned over the past few years is that lots of pre-game views are helpful, there are more views to be had over the weeks that follow. Last year, for example, while Honda took pre-game honors, Volkswagen’s “Dog Strikes Back” had racked up 31 million views a week after the game.

I think the new Toyota spot is too close in concept to so many spots on air lately…State Farm for one. Although it won this pre game poll and seems to be popular, as a creative director I can’t believe they could not be more original.

I read this story on thebigthink.com while incidentally watching Groundhog Day yet again.

Every year on Groundhog Day, along with waiting for the verdict on the length of winter from the world’s most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, TV stations across the country dust off the 1993 movie Groundhog Day.

Some believe that the cult-classic starring Bill Murray is a film that illustrates the concepts of Buddhism and achieving enlightenment. In the film, weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray) relives the same day over and over again until he gets it right through hard work, self awareness, and sacrifice.

The movie’s writer, Danny Rubin, understands the connection to Buddhist beliefs, but says he did not design the story around any one religion. “Everybody seems to bring their own way of thinking and their own discipline to bear on the ideas within it,” Rubin says.

Regardless of your religious persuasion, here are a few universal truths for living we can all take from Groundhog Day:

1. Be kind to others. On Phil Connors’ “perfect day” he saves a child’s life, helps two women change a tire, gives a newlywed couple wrestling tickets, and completes many other good deeds. He even buys insurance from annoying salesman, Ned. Bing!

2. Try different things. If your life becomes a redundant cycle of work and sleep, there’s still time to try new things.  Take up ice sculpting or learn to play piano, you never know when it will come in handy.

3. You can’t fight the weather or who you are. Ironically, Phil the weatherman tries to deny the coming blizzard because it doesn’t fit in with his life. Only when he accepts his situation does he begin to grow as a person. Work with what you have; people will love you for that.

4. To find real love work on you. Phil learns everything about his love interest Rita, down to her favorite ice cream. But what she really falls in love with is his passion for life.

5. Life is what you make it. As Rubin says, at first for Phil Connors it’s “the worst day of his life. And, by the end of the movie, we see that it’s the exact same day but somehow this is probably the best day of his life.”

I just heard this story on NPR.

Every year when The Advocate magazine publishes its list of the “Gayest Cities in America” it comes with a few surprises. This year was no different.

At the top of the list for 2013 is Tacoma, Washington. In fact three Washington cities are in the top 5. Joining Tacoma on the list of America’s gayest cities is Spokane, Wash. The two cities were helped by the fact that the state legalized same-sex marriage in last year’s election.

According to one Tacoma resident there was a certain logic to it.”There’s a lot of public support [for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community], and we’ve had nondiscrimination laws for a long time here.”

“Tacoma was the right blend of the right size and had the factors we looked for in the criteria,” Matthew Breen, editor of the The Advocate and the man behind this year’s list, told weekends on All Things Considered host Jacki Lyden.

Those factors include more serious criteria like the number of LGBT elected officials and whether a city has legal protections for people who are transgender and bisexual resource centers. Then the magazine adds in some tongue-in-cheek factors: concerts by Glee cast members, roller derby and gay rugby teams, and “fabulous” shopping — measured by the number of Whole Foods, West Elm and Pottery Barn stores.

“We start with a baseline of cities that have 150,000 people or more and we take all of our criteria,” Breen says. “Then we divide by the number of people and we get a per-capita gay-ness.”

Although the list is a bit cheeky, Breen says, it’s also important because it starts a dialogue about what being a gay-friendly city means.

“People start having a conversation about whether their city is LGBT-friendly,” he says. “They get to look at dimensions to their city that they maybe didn’t consider in the past. The conversation is what I’m after here, and I’m just finding it happen all over the place every year, so I’m really excited about that.”

Next year…I want to have some sushi from the first tuna sold…

Can you believe Brazilian women welcome the New Year by wearing colorful underwear? They usually wear red, yellow or other brightly colored under-wear past midnight to catch good fortune for the coming year.

Red means an amorous love life ahead.

White, which most Brazilians wear, particularly in Rio, represents harmony, peace and overall good luck.

Silver means new things.

Green indicates hope.

Yellow or gold underwear means money or wealth and with millions of people worried about the fallout from the credit crunch, they are flying off the shelves.

“People are desperate, they want to not lose their jobs and have some money in their pockets,” said Denise Areal, marketing director for Duloren, one of Brazil’s biggest underwear producers. “We’ve sold out 100,000 pairs and we don’t have time to make any more.

The tradition is believed to be rooted in Candombe (Afro-Brazilian) religious beliefs that colors attract energy.

Forget Cialis get Chocolate!

From the time the first coca beans were harvested by the Mayans, there has been the belief that chocolate has a euphoric impact on the body’s senses.

The conquistadores saw the Emperor Montezuma of the Aztecs consuming a large quantity of cocoa in the form of a beverage called “chocolatl” before entering his harem.

The invading Spaniards spread the Emperor’s belief that cocoa was an aphrodisiac and brought it to Europe. This belief was also shared by one of history’s most famous lovers, Giacomo Casanova.Since then, the use of chocolate as part of the mating ritual has been firmly established.

More recently it has been shown that not only does chocolate increase the sexual appetite but also produces a sense of elation similar to an orgasm. It has only been in recent times that scientists have unraveled chocolate’s psychotropic properties and the effects it has on us.

Chocolate has been found to contain modest amounts of the stimulants caffeine and theo-bromine but much less than in coffee or tea.

Chocolate is also known to generate increased levels of serotonin, a chemical naturally produced by the brain, which is known to reduce anxiety.

Serotonin is most commonly associated with the effects of marijuana or getting ‘stoned’ Ha…you would have to eat 25lbs of dark chocolate at once to achieve that same effect.

Neither of these properties by themselves provides the connection between eating chocolates and heightened sexual pleasure. It is in fact the rush of endorphins produced by eating chocolates, particularly dark chocolates, which is most similar to the bliss associated with a healthy sexual relationship.

Chocolate also contains phenyl-ethylamine which is known to stimulate the release of dopamine into the pleasure centers commonly associated with an orgasm.

In addition to this scientific evidence, a great deal of behavioral research has been done to study the sexual behavior of women who eat a lot of chocolate and those who don’t.

The conclusion of this is that women who consume large quantities of chocolate have more satisfying sex lives. Despite the fact that the relationship between sex and chocolate can’t be proven with 100% certainty, the scientific evidence combined with behavioral studies provides a compelling argument for cocoa’s impact on our sexual drive.

I suppose it is convincing enough for chocolate to become a part of my daily diet! How about a Café Mocha a day?

According to surveys from the American Research Group with regards to Christmas gift spending, the average family plans to spend $646 this Christmas shopping season. This spending is down from $658 last year, but above the ten year low of $417 in 2009. Over the last ten years, the highest reported spending was in 2001 with $1,052.

When compared to the average family budget, the Christmas gift budget makes up 1.3% of all average family spending. It is more than what the average family will spend on reading materials ($110/year) and alcoholic beverages ($435/year) put together.

The McRib is a product of “restructured meat technology.” Carumba, not sure I would eat anything that uses restructured meat technology but hey baloney and McNuggets have been a staple of my diet for years.

Rene Arend, McDonald’s first executive chef and inventor of the Chicken McNugget, came up with the idea and design of the McRib, but it’s a professor from the University of Nebraska named Richard Mandigo who developed the “restructured meat product” that the McRib is actually made of.

Neither of these folks will be appearing on Iron Chef any time soon.

According to an article from Chicago magazine, which cites a 1995 article by Mandigo, “restructured meat product” contains a mixture of tripe, heart, and scalded stomach, which is then mixed with salt and water to extract proteins from the muscle. The proteins bind all the pork trimmings together so that it can be re-molded into any specific shape — in this case, a fake slab of ribs.

Thousands of consumers went to Best Buy at 4 a.m. on Black Friday this year searching for discounts on a Blu-ray players, netbooks and dozens of other items. Supplies of those hot items ran out before they reached the front of the line. Sometimes that caused near riots at the malls.

But this year many consumers gave up real-world shopping and did all their gadget buying online.

While Black Friday — the day after Thanksgiving in the United States — is one of the biggest retail shopping days of the year, tech-smart consumers are increasingly turning to the internet for the best gadget deals. Last year nearly 100 million people in the United States went online from mid-November to mid-December to shop for gift items, which was up 12 percent over the year before, according to comScore, a company that tracks online traffic. Furthermore, the growth in online purchases is expected to outpace that in brick-and-mortar stores this holiday season.

The National Retail Association is predicting a 16% increase in online sales, compared to a 2.3% increase in “real world” spending.

But penny-pinchers may also be driving the phenomenon. Many of the best discounts on electronics — especially big-ticket items like TVs, laptops and gaming systems — are found on the internet, not at retail stores.

Online discounts “are as juicy or even more appealing than what some of the retailers are promising on Black Friday,” Consumer Reports advised people to stay away from the Black Friday mania “unless you like rubbing against people you don’t know — or getting trampled.”

On the internet, particular days seem to have less importance than at retail stores. Wal-Mart, Amazon, Target and Best Buy are already offering online discounts on electronics that may match or beat Black Friday prices.

Some discounts may pop up online on Friday, in tandem with in-store deals. Apple, which isn’t known for discounting its high-end products, says it will have a one day online sale at Apple.com Friday.

In recent years, a phenomenon marketers call “Cyber Monday” has emerged as a sort of online holiday shopping event. On the Monday after Thanksgiving, legend has it, consumers rush to the internet — presumably from their workplace computers — to shop for the rest of their lists.

The internet tracker comScore said Cyber Monday never has been the biggest online shopping day of the year. That day typically comes on a Monday in December.

Still, the Monday after Thanksgiving is a bigger day for online shopping than either Thanksgiving day — which has been talked about as the hot new day to shop online — and Black Friday.

For the first time, online spending topped $1 billion on Friday, but today’s Cyber Monday sales are expected to generate $1.5 billion and possibly more.