Clam fast: Ivar's half-second Super Bowl ad

Blink and you'll miss it.

Seattle-based Ivar's Seafood Restaurants has purchased what it believes to be the shortest-ever Super Bowl commercial — half a second long.

The commercial will appear regionally on KING-TV, the local NBC affiliate airing Sunday's game.

Ivar's advertising agency, Heckler Associates, won't say exactly when the spot will run, what a half-second of airtime costs or precisely what the commercial will show, other than "a flash of iconic imagery and a brief voice-over."

The Ivar's ad will run during one of KING's 5-second "station tags" — time allotted to local affiliates carrying the game.

After the spot airs, it will be posted on the restaurant chain's Web site, www.ivars.net.

The local chain's offbeat, normal-length commercials — including spoofs of "Back to the Future" and "Dances with Wolves" featuring giant clams and a group of rapping fishermen — already are well-known locally.

This isn't the first short-short commercial ever made for the Super Bowl. Last year, the band Eels made a one-second commercial for the big game, but the commercial did not air. Band members said they were told there weren't 29 other sponsors willing to fill the standard 30-second commercial slot.

This year, Miller High Life has a one-second commercial planned to run during the game.

For 30-second national commercial spots this year, advertisers have been paying between $2.4 million and $3 million.

Jack Broom: 206-464-2222 or jbroom@seattletimes.com