GM to sit out next Super Bowl General Motors will not advertise in the Super Bowl next year, the most watched US television event of the year, in an unexpected move that follows a significant revamping of its media strategy. "We understand the reach the Super Bowl provides, but with the significant increase in price, we simply can't justify the expense," said Joel Ewanick, chief marketing officer for the US carmaker. The decision not to advertise during the 2013 broadcast on CBS came just days after GM said it would stop paying for advertising on Facebook, the leading social network. Pat Morrissey, a GM spokesman, said the move represented a "quite different" line of thinking than the regular review of the group's media spending that the carmaker is undertaking. He said the company's overall advertising budget - $4.47bn last year - was unchanged, but would not comment on where money previously spent on the game would be reallocated. "This is specifically looking at the cost of Super Bowl advertising and the significant increase in price," he said. The cost of a 30-second spot during the championship American football game rose 17 per cent this year to as much as $3.5m and is expected to go even higher in 2013. "It feels premature for GM to make such a big decision regarding the Super Bowl, especially since GM will be launching a new line of full-size pick-up trucks and full-size SUVs around Super Bowl time," said Michelle Krebs, senior analyst for Edmunds.com, the car research website. The Super Bowl audience is ideal for those vehicles and the timing is right. GM ran five spots during this year's game, including three for the Chevrolet Sonic subcompact. Edmunds said interest in the car on the Edmunds.com website more than doubled in the week after the game. The carmaker last sat out the Super Bowl in 2009, when it was going through bankruptcy and restructuring amid the near-collapse of the US auto industry. Advertisements for the Chevrolet and Cadillac brands will run on US television during this year's Olympic Games in London as GM is a sponsor of NBC's coverage, Mr Morrissey said. Over the past six months, the company has undertaken a sweeping reorganisation of its media and marketing strategy. GM consolidated its $3bn global media buying account with one agency, Aegis Group's Carat, and replaced 70 agencies that handled global advertising for the Chevrolet brand with a single agency, Commonwealth, a joint venture of Omnicom's Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and Interpublic's McCann Erickson. Those two moves are expected to save the company $2bn over the next five years, Mr Morrissey said.