Writing a Super Bowl ad? Just don’t use the words “Super Bowl.”

It’s that time of year again: advertisers around the country are writing copy designed to associate their product with the Super Bowl, without actually using the words “Super Bowl.” The Washington Post explains:

Call it the Championship, the Big Kahuna and, most certainly, the Big Game. It doesn't matter what you call the Super Bowl.

Unless you're an advertiser. Then, actually, it does...

Because advertisers cannot say "Super Bowl" or show NFL team logos unless they've paid millions of dollars to the NFL, they've learned to weasel around such restrictions, inventing such generic, non-actionable concepts as "the Big Game."

Having written news releases for products launched just in time for the Big Game, I can attest to how difficult it is to consciously not say Super Bowl. But I’m also proud to say that I didn’t resort to the option Washington law firm Leventhal, Senter & Lerman offers in the Post article: "the professional football championship game."