I was recently contacted by the folks who are connected with Doritos and asked if I would write about the finalists in their fourth annual “Crash The Super Bowl” Challenge.

Let me say from the outset, that I have always loved Doritos, but no one has offered to pay me to write this.  They didn’t even offer to stack my house for the Super Bowl with a care package in exchange for writing a word or two (not that there is anything wrong with that) but I will say, the company has moved to a level of activation that others have not.  Today, just running a 30 second commercial and spending millions of dollars for brief mentions during the super bowl is not enough.

The Doritos brand has revealed six finalists selected from more than 4,000 entries in the fourth annual Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl” challenge.  The contest encouraged people to make their own commercial, submit it and then people would vote on the best of the best.

Here are the six videos (in no particular order) that have made the finals.

According to the promotion, you can now vote for a finalist once a day at www.crashthesuperbowl.com between January 5 and 31, 2010.  If you are not keeping track at home, that gives you until tomorrow to do so…

Contestants are not only competing to have their self-made Doritos commercials aired during the Super Bowl XLIV broadcast, they are shooting to make history by beating the ad pros and garnering the top three spots in USA TODAY’s annual Ad Meter.  If they can do it, Doritos will award the winners a shared $5 million cash prize.

Online consumer voting will determine which three of the six finalists will air as Doritos’ Super Bowl commercials during the big game on February 7, 2010

Two more to go…..

Which one is your favorite?

Here is the bottom line.  The company was able to activate thousands of people to make commercials, even more to vote and place these commericals online, where they will live for a long time to come for people to see.

The investment will pay off by allowing others to talk about the brand in a new and unique way.  It is something I helped lead in my last corporate position.  Bravo.