New York, January 12, 1999.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the bidding for the 32nd Super Bowl ads is now open!"
The crowd clapped wildly. The Super Bowl was watched by hundreds of millions of people. Every company dreamed of having an ad there.
"This year," the auctioneer shouted, waving his arms, "we have six main 30-second ads. The starting price for the first one is $200,000!"
Hiss!
The crowd gasped. $200,000 just to start? That was $50,000 more than last year!
"The NFL is trying to rob us!" one person whispered.
Many smaller companies quietly left. They knew the final price would be over a million dollars. Not everyone had deep pockets like Zane.
"Bah!" a loud voice laughed from the back. "If you don't have the money, don't come! A bunch of cheapskates!"
Zane and Jeff Bezos turned to look. A young man in a flashy suit was laughing at everyone.
"Who is he?" Zane asked, frowning.
"I know him," Bezos smiled. "He owns Mitch.com, a website like Yahoo. Two years ago, he was a car mechanic with no money. But he got lucky with the internet boom. Now his company is worth $300 million."
"Oh," Zane said. "You know a lot about him?"
"Zane, don't underestimate me," Bezos said proudly. "I know everything about the new internet companies. I even know that you just bought 30% of Google."
Zane looked at his friend with respect. "Wow. You really are something, Jeff!"
"Of course!" Bezos beamed.
Zane didn't like being called "lucky." People often thought he was just a lucky guy who got rich by accident, like the Mitch.com guy. They looked down on him because he didn't finish college.
Humph! Zane thought. Just wait until I become the richest man in the world. Let's see who looks down on me then!
The auction began.
"$300,000!"
"$500,000!"
"$600,000!"
The price went up fast. Most of the bidders were internet companies. Before the big crash (the "dot-com bubble"), these companies had tons of money to burn.
"$1.3 million!"
The first ad was sold! And the winner was... the loud guy from Mitch.com.
"See?" he boasted. "I told you not to fight me! I won!"
Everyone glared at him. "That guy is asking for trouble," someone grumbled.
Zane just shook his head. Mitch.com? He had never heard of it in his old life. That meant it was garbage.
"I bet after the internet bubble bursts," Zane thought, "that company will disappear."
When the crash happened, even giants like Yahoo would lose money. A small fake like Mitch didn't stand a chance.
...
Zane and Bezos didn't just watch. They joined in!
Zane bought the third ad for $1.19 million.
Bezos bought the fifth ad for $1.26 million.
In less than an hour, all the ads were sold for a total of $11 million.
(In 2020, a Super Bowl ad would cost $5.6 million! But back in 1999, $1.19 million was a huge amount of money.)
Most of the ads were bought by internet companies. They were throwing money around like crazy.
"These internet companies..." people muttered. "So arrogant. Let's see how many of them are still here next year!"
Even Zane felt a little pain spending $1.19 million for just 30 seconds. But he knew it was worth it to promote his movies.
Back in Los Angeles...
"Boss," Alexander said, "Mr. Taro Hashimoto wants to see you."
"Oh? Let him in," Zane said, putting down a report about his upcoming Valentine's Day movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
Taro Hashimoto, the head of the toy stores, walked in.
"Boss," Taro said, getting straight to the point, "I have an idea. I hope our group can start a new department: the Home Entertainment Department."
Zane thought for a few seconds. "Home Entertainment? You mean... you want us to buy the rights to other people's movies so we can build a library?"
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