Voices

Intuit Awards Super Bowl Commercial to Small Business

QuickBooks maker Intuit ran a commercial during the Super Bowl on Sunday to promote a local small business. The winner of the competition for the 30-second ad was GoldieBlox, a startup company based in Oakland, Calif., whose toys aim to inspire young girls to become engineers.

They and the other finalists in the “Small Business, Big Game” competition watched the Super Bowl at the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York on Sunday evening.

Before the game, I got a chance to chat with some of the finalists, including Locally Laid Egg Company in Wrenshall, Minn. Co-owner Lucie Amundsen said the competition had given their company great exposure, even though they didn't ultimately win the big prize with the free ad spot during Sunday's matchup. The company takes a humane approach to raising chickens, allowing them to live on a pasture where they are free to forage and exercise out in the Amundsen family's fields.

Another finalist, Dairy Poop, packages manure from dairy cows in Nampa, Idaho, and makes it into compost for use on lawns, gardens and flower beds. I chatted with one of the founders, who was enjoying her visit to New York, where she got to see many of the sites on an unusually balmy winter weekend. I pointed out that our new mayor, Bill de Blasio, wants to rid Central Park of the carriage horses, which will mean less horse poop along the park paths. But I don't think anybody has been making that into compost.

The other finalist was Barley Labs of Durham, N.C., which creates all-natural dog treats made out of recycled barley from a local brewery. And speaking of breweries, there was a lot of imbibing once the game got underway, but not of dog treats, as far as I could tell.

To watch Intuit's Super Bowl commercial for GoldieBlox and find out more about them and the other finalists, click here.

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