Super Bowl ad features Deaf culture joke

A PepsiCo ad during the 2008 Super Bowl will focus on a joke common in the deaf community. Two guys are going to their friend's house for the Super Bowl. When they get to the street, they forget which house is his. SO to figure that out, they honk loudly and watch the lights go on and the dogs bark. Then they go to the house that remains dark -- that's where their deaf friend lives. The first 60 seconds of the ad will have no sound, which PepsiCo hopes will grab the attention of its Super Bowl audience.

Two PepsiCo employees, Brian Dowling and Darren Therriault, who are both deaf, are featured in the ad. The ad is the idea of Clay Broussard, a supply and logistics manager at PepsiCo in Dallas, who is hearing, but is involved with the deaf community because he attends a church in which all the services are in sign language.

National Association of the Deaf president Bobbie Beth Scoggins told The Associated Press she sees this ad as an historic event, because it is unusual for an ad featuring American Sign Language to receive such prominent play.

"I was glad to see this part of deaf culture awareness shared in a most clever way," Scoggins told The AP.

For more information: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22824530/from/ET/.