In the 40 years since the first Super Bowl was played between Green Bay and Kansas City, Super Bowl Sunday has grown into an unofficial national holiday that has shopping and economic effects rivaling Christmas, Thanksgiving and other major official holidays. Whether it's a casual get together with a few friends or a lavish, catered party, 125 million Americans celebrated the Super Bowl in some fashion in 2006. Even those with little interest in football get in on the craze, if only to watch the commercials.

Understanding this unique opportunity, advertisers spare no expense to showcase their products and services during the Super Bowl. Advertisers paid up to $2.5 million dollars for each 30 seconds of advertising during Super Bowl XL in 2006. Agencies work on their advertisements all year, and the Super Bowl has become the unofficial Academy Awards of advertising. There are almost as many websites and television programs analyzing the advertisements as there are analyzing the game.

The food and beverage industry also profits from Super Bowl Sunday. Super Bowl Sunday is second only to Thanksgiving in the amount of food that Americans prepare and consume. In the weeks leading up to Super Bowl XL, Americans spent $55 million dollars on food for their Super Bowl parties and spent ten million hours preparing it. Since it is estimated that an average of 17 people attend each Super Bowl Party, these figures are not surprising.

The king of Super Bowl food is the avocado. More avocados are sold in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl that at any other time of the year. It is estimated that 12 million pounds of avocados are purchased and turned into guacamole for Super Bowl parties. Since guacamole requires chips, 15,000 tons of chips are consumed as well. All that food needs washing down and soda and beer sales also top out during the weeks preceding the big game.

It's not just food and beverage manufacturers who profit. Millions of dollars are spent on party supplies like paper plates, cups and plastic cutlery. Electronics stores also benefit. After all, you need that big-screen TV in order to properly appreciate the game. Even sales of antacids spike on the Monday following Super Bowl Sunday. There's a good reason for that. The estimated total time that party-goers take to consume all that carefully prepared food: 15 minutes.