It's cowboys v. showgirls in Coke's Super Bowl ad

The campaign, which will include TV spots as well as a Web site and interaction with consumers on social media sites like Twitter and Instagram, is the world's largest beverage maker's latest attempt to capture interest of people who watch the Big Game with a second screen such as a tablet or smartphone nearby. With Super Bowl ads costing around $4 million for 30 seconds, it is increasingly important for marketers to make that investment count, extending Super Bowl campaigns online before, during and after the game.

"The second screen is a huge deal for us," said Stuart Kronauge, president of sparkling beverages. "It doesn't matter where consumers are, be it TV, mobile or tablet, we need to be there."

To engage the more than 100 million viewers who tune into the Super Bowl every year (last year, 111 million watched the game, according to Nielsen), The Coca-Cola Co. decided to create its own game.

A cinematic 30-second TV ad created by longtime agency Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, Ore., which will run on network TV and on Youtube.com beginning Tuesday, sets up the game's premise. Three random groups, a troupe of show girls in a pink bus, a group of cowboys, and a gang of so-called "badlanders" on motorcycles and ATVs wearing leather attire, are all in the middle of the desert. They race toward what looks to be a giant Coca-Cola, but it turns out to be a wooden sign that indicates the Coke is 50 miles away.