The Superbowl As An Economic Indicator

That adjusted-for-inflation line on the first chart didn't seem right to me so I looked up some official data. The CPI-U price levels for January 2008 and 2009 both read about 211, while for January 1985 the same price level was 105.5, meaning prices doubled between 1985 and 2008 ... to the extent such data is trustworthy.

In the first chart the 1985 blue bar reads about $0.50 and the corresponding black (inflation-adjusted) line reads about $1, which is exactly how you would adjust for a doubling in inflation.

So there's a rough correspondence between the level of inflation and price of ads. Which actually makes sense.