Not sure if anyone else saw this commercial during superbowl (or any other time).  Considering that it cost them $2.7 million dollars to air this 30 second commercial during superbowl I would say that someone high up in the marketing world feels that pinball has some serious influence in today's marketplace.  

Just imagine, how many machines you could have purchased with just the cost of the 30 second air time!!!  Never mind the cost to actually produce the commercial as well.

Anyways, I thought the commercial was cool -

Check it out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMr5pgtOJaU

Actually there is a lottery here in Ontario that is showing a pinball based commerical as well (Heart and Stroke Lottery I think)

Maybe you want to watch TILT before making such a statement.

I actually hope it "doesn't" come back,  If arcade machines become "trendy", I'm taking
all my machines and burying them in Egyptian sand.

Last thing we need is tryouts for an "Arcade Idol" TV series, and "Extreme Arcade Challenge" hosted by Ryan Seacrest.

Or a Paris Hilton side-scrolling shooter "Hair Dryer Assault II"

Craig

In a world that sponsors midget wrestling you never know...

Quoted from Teamatomics

I actually hope it "doesn't" come back,  If arcade machines become "trendy", I'm taking
all my machines and burying them in Egyptian sand.

Are you kidding me??  That would be awesome - Extreme Pinball Tryouts!!  Who the hell would ever watch it though?  Like any industry, more popular = more money = better R&D = better product.

I am not sure if it is becoming trendy again or not.  Another stong indication is that I have just purchased my first two pinball machines and I am usually just ahead of most trends.  I wore jeans when everyone else was still wearing cords.  The yellow tinted RAZER Oakley sunglass - yep I had them when no one else would dare.  I bought Sony Betamax machines and tapes when everyone else stuck to VHS ...

OK - perhaps I am not always right!?

Here's the heart & stroke ad:
http://www.richardrosenman.com/project/movies/?mov=h480&cid=162

Creative types (aka ad people, movie set designers, art directors) seem to have an enduring love affair for pinball.

Ford
Pepsi
Heart & Stroke

These are all commercials that have aired in the last 3-4 years.

Not to mention, all the online "pinball" games that companies like to include on their websites.

Playstation and Xbox still offer pinball games for their consoles.

And let's not forget Microsoft, who included the Space Cadet pinball game on every version of windows up until Vista.

The "idea" of pinball is alive and well. Too bad it's so hard finding actual machines out on location these days.

Dave
http://usergallery.myhomegameroom.com/gallery/dmp65

Quoted from Tuborg

Here's the heart & stroke ad:
http://www.richardrosenman.com/project/movies/?mov=h480&cid=162

Pinball is definitely NOT coming back.  One company has a pinball monopoly worldwide and is meeting global demand selling 5000-7000 games a year.  No sane person/company would spend multi-millions opening a new pinball factory, hiring 100's of people, etc in the hope of selling a few thousand games a year, the economics just don't work.  Aside from a relative "handful" (in worldwide terms) of home buyers/collectors there aren't many industry people left that are interested in buying them.

As mentioned, pinball will always endure in the hearts of North Americans and be represented in popular culture, even if its no longer practical to actually manufacture them.