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Companies are now designing TV ads to appeal to the iPod generation, hoping people will like the commercials enough to download them onto their video iPods and share them.

For the first time, Anheuser-Busch Cos. will make its Super Bowl ads available for postgame downloading at Budweiser.com. The beer giant worked with Maven Networks of Cambridge to create an application that allows consumers to download their favorite beer commercials and watch them on video iPods, laptops, and computer screens.

At degreedeodorant.com starting the day after the game, consumers will be able to download, in video iPod-friendly form, versions of a Degree for Men Super Bowl ad titled ''Stunt City."

The wireless communication service Sprint Nextel Corp., meanwhile, will make its ads available for postgame replays to many subscribers with multimedia cellphones.

In recent years, downloading pop songs to such devices as iPods, or episodes of TV programs to video iPods, has become a cultural phenomenon. But will TV commercials become so popular that advertisers will routinely make them available for downloads as part of their marketing campaigns?

''It's too early to tell," said Marlene Coulis, Anheuser-Busch's vice president of brand management, but she said of ads: ''A lot of people like to show them to their friends, and the iPod is a new way to pass along information."

The company is encouraged by a recently launched series of iPod-friendly ads based on a character called ''Ted Ferguson, Bud Light Daredevil." In less than two months, ads have been downloaded ''tens of thousands of times," Coulis said.

Advertisers are painfully aware that traditional TV ads may be a dying breed. Cable networks and the Internet have fragmented consumers into ever smaller niches. Then there's TiVo and other digital recording systems that allow viewers to skip over TV ads.

''The 30-second TV commercial is on its last IV," said chief executive Larry Weber of W2 Group of Waltham, which bills itself as a ''marketing services firm for the 21st century."

So when advertisers plunk down $2.5 million for airtime, the estimated average cost for a 30-second ad on Super Bowl XL, they're open to using new technologies to get additional viewings of their ads.

''You get more bang for your buck," said Angela Read, Sprint's public relations manager for entertainment, brand, and advertising. ''It's hard to get people's attention now. If you can do it in more ways than one, you're more likely to get your message out."

Weber doesn't believe many consumers would want to download most TV ads, especially if they're more informational than funny. According to Weber, most ads aren't very ''compelling."

''You'd have to drink a lot of Budweiser to want to download an ad," he said. Advertisers ''might get some people doing it for novelty's sake. But you have to give me some reason to download, like 'e-mail this ad to a friend and get a 50 Cent song for free.' "

Weber expects even more Super Bowl ads this year to point consumers to a website where an advertiser can continue hammering home its message.

That seems the strategy for Dove, which has bought Super Bowl ad time, an unusual step for a brand of women's beauty products. Amid a sea of ads likely to appeal to men, a Dove ad will seek to bolster girls' self-esteem and direct viewers to campaignforrealbeauty.com, said Philippe Harousseau, US marketing director for Dove.

Last year, Super Bowl advertisers collectively experienced a 27 percent increase in their website visitations, according to Nielsen//NetRatings, but the firm currently doesn't track downloads.

This year, the Super Bowl is expected to attract 90 million viewers who will see about 50 ads during the game, including one created by Boston ad agency Arnold for Mobile ESPN, a wireless voice-and-data service. The ad will be available for viewing for subscribers with Mobile ESPN phones.

The Super Bowl is one time of year when viewers ''focus on ads," noted chief executive Eliot Tatelman of Jordan's Furniture, saying, ''Everybody talks about them."

Jordan's ads aim to be funny, and so do many Super Bowl advertisers. During the big game, many advertisers seek to outdo one another, often by stuffing their ads with celebrities, sight gags, and funny animals.

One result is that the Super Bowl has become a ''creative bake-off" among advertisers, said Eric A. Kraus, vice president of external relations for Procter & Gamble Co.'s Gillette division. Gillette is advertising its new Fusion razor for men during the game.

Chances are that the tried-and-true Super Bowl ad formula of ''over-the-top jokes" will once again prevail, noted Edward Boches, chief creative officer of Mullen, the Wenham ad agency.

But it's just these kind of go-for-the-funny-bone, pull-out-the-stops ads that make for an ideal minichunk of entertainment for the video iPod and multimedia cellphone set, some advertisers said.

''It's really advertising as entertainment content," said Sprint's Read.

When it comes to portable devices such as multimedia cellphones, she said, ''The consumer's hunger for content is increasing exponentially."

Chris Reidy can be reached at reidy@globe.com. SEE A TED FERGUSON AD

Watch an episode of the Bud Light campaign, or download it to your iPod, at boston.com/business.