UNC School of the Arts graduate Mark Freiburger is one of five finalists with a chance to get his Doritos commercial shown during this year's Super Bowl, and possibly win $1 million.

29-year-old Freiburger, who is from Charlotte, directed a commercial called "Fashionista Daddy" in which a dad is persuaded to ditch a football game with his pals when his Doritos-packing little girl who wants him to play "Princess Fashion Show." Later, his friends catch him in full princess mode -- complete with frilly dress, heavy makeup and Doritos. The friends are then enticed, by the promise of Doritos, into playing along as well.

Other commercials competing against Freiburger include a man in a grocery checkout trying scam a bag of Doritos from an elderly blind man; a man with a wish-granting dog (that seems awfully similar to a commercial in last year's group); a baby getting rid of a Dorito-stealing dog; and a man who buys a ravenous (for Doritos) goat who turns ugly when the Doritos run out.

The five finalists in Doritos' annual Crash the Super Bowl commercial contest need fan votes to become one of two Doritos commercials shown during the game. The second commercial is chosen by a Doritos company team.

The most popular ad of any kind to air during the Super Bowl wins USA Today's Ad Meter challenge and the creators get $1 million and a chance to work with film director Michael Bay on the next "Transformers" movie. The second place winner gets $600,000 and third place gets $400,000.

Just for being chosen as a finalist, Freiburger and his team get $25,000 and will be in a special skybox at the Super Bowl game with Bay and the other four commercial teams. No one will know which commercials are chosen to air until it actually happens.

Freiburger's team began their brainstorming with a tea party idea. "Collectively, we thought of something family-centered so that men and women, young and old would like it," Freiburger said. "I liked the idea of a father-daughter angle because that's usually not done. We kept kicking around ideas and it grew into this."

Freiburger's team consisted of a couple of other North Carolina talents: cinematographer Matt Skala, a UNCSA graduate whose family lives in Charlotte, and editor Chris Crutchfield of Charlotte, an N.C. State graduate.

The team shot in Los Angeles, where Freiburger now lives and works, with a budget of about $300. "Everyone in front of and behind the camera were friends," Freiburger said. "We didn't pay anyone. It only cost about $300 to rent dresses and buy Doritos."

At one point, Freiburger said, he was afraid the hefty dude wearing the rented wedding gown might rip it, doubling their budget.

If Freiburger wins, he won't be the first North Carolina person to add "Super Bowl Commercial" to his resume.

In 2010, a Doritos ad by Raleigh firm 5 Points Productions won $600,000 for being the second-highest ranking ad in the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter. The ad featured a man on a park bench teasing a dog with a bag of Doritos. In 2007, the same group won first place in an online contest for best homemade Doritos commercial.

Freiburger graduated from UNC School of the Arts in 2005 with a degree in film directing. Since then he has worked in the independent film business, writing, directing and producing films. He has shot three movies in North Carolina -- two of them based on novels by Charlotte author Robert Whitlow -- and will begin shooting another movie here in a few months.

The Doritos commercial is a big departure for Freiburger, but one he's excited about.

"I've really enjoyed my time doing [independent films], but they don't reach the kind of audience that having a Super Bowl commercial can reach," he said. "I'd been looking for a way to step out into more mainstream fare and grow my audience, and this is a really wonderful opportunity if it airs."

You can watch the Fashionista Daddy commercial here, along with a short behind-the-scenes video featuring an interview with Freiburger. Voting has already started and continues through January 29. One vote is allowed per day.

Photo courtesy of Mark Freiburger

North Carolina's jobless rate remains above the national average, but the Tar Heel state is helping lead the nation's slow recovery by another key measure, USA Today reports today in a front-page story.

The newspaper analyzed the change in personal income during the year since the recession officially ended in June 2009. North Carolina's increased 1.5 percent, putting in the top five.

Nationwide, income rose just 0.3 percent.

USA Today has always kept close tabs on the pay in college athletics.

A recent report notes that the University of Southern California paid its former football coach, Pete Carroll, more than $4.6 million in the 2008 calendar year, the most recent year available. The athletics director, Mike Garrett, was paid nearly $1.1 million. That puts them among the highest paid in the game.

How does the newspaper know this? USC is a private non-profit, but it must file federal tax returns that become public because of the non-profit status. These forms are called 990s. They show each agency's top-paid people.

You can track 990s using a popular and easy-to-use Web site, guidestar.org. After registering, click to look at Form 990s and other documents about any charity.

Federal law also requires any non-profit to make their 990 available for inspection. Just call the agency and ask.

We looked up Duke University's report, which is for 2007 on guidestar, and it shows Duke's Mike Krzyzewski was paid more than $3.6 million that year. We'll ask for 2008 and update this post.

— J. Andrew Curliss

The increasing popularity of putting photos on large canvas prints also is increasing competition for companies in the business, including Raleigh-based Canvas on Demand, USA Today reports.

There are now dozens of options for customers who want to upload their images and have them reproduced onto stretched canvas.

The article in the nation's largest newspaper gives a plug to Canvas on Demand, calling it "one of the Web's most popular canvas retailers."

Despite the increased competition, co-founder Joe Schmidt said that his company expanded 20 percent in 2009 and has made more than 350,000 canvas prints to date. "We ship out thousands of day," he said.

Schmidt started in business seven years ago at a time when "There were just two of us out there, just us and a guy out of his garage. Those were good days."

Now other rivals continue to spring up, including Your Photo on Canvas, CanvasPop and more. The standard cost is about $90 for a 16-by-20 canvas.

Read the full USA Today story here.

USA Today has been focusing on coach pay at universities this week, building on earlier work to obtain data from the 100-plus major schools that field football teams. It's interesting to note that information was not available from UNC-Chapel Hill on the extra income, such as from shoe contracts, for coach Butch Davis. He's listed as being paid about $1.7 million, though his actual pay is much higher. N.C State's Tom O'Brien is listed at $1.2 million, including the extra pay.

The series continues on Thursday at usatoday.com.

Here's a different sort of economic stimulus: More people are panning for gold in western North Carolina, USA Today reports.

Apparently, the tough economic times and high gold prices are boosting interest in finding gold flakes and tiny nuggets, the newspaper reports.

The Cotton Patch Gold Mine in New London and Reed Gold Mine in Midland are still yielding some gold for persistent and patient panners.

"You get a piece of gold in every six or seven pans," says Michael Scott, an interpreter at the Reed Gold Mine, a state park that was the site of a gold rush in 1799. "Nobody's getting rich."

Read the full story here.

From USA Today: College students are looking in increasing numbers at college degree programs that involve green technology and sustainability.

These sorts of programs are growing, the newspaper reports, as college students show an increasing interest in careers related to the environment or other so-called "green-collar" jobs.

One example at Penn: An MBA program that links to environmental studies.

Here's the story.

From USA Today: College students are looking in increasing numbers at college degree programs that involve green technology and sustainability.

These sorts of programs are growing, the newspaper reports, as college students show an increasing interest in careers related to the environment or other so-called "green-collar" jobs.

One example at Penn: An MBA program that links to environmental studies.

Here's the story.

Two UNC Chapel Hill students are among 20 college students across the nation honored for their academic achievements by USA Today.

I don't think the newspaper's decision to honor Elisabeth Yorke and Aisha Saad was much of a reach. Each was awarded a coveted Rhodes scholarship earlier this year.

A third student with North Carolina ties, Wake Forest's James Patrick Nelli, also made USA Today's All-USA College Academic Team.

As 2008 winds down, Triangle alumnus Alina Simone is turning up on some unusual year-end lists with "Everyone Is Crying Out To Me, Beware," her tribute album to the late Russian punk icon Yanka Dyagileva. Washington politico Howard Wolfson includes "Beware" in his "Best of 2008" recap of the year's best albums, calling it "your standard album of modern Russian folk covers." And Simone comes in at No. 83 on the "Top 100 People of 2008" listing of USA Today's pop-culture blog "Pop Candy."

As for future projects, Simone recently signed a book deal to write a memoir -- "essays loosely themed around my strange adventures in indie rock, especially in Russia," she says. Meanwhile, she'll return to English-language songs on her next album, "Make Your Own Danger," due out sometime next year.

More immediately, Simone will be back in the Triangle on Jan. 24 to play the Carrboro ArtsCenter.