Well, this was a shocker: Many people have no doubt been following the story of the anonymous “JP”, who campaigned to get his marriage proposal aired as a commercial during the Super Bowl, promoting it on his MySuperProposal.com website. The plan fell through, as there wasn’t enough money for the $2.6 million commercial, and CBS couldn’t find extra time in the game to help him out, but he did manage to buy a 30-second spot during last night’s Veronica Mars on the local Seattle affiliate.

So, who was JP? None other than Rand Fishkin, operator of SEOmoz.org. Amazing, I guess the SEO community has its hands in everything!

Anyway, Rand proposed to his girlfriend, Geraldine DeRuiter, at about 9:25 last night. I wish the CW had carried the ad nationally, because I was watching Veronica Mars anyway (great episode, and great choice of proposal venue!). Here’s the commercial, courtesy of iFILM:

And here’s the video of her seeing it, and saying yes:

What an amazing, genuine reaction. I’ll be watching that a few hundred times.

The Seattle PI has a great article about the whole thing. Turns out Rand was the second “JP”, taking over the website months ago when the original secret proposer had to back out. Rand had appeared on Good Morning America, Entertainment Tonight, MSNBC and Fox News Channel, all with his identity hidden, in the time leading up to the Super Bowl. An AdWeek survey named his commercial as the most anticipated Super Bowl commercial, even though it never aired.

In the end, the ad cost only $3,000, proving how cheap local ad time, especially on the CW, is during prime time. Supposedly, Rand and Geraldine can expect a gift bag from Veronica herself, Kristen Bell. Rand’s Wikipedia article already has all the info. I suspect the notoriety from this will continue for a little while, and Rand will probably get a lot more business, though he may not have time for it (oh, wedding plans can be quite draining).

Oh, another thing: Rand notes he was inspired by Barry Schwartz’s Ask.com proposal. I’m sure even Barry would agree that Rand is now the king, and don’t be surprised if the SEO community starts one-upping themselves over marriage proposals in the future.