Gatorade is back to gleefully shame more of its own consumers for being lazy and out of shape—this time with a roving crew of top athletes and nasty sportscasters, who all pop out of the back of a box truck to mock them for drinking the beverage while not sweating.
TBWAChiatDay launched a new digital campaign with a series of online spots starring Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt, Washington Nationals right fielder Bryce Harper and 2016 NBA Rookie of the Year Karl-Anthony Towns Jr.
In the spots, announcers point out an individual casually enjoying a Gatorade without breaking a sweat. Then one of the athletes pops up to make the person “burn it to earn it.” In “D Up with Karl-Anthony Towns,” for example, he slaps a man’s Gatorade out of his hand. Then he gives him a basketball and once he’s broken a sweat, and been thoroughly humiliated by the 7 foot tall Timberwolves center, he’s allowed to have his drink back.
The approach is very similar to a digital campaign from two years ago featuring Rob Belushi, Peyton Manning and Cam Newton. It’s essentially a defensive approach, staving off criticism of the company for peddling sugar water with the concept that the drink is meant for athletes who have “earned” the sugar by burning calories.
“With sugar being such a hot topic of conversation, especially in the beverage space, we wanted to talk about it head on — that our product is for athletes, the sugar is functional. It’s in there for a reason, to help fuel athletes and we are actually proud of it,” Gatorade head of consumer engagement Kenny Mitchell explained to AdAge. “We just want to make sure folks are earning it [and] we wanted to make sure that message is clear.”
It also calls to mind a bit by the late comedian Mitch Hedberg, who said, “I’m thirsty for absolutely no reason, other than the fact that liquid has not touched my lips for some time. Can I have a Gatorade too, or does that lightning bolt mean no?”
With these spots and the similarly-minded earlier effort, the brand seems to be saying that no, you can’t. That approach is at least a little unusual in that it risks alienating a segment of the brand’s audience (namely, just thirsty dudes). But then that may be taking the ads a bit too seriously.
In time for the All Star Game this evening, Under Armour released a new spot for Under Armour featuring Washington Nationals superstar (and starting right fielder for the National League) Bryce Harper.
“Look, baseball’s a numbers game,” Harper says via voiceover at the beginning of the spot while drilling a batting practice pitch over the right field fall. He goes on to list some impressive personal numbers, including hitting a 570 foot home run at age 15, over 100 career home runs, elevating his on-base percentage to .460 last year and, of course, being a four-time All Star. “But kid, just remember,” he says at the conclusion of the spot, as the camera zooms in on his Under Armour Harper One cleats as he pivots and releases a mighty thwack, “no number sounds as good as this.” The spot concludes with the tagline, “It Comes From Below.”
The approach is something of a mixed bag. On the one hand, while emphasizing the intense dedication to sport superstar athletes put in to get to where they are is nothing new, the numbers aspect at least makes the spot stand out. Unfortunately visual gimmicks like the scoreboard’s numbers changing to reflect the numbers Harper harps on are a bit much. That said, the pivot to the tagline works fairly well and watching Harper launch home runs is still some nice eye candy for even the casual sports fan. The campaign will continue this fall with spots starring Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton but for now the spotlight is squarely on the 23-year-old Nationals right fielder.
Credits:
Client: Under Armour
Campaign: It Comes From Below
Title: Numbers
Agency: Droga5 NY
Creative Chairman: David Droga
Chief Creative Officer: Ted Royer
Group Creative Director: Felix Richter
Group Creative Director: Alexander Nowak
Copywriter: Bryan Wolff
Art Director: Daniel Sumarna
Chief Creation Officer: Sally-Ann Dale
Executive Producer: David Cardinali
Associate Producer: Troy Smith
Global Chief Strategy Officer: Jonny Bauer
Head of Strategy: Harry Roman
Strategy Director: Sam Matthews
Head of Communications Strategy: Colleen Leddy
Communications Strategy Director: Hillary Heath
Communications Strategist: Kathryn Ruocco
Strategist: Newman Granger
Senior Data Strategist: Anthony Khaykin
Group Account Director: Julian Cheevers
Account Director: Bola Adekoya
Account Supervisor: Lucy Santilli
Senior Project Manager: Courtney Kosup
Project Manager: Connor Hall
Client: Brand/company name
CEO and Founder: Kevin Plank
Chief Marketing Officer : Kip Fulks
SVP, Global Brand Management: Adrienne Lofton
SVP, Global Communications: Diane Pelkey
VP, Global Creative: Brian Boring
VP, Global Consumer Engagement: Jim Mollica
Senior Category Director: Jim Bel Bruno
Director, Global Marketing Operations, Process & Integration : Teresa Oles
Production Companies: Somesuch + Anonymous
Director : Aoife McArdle
Found Partner, Somesuch: Sally Campbell
Found Partner, Somesuch: Tim Nash
Managing Director, Anonymous: Eric Stern
Executive Producer, Anonymous: SueEllen Clair
Producer: Laurie Boccaccio
DOP: Steve Annis
Production Manager : Yianni Papadopoulos
Editorial: Final Cut
Editor:: Dan Sherwen
Cutting Assitant (NY):: Geoff Hastings
Assistant Editor (UK):: Leila Gaabi
Executive Producer:: Sarah Roebuck
Head Of Production:: Jen Sienkwicz
Producer (UK): Frankie Elster
Producer (NY):: Jamie Nagler
Post Production: BlackSmith
Executive Producer: Charlotte Arnold
Producer: Megan Sweet
VFX Supervisor : Iwan Zwarts
Music / Sound Design: Siren / Factory
Partner and Company Director: Sean Atherton
Stats might be a big deal in baseball, but four-time all-star Bryce Harper wants young players to know there’s something more important—their feet.
Under Armour is out with a new campaign from Droga5 titled “It Comes from Below,” promoting the brand’s shoes. It launches this week with an ad for the Washinton Nationals’ new namesake Harper One cleats (which, naturally, the Nats’ right fielder will be wearing at Tuesday night’s All-Star Game).
In the commercial, Harper stands at the plate in an empty field, practicing his swing. The voiceover rattles off his impressive accomplishments by the numbers—precocious gains as a teenager, impressive averages, a unanimous MVP selection—all while his bat cracks against the ball again and agin, punctuating each data point.
A month or so ago, BBDO joined up with Major League Baseball as its creative partner, and the agency has just released their opening day spot.
In case you’re confused, yes, the Dodgers and Diamondbacks did technically open the season this past weekend in Australia, but the official opening day is slated for Monday, March 31. For BBDO’s opening day commercial, they focused on the important historical moments that have occurred on opening day: Clayton Kershaw‘s home run/shutout, Bryce Harper‘s pair of opening day home runs to launch his career, Hank Aaron‘s 714th home run, and, arguably the most important moment in baseball history, when Jackie Robinson first took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers. As a baseball nerd, I love this approach, and it’s hard to imagine any fan watching this and not getting at least a little bit excited for baseball season following the long winter.
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Last month, Bryce Harper performed the first ever chicken-eating backflip for KFC as part of Draftfcb Chicago’s “How Do You KFC?” campaign. Now, Draftfcb continues the campaign of people eating chicken in situations where it doesn’t make sense for people to eat chicken, making history with the first ever two-man chickensled. The campaign is well-timed, coming on the heels of the U.S. men’s first two-man bobsled medal since 1952 and a two medal performance by the U.S. women’s bobsled team.
Draftfcb and KFC tapped Team USA Bobsled brakeman Jim Carriel, and retired Team USA Bobsled pilot Landon Phillips for the historical event. Carriel ate chicken from the KFC Go Cup from a customized cup holder while speeding down the track at 70 miles per hour and five Gs. “No other bobsled team out there is pulling five Gs while eating chicken. More casual fans of chicken sled racing may not know the physical demands five Gs puts on an athlete. Do you know how much an Extra Crispy Strip ‘weighs’ at five Gs?” Carriel asked. “It’s almost a half pound. Seriously. Don’t try this at home, kids.”
Draftfcb’s new video is supported by a tongue-in-cheek social campaign calling on fans to like or share a petition on the brand’s Facebook page to make chicken sled racing a Winter Olympic event in 2018.
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