There was the dramatic, series-winning slide into home base in 1995. There was the gravity-defying, wall-climbing catch in 1991 (and then another one, four years later). There were the hundreds of home runs—and countless moments of inspiration for fans.
The Seattle Mariners are celebrating Ken Griffey Jr.’s induction into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame this past Sunday with an emotional long-copy print ad that tries to capture some of the star’s many contributions to the sport—and the city’s reputation.
The Seattle Mariners considered Robinson Cano to be a heavenly catch this off-season, and there's a divine aura about him in the team's first ad with its $240 million second baseman.
Seattle's Copacino + Fujikado, now its 20th season handling ads for the Mariners, welcomes the 31-year-old with the 30-second spot below, in which Cano doesn't have to utter a word to communicate just how awesome he is.
Agency co-founder and creative chief Jim Copacino tells AdFreak he felt a fair amount of pressure to produce a special debut commercial with Cano. C+F almost got Ken Griffey Jr. to do a spot with Cano (it would have been about how they both wear No. 24, though actually Cano is switching back to his original Yankee number, 22), but Griffey had a conflict and couldn't make the Arizona shoot. So, they went with this spot instead, and Copacino says the shoot couldn't have gone smoother.
"With a guy of this magnitude coming in, we didn't want to trivialize him or be too cute," he says. "A writer here, Andy Corbett, a very funny guy, came up with this notion that Cano has this charismatic aura that follows him everywhere he goes—slow motion and music. It was an easy spot to shoot. The first time we worked with him, we didn't want to burden him with too much responsibility in terms of lines and acting."
Four more new ads focus on three other players and on Henry Chadwick, who invented the baseball box score in the 1860s and came up with the letter K for strikeout.
One particularly amusing ad celebrates the old-school style of third baseman Kyle Seager. "Kyle is a quiet, soft-spoken guy from North Carolina," says Copacino. "He says 'Yes, sir' and 'No, sir.' He's quietly becoming one of the better third basemen in baseball. He's fundamentally sound. And to me, he just seems like he was plucked from the '50s and put down into modern baseball. It was fun to create this fiction about him being kind of a throwback."
At one point, Seager is seen tweeting from a typewriter. "He said, 'You know, I don't actually tweet,' " says Copacino. "And we said, 'That's fine! In fact, that's perfect!' "
C+F also put together the highlight reel below of its 20 years of Mariners spots. At least in its advertising, this is a team that's on a long winning streak.
CREDITS Client: Seattle Mariners Agency: Copacino + Fujikado Executive Creative Director, Writer: Jim Copacino Creative Director, Writer: Mike Hayward Writer: Andy Corbett Art Director: Andy Westbrock Production Company: Blue Goose Productions Director: Ron Gross Executive Producer: Bill Hoare Account Supervisor: Cole Parsons Account Manager: Melissa Figel Broadcast Producers: Kris Dangla, Patti Emery Editor: Troy Murison, Dubs Inc. Digital Postproduction: Kevin Adams, Workbench Music: Chris White, Comrade
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