The newly re-branded Philly-based Red Tettemer O’Connell + Partners (who recently expanded with an L.A. office) are behind this super adorbs spot for The Big Ten Network’s BTN2Go mobile platform. Who knew tiny mascots could be so cute? Who knew that I could squeal like a teenage girl upon seeing mini-Bucky Badger? Oh man, I have a lot of self-reflection to do, huh?
For those wondering how BTN2Go works, here’s a write-up:
This multi-platform mobile extension gives fans the ability to watch the network streamed live from wherever they are. Available on desktops, smartphones and tablets, the app is free for any cable subscriber with BTN in their line-up. More than just a live simulcast of games, the app is customizable to set fan’s team preferences, highlights and stats.
But who cares, right? It’s just too cute. Holy shit, so cute. It’s just inspired Kiran to tell me he wants a pet. Bfljeabf! Credits after the jump.
Question: What would a contemporary soccer-related version of “Les Miserables” look like if we replaced all the singing actors with kids and threw in the craftiest living man in cleats? Answer: This tw0-minute Leo Burnett commercial promoting Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3 and accompanying smart watch. When Lionel Messi isn’t dominating the pitch or allegedly evading taxes, he’s also rebuilding cities as an urban developer! For the kids!
From a narrative perspective, this spot is about as corny as it gets – I think it will be very tough to top the new pair of Samsung ads that show the progression of pop-culture smart watches over the years and harp on some brilliantly revealed nostalgia. But “The Developer” is enjoyable on a micro level if you don’t think about it too hard, kind of like every James Cameron movie. Messi on his suit and tie. Kids singing a cute version of Lorde’s single “Royals.” There’s even a building demolition scene if you’re into that. And if you’re not, there’s always Messi, on his suit and tie, smiling, playing soccer with kids. Everybody loves that. Credits after the jump.
In a follow-up to the earlier NBA 2K14 spot which heralded Lebron James‘s first game cover, Zambezi returns with the official launch ad for the game featuring who most believe is the best in b-ball today. Yours truly hasn’t been much of a gamer since Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter 2 were in existence, but hell, we’re down to revisit the days when we were on fire in NBA Jam. Along with the spot, Zambezi curated an interview with the one and only Michael Jordan dubbed “Uncensored” in what perhaps the greatest basketball player ever actually goes against the grain and dubs Kobe Bryant the only one he probably couldn’t beat in the NBA today. Well, he did emulate his style to perfection after all, so maybe MJ’s on to something. Credits and the Jordan interview after the jump.
Ogilvy Chicago’s latest spot in their “People Who Get It” campaign for CDW features Charles Barkley, Doug Flutie, and a technologically advanced stadium without a team.
In the spot, Jim Gordon takes you on a tour of Gordon and Taylor stadium, a domed football stadium he touts as “the most technologically advanced stadium in the world,” thanks to CDW. Features include “3,000 screens, stadium-wide wi-fi, seamless POS systems and a cloud infrastructure solution.” The funniest moment of the spot comes right after this list of features. “Do I know what those are? Not exactly,” Gordon admits. “But they sound impressive.” This should hit home with a lot of people who fall a good deal short of IT expert, myself included.
Over the course of the spot it’s revealed that Gordon has the perfect stadium, a half-time show, cheerleaders, a mascot, Charles Barkley and Doug Flutie on board — basically everything he needs, except a team. He seems to get more and more panicked about this as the spot goes on. Looks like Flutie may have to QB himself. The spot is fun and lighthearted, although I wish Barkley had more lines as he has a good comic presence. I wouldn’t be too surprised to see a follow-up spot
Justin Tucker is one impressive dude, even if his flow is kind of weak.
Code and Theory’s “/1 One of a Kind” campaign for Dr. Pepper spotlights real die-hard Dr. Pepper fans with unique talents. One of those fans happens to be Justin Tucker, the undrafted, rookie, free-agent who helped the Ravens clinch the 2012 Super Bowl and bring some much-needed positivity to Charm City.
What you probably didn’t know about Justin Tucker is that he’s an opera aficionado, and a pretty passable opera singer at that. (Says someone who knows next to nothing about opera.) In the spot he can be seen belting out Mozart’s Don Giovanni at Baltimore’s historic Hippodrome Theatre. He also kicks a really nice field goal into the upper level seats. According to the spot, he can sing opera in seven different languages. Pretty impressive stuff.
Tucker also experiments with making beats — although we don’t actually hear any in the spot — and freestyle raps about Dr. Pepper in his car. His flow is kind of weak sauce, but still probably among the best for NFL kickers. The spot begins to drag a bit toward the end when Tucker explains himself how being a “beat-making, opera-signing, pro athlete” makes him one of a kind. I get that the one of a kind thing is what the campaign is all about, we just didn’t need to hear it from Tucker himself.
Pooh is the nickname given to Rose by his grandmother. @sevenzro1 is the Twitter handle of Jason Petrie, a dummy. The insensitive remark viraled its way around the Internet and added another layer of brand machismo to the Nike v. Adidas debate.
Mariano Rivera, the great New York Yankees closer, threw his final pitches at Yankee Stadium on Thursday night, and will wrap up his legendary 19-year career in Houston this weekend. Among the admirers bidding farewell is Major League Baseball itself, which placed the ad above in four newspapers on Thursay—the New York Post, the Daily News, Metro New York and USA Today. The copy is maybe a little underwhelming, but the image is one that New Yorkers will remember for a long time to come. Via Deadspin.
While 49ers fans would prefer if the Seattle fanbase could keep the noise level down to polite golf claps and the occasional “Good job, sport,” Seahawks fans will continue to bring the noise.
After setting a world record for crowd noise Sunday night, and pissing off some 49ers fans in the process, Seahawks fans, aka the 12th man, are synonymous with the word “loud.” Hometown agency Wexley School For Girls and Pico Sound have embraced that identity with their new spot, entitled simply “Louder.” The :30 spot shows Seahawks fans raising the decibel level while 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick tries to call a play at the line of scrimmage, only to be forced to settle for a timeout due to the deafening noise. “Louder” concludes with the tagline “Bigger Faster Stronger Louder” and the hashtag #Louder. That hashtag should provoke enthusiastic responses from the Seahawks faithful, and its share of angry tweets from 49ers fans, who would prefer the hashtag #SettleDownPleaseIt’sGettingALittleTooNoisyAtThisFootballMatch.
To celebrate the end of NFL training camps and the start of the regular season, Gillette and BBDO NY released “Training Tracks” a music video using only the sounds of NFL players and other athletes training.
Who could pull of such an unusual, even avant-garde concept? Probably only Academy Award-winning director Michel Gondry. So that’s who they got. Gondry directs the spot, based on a track conceived by Phil Mossman of LCD Soundsystem fame. The “music experiment” was produced at the acclaimed Ocean Way Studios in Hollywood.
“Training Tracks” features NFL stars Champ Bailey, Kayvon Webster, BenJarvus Green-Ellis and Giovani Berard, as well as former Notre Dame offensive guard Mike Golic, Jr., all of whom participated in Gillette’s “Built for Training” program this summer. You may not recognize all the athletes as they come into and out of focus, but the sounds they make work surprisingly well. The spot is also expertly shot (obviously) and a much-welcome departure from Gillette’s normal blase approach to advertising (or worse yet, that terrible Adrien Brody/Andre 3000/Gael García Bernal campaign). Let’s hope they continue putting out more interesting and unique (an overused word in the ad world for sure, but one that definitely applies here) work like this spot with new agency Grey in the future. continued…
Ogilvy and Mather NY’s latest spot for Time Warner Cable Sportscast, “Crazy,” directed by David Gray, asks if it’s crazy to love football so much that you do things that might be a little…unusual.
The simple :33 spot highlights a series of super-fan behaviors as a humorous way to advertise how missing a game is what would really make you crazy. The spot may have been more effective if they had went a little further out there with the “crazy” fan behaviors though, as most of them are pretty tame. The touchdown dance one, in particular, could have been replaced with something a little “crazier.” A lot of people don’t know how to dance.
Wearing the same outfit every game day? Setting up your daughter’s Brownie troop in shotgun formation? Growing a lucky beard?
In America, we use football to sell beer. In the UK, they use football (which we call soccer).
This summer Budweiser UK, an official Premier League sponsor, launched an initiative, backed by The League Managers Association, called ‘Budweiser Coach the Coaches.’ The initiative features leading professional managers spending the summer holding training sessions with non-league football clubs across England with the aim of helping non-league coaches enhance their training techniques and strategy, leading to a confidence boost heading into the season,
UK agency Octagon, prodco Spicer and Moore and Budweiser assembled footage from the campaign to share their results. At the beginning of the video, I’m informed I should be 18 years or older to watch it. This left me waiting for a boob to pop out, some gritty injury, or at least some good old-fashioned British cursing, but I was left thoroughly disappointed. Instead, Stuart Pearce talks tactics and strategy, without so much as a “bloody hell” or a “wanker.” Presumably, it’s the association with an alcoholic beverage that prompts the warning, which is quite different from here in the states, where we serve up hyper-sexualized beer ads with SportsCenter every morning. It’s interesting to note the similarities (sports!) and differences (lack of overt sexuality) in Budweiser’s UK strategy, which seems to appeal to the serious side of a game many take very, very seriously.
McDonald's and Burrell Communications update a classic Super Bowl spot from 1993, pitting Joe Flacco of the Baltimore Ravens and Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers, the opposing quarterbacks from the big game in February, against each other in a contest for the chain's Mighty Wings. Their competition features improbable passes through distant goalposts. First one to miss watches the winner eat.
The original commercial starred Larry Bird and Michael Jordan playing a game of Horse for a Big Mac. Their increasingly crazy contest took them from a basketball arena to the top of Chicago's Sears Tower as Jordan called a fantastical shot: "Off the expressway, over the river, off the billboard, through the window, off the wall …"
That tale was self-contained, and fittingly, there was no winner, giving the impression that the two titans would battle for all eternity, ultimately bouncing balls off the moon and stars in their quest for a burger. (Luckily, McDonald's food would still be in decent condition no matter how long they played.) The reboot has two parts. The first 30-second installment (posted below) breaks on TV tonight and ends on a cliffhanger, as a power failure throws the quarterbacks into darkness—"Oh man, not again!"—and someone apparently tries to make off with their box of wings. Who could it be? Jordan and/or Bird? Tim Tebow? Miley Cyrus? (OK, we know it's not Tebow.) The revelation comes in Part 2, set to air Oct. 6.
Marlena Peleo-Lazar, chief creative officer at McDonald's USA, calls the remake "a fresh take on an idea our customers have loved, but in a sport they haven't seen us do it with." That's all well and good, and the effort is certainly getting buzz. Still, a remake with stars from a different sport was hardly necessary. And regardless of the big reveal, and even with original director Joe Pytka behind the camera, it was doomed to pale by comparison with the original commercial.
Don't get me wrong. The new ad is well-made and amusing … but Bird and Jordan, in this context, cannot be replaced. They were more than great athletes. They were transcendent figures who helped define the popular culture of their generation. Flacco and Kaepernick are gifted on-field performers, and seem like nice enough guys, but they lack the stature and quite frankly, the charisma of their predecessors. The 1993 spot felt right because you really could picture Larry and Michael playing a little one-on-one for their personal edification, sans cameras, ribbing each other for each missed shot. Flacco and Kaepernick, well, I guess they'd have a throwing contest if McDonald's paid them lots of money to do it in a commercial.
Plus, the blackout, echoing the one that stopped Super Bowl XLVII for 30 minutes, and the "To be continued" aspect feel like cutesy gimmicks added to compensate for the new spot's inability to match up to its inspiration.
If Bird and Jordan don't make an encore appearance in Part 2, it would be disappointing, because that's what the setup demands. If they do, it could seem pat and predictable. The original was nothing but net. So far, the remake feels like an incomplete pass.
ESPN and ESPN Deportes will kick off Hispanic Heritage Month — which is not actually a calendar month, but a month-long period from September 15 through October 15 — with a 60-minute primetime special celebrating the most renowned Hispanic athletes airing on both networks Monday, September 17 at 8 p.m.
The top 10 countdown is sponsored by Jack Daniel’s and Gillette and will include such legends as Roberto Clemente, Lionel Messi, Oscar de la Hoya, and the soon-to-be-retired Mariano Rivera. Athletes were ranked from an initial list of 50 athletes by a panel of journalists, entertainers, athletes and Hispanic community leaders. One Nación was produced in front of a live live audience in Los Angeles. The bilingual show will be hosted by ESPN Deportes’ Adriana Monsalve and SportsCenter anchor Max Bretos and features special guests unveiling the countdown.
In the social sphere, Gillette is sponsoring a live Twitter fan vote encouraging fans to choose between the number one and number two athletes while discussing the countdown, while Jack Daniel’s will sponsor a recap of the top ten during the show as the top athletes are revealed. Both brands will also be integrated through different live events and programs scheduled for the rest of Hispanic Heritage Month, including vignettes featuring Hispanic athletes such as Carmelo Anthony, Sergio Romo, Victor Cruz, and Omar Gonzalez.
Fresh from his U.S. Open triumph, Rafael Nadal comes on like the candy man in ESPN's latest tongue-in-cheek SportsCenter spot from Wieden + Kennedy in New York. Network personalities John Anderson and Bram Weinstein just can't figure out why Rafa is such a chick magnet around the ESPN offices. Could it be his tan? His dimples? Keep your shirts on, gentlemen, because the answer comes at the end, when we learn that it's the sweet, sweet stuff in Nadal's big, shiny cup that keeps them coming back for more. Roger Federer's commercial performances, even when he's pimping Lindt chocolates, are never as tasty.
Running-shoe brand Pearl Izumi recently learned, as we all must, that "Run until you kill your dog" isn't a message the public is ready to accept. This print ad, which is part of a campaign that includes a video, has been the target of much consumer umbrage since it appeared in Canadian Running magazine, and rightfully so. Images like that alienate people, and worse, they might prompt Sarah McLachlan to lecture us about giving to the ASPCA. Pearl Izumi has apologized at length, saying the ad "overstepped the bounds of good taste. A lot." The company also made a $10,000 donation to the Boulder Valley Humane Society.
A Wisconsin golf course posted an apology on Facebook late Monday for a newspaper ad pledging to commemorate 9/11 with an offer of "9 holes with cart for only $9.11." The ad for Tumbledown Trails Golf Course, which reportedly ran in Monday's Wisconsin State Journal, offered the $9.11 rate (or $19.11 for 18 holes) only on Wednesday, Sept. 11, to honor the 12th anniversary of the terror attacks on New York and Washington.
As the ad spread online, critics came out in droves, sparking two apologies from the business on Facebook. First, the course said it would raise the rate back to normal and donate the difference to the National September 11 Memorial. A follow-up comment pleaded, "We are a family owned business & proudly support all local charities and have always gave 20% off everyday to all Police, Fire, Emergency, Military, etc. Please accept our apology." Finally, in a third Facebook update, the course said it might simply close on Wednesday because "we are now worried about what people will do/say to our staff & do not want anything to happen or get out of control."
Love it or hate it, Sportscenter has always been good at maintaining a certain tone across its ad campaigns. They’ve been running with the “star athletes in the ESPN office” schtick for what seems like forever, and it seems to be an infinitely adaptable formula. The latest in this long line of ads is the new 30-second spot “Candy Dish,” from Wieden + Kennedy New York, featuring U.S. Open champion Rafael Nadal, fresh off his defeat of Novak Djokovic last night.
In the spot, Sportscenter host John Anderson and ESPNNews anchor Bram Weinstein wonder what makes Nadal so popular in the ESPN office (especially with the ladies). Is it his good looks? His tan? His accent? Or could it be that U.S. Open trophy he’s using as a candy dish? If you ask me, I think it’s the sweatband. Who doesn’t love a good sweatband?
This is the second This is Sportscenter spot to be released in both English and Spanish, following the clever Robinson Cano“Handshakes” spot. The Spanish-language version swaps out Anderson and Weinstein for ESPN Deportes anchors Alvaro Morales, Jorge Eduardo Sánchez and Carolina Padrón. Personally, I prefer the Spanish version (featured below). Because, well, everything sounds better in Spanish.
On the field, Calvin Johnson earns his “Megatron” nickname by dominating defenses with a robotic efficiency. He’s bigger, faster, stronger, and at times, it looks like a Transformer is playing against humans. However, off the field, and more specifically, in the ESPN offices, Johnson uses his transforming powers to trick a different kind of opponent (for anyone who cares and watches too much ESPN, it’s Kevin Negandhi).
The latest “This is Sportscenter” ad is par for the course: short, funny, and off-beat. The work comes once again from W+K New York (which has been handling SportsCenter work for nearly two decades), an agency that has no problem taking sports material and making it accessible to audiences. And for Megatron, he may want to think about outsourcing his Transformer duties over to Diddy, or Johnson, or whatever Nike wants to call him.
“For some people, fantasy football feels real. For others it is real.” So claims Tough Season, The Onion’s new fantasy football series, developed in cooperation with DigitasLBI and Lenovo. Most of us, I think, know someone for whom this is true. Someone who loses sleep over the draft, and talks about NFL players as “my guys.” Someone like Tough Season’s Brad Blevins. Brad takes fantasy football way too seriously, despite the fact that his team, Brad’s Awesome Team, never wins his league. But he’s convinced, of course, that this season will be different.
Brad’s creepy rival Harris is focused on humiliating him, but Brad is intent on avoiding “The Watermelon Dance” (You really have to watch to see this one, I won’t give it away) at all costs. As the owner of three consecutive championships, Huge Giant Robots is the team to beat, with their mysterious owner Mr. Z. keeping his identity a secret. Episode one of the show flashed back to last season, with Brad’s tearful goodbye to Matt Forte and end-of-season humiliation. Episode two focuses on the draft.
There’s a very fine line between stupid funny and annoying, a line that Old Spice is willing to tightrope for miles and miles. Their “Unnecessary Freshness” campaign, created by W+K Portland, will hit screens starting Thursday night for the season opener. As you might expect, there will be plenty of shenanigans that don’t make sense. But, at least that’s the point.
Three new spots starring Denver Broncos wide receiver Wes Welker might make you shake your head, laugh, or both (there’s also a fourth spot featuring New England Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo, possibly a pity commercial since Welker darted for Denver). However, since each ad is less than 20 seconds, it’s easy to stomach the goofy jokes and images of lizards eating Welker’s legs. If commenters take to the site to rip W+K, Welker, football, me, AgencySpy itself, or a number of other things that exist, and therefore, should be ridiculed incessantly, they can hopefully agree that the running time is a plus. And, if you believe that a majority of people in America are stupid and these spots are stupid funny, then maybe W+K is onto something brilliant. Maybe.
Credits and some more unnecessary freshness after the jump.
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