Hasta La Creative!

ESPN's "This Is SportsCenter" is among the handful of classic sports ad campaigns of all time. Launched in 1995 by Wieden + Kennedy in New York, the campaign—originally inspired by the mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap—hasn't changed much over the years. And why would it? You don't mess with a winning formula.

The premise of the ads, as we've noted before, is that ESPN's Bristol, Conn., offices are the center of the sports universe—a surreal yet mundane fantasy world where athletes and mascots live and work together with anchors and journalists. Where other marketers portray athletes as superhuman, "This Is SportsCenter" presents them as comically, relatably human. Eighteen years and more than 400 spots later, the campaign continues.

As part of the Adweek story linked above, W+K drew up a list of its 10 favorite SportsCenter ads. Now, ESPN has one-upped its agency—devoting a whole special to its 50 favorite SportsCenter spots of all time. The show, airing this Thursday at 8 p.m. ET and hosted by Jason Sudeikis, will feature anecdotes and stories about the top 50, and fans are encouraged to vote for their favorite spot over on Facebook. Sudeikis will announce the winning spot on the show. (More than 1 million votes have been cast so far.)

Check out the program on Thursday, and click the link below for a sneak peek at ESPN's official top 10 favorite "This Is SportsCenter" commercials.

Video Gallery: ESPN's 10 Favorite 'This Is SportsCenter' Ads

If CBS' The Crazy Ones seems like a day at Leo Burnett in Chicago, there's a good reason for that. The agency's executive creative director, John Montgomery, works as a consultant and executive producer on the fall comedy—and, in fact, inspired the show, which marks the network series return of former Mork from Ork Robin Williams.

It's no accident, then, that the pilot has the fictional ad folks working on a campaign for McDonald's, one of Burnett's biggest clients. (They want pop star Kelly Clarkson to shill burgers. "I don't do jingles," she sniffs, but eventually belts out a meat-loving ditty.) The brand didn't pay for the prodigious placement, though Williams told 200-plus reporters at a Television Critics Association panel on Monday in Beverly Hills to "look under your chairs—there's a Happy Meal!"

Expect to see other real brands on the show, likely from Burnett's stable, that were willing to let the creative team poke some irreverent fun at them. Montgomery has been spending several days a week with the sitcom's writers, said executive producer David E. Kelley, giving them agency scoop that's "sometimes crazier than we could imagine." Kelley and Williams also visited Burnett's offices to soak up the agency flavor. Even the show's title comes from advertising—"Here's to the Crazy Ones" was the anthem spot from TBWA's "Think Different" campaign for Apple.

There's another ad connection with The Crazy Ones. James Wolk, who plays the shadowy Bob Benson on AMC's Mad Men, stars as the new show's office lothario and creative whiz. "I only do advertising and marketing shows," he joked during the panel. The workplace comedy, premiering Sept. 26, also features Sarah Michelle Gellar as Williams's pragmatic daughter who's trying to keep her screwball dad in line.

A channel for young people called Pivot, which will become available in 40 million homes on Thursday, aims for “entertainment that inspires and compels social change.”

The hit series, based on a Stephen King novel, will return next summer.

Mr. Kraddick’s syndicated radio show, “Kidd Kraddick in the Morning,” is heard on more than 75 radio stations and its cast is seen on the TV show “Dish Nation.”

Netflix has given a good shaking to the settled world of television: it has provided its own series, streamed them over the Internet and made them available all at once everywhere.

The network and cable company announced late Wednesday that they had agreed to an extension of their current contract, as they continue to wrangle over fees for CBS programs.

Once replaced by ESPN in televising stock-car races, NBC is paying $420 million to $450 million a year to replace the cable sports channel beginning in 2015.

Starting Tuesday, fans of the show can buy clips for $1.99 of “Tonight Show” episodes and special compilations.

As mentioned, IFC is marketing the new season of original series Comedy Bang Bang as “the ultimate comedy fantasy.” In the video spot, hosts Reggie Watts and Scott Aukerman bounce along in a psychedelic van that runs on autopilot, produces a stewardess proffering pillows, and plays the radio (“Come Back,” by The J Geils Band). Watts and Aukerman exchange lines in their usual cheerful deadpan until their chariot announces the start of the new season.

The accompanying poster features Watts riding a centaur that has Aukerman’s head, and a background similar to a poster you probably bought from the book fair in fifth grade.

Though not especially enticing, the idea is cute and fans of Comedy Bang Bang will continue watching regardless. For newbies, the trailer for Season 1 gives better evidence of a show worth checking out.

Poster after the jump

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.