If you missed UGA’s domination (har) of Georgia Tech for the seventh year in a row in the 118th annual Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate, you… are like many people, because viewership gets whittled down to only the most devoted fans when two teams are trading scores for eight freaking overtimes until one of them finally muffs a two-point conversion. This coming weekend, Georgia will be facing Texas in the SEC Championship, the result of which I will not predict and trash about I will not talk because jinxes aren’t a real thing except for football.
In honor of this momentous meeting, I wanted to look at three football (and football-adjacent) ad campaigns that are, in my opinion, the best of all football and football-adjacent ad campaigns.
Dr. Pepper, “Fansville” (Deutsch)
Shut up about Fansville already? No, you shut up about… shutting up, whatever, your face is stupid. Yes, I’ve sung the praises of this campaign so many times already — the performances, the soapiness, the self-awareness, the Brian Bosworth — and if you’re getting tired of hearing about it, I don’t care. The campaign is into its seventh season, and I’m going to keep singing until the awesomeness starts to fade or Deutsch hires me to help write an episode. (Hit me up, Deutsch.)
Highlights: “That’s his Dr. Pepper hand!”; Bryce Young’s deadpan delivery of, “They’re my family now, C.J.”
ESPN, “This Is SportsCenter” (Arts & Letters, currently*)
“This Is SportsCenter” does include sports that, for whatever reason, aren’t football, but both the football- and non-football-focused ads deliver equally. The goings-on in the SportsCenter corporate offices have managed to stay fresh for nearly 30 years, and while I remain a dedicatedly remote worker, that’s one cube farm I’d be willing to join. Even at the reception desk.
Highlights: Too many to name — they’re all bangers. Forced to pick, though, I’d have to highlight a squabbling Peyton and Eli Manning and the universally beloved “Terry Tate: Office Linebacker” (among the football-related ads) and “Carrying Kerri” (for those old enough to remember the ’96 Olympics) and how not to wash the Stanley Cup (among more general-interest ones).
*The campaign was launched by Wieden+Kennedy in 1995 and then brought in-house in 2017 until it kind of fizzled and died in 2019 and came back in 2023 with Arts & Letters where, fun fact, a number of W+K alums who worked on the initial campaign are now on staff.
Nissan, “Heisman House” (TBWA\Chiat\Day)
Working with stars who quite visibly don’t know how to act is always a crapshoot, but in this case, it pays off so big. The players in these ads clearly went pro in something other than acting, and it shows, and it couldn’t be more endearing. Also, of the three campaigns in this post, this one is the most overtly ad-campaign-y, with Heisman House residents driving around in Nissan vehicles and demonstrating product features, and I couldn’t care less, because it’s just cute and funny. Also-also, I had no idea when I started working on this post that the campaign is actually in its 14th year and still manages to stay fresh.
Highlights: Bo Jackson will TP anything; “I like the crust.” “… I’ll put it back.”
Ads I Wish I’d Made
One thing I love about all three of these campaigns is the combination of creativity and longevity. I can think of, but won’t name because I’m a nice person, multiple ongoing campaigns that have long since outlived their cleverness, and in the meantime Arts & Letters is bringing in gold-medal sprinter Sydney McLaughlin for what’s probably the gazillionth SportsCenter ad.
I respect a campaign, show, or movie series, whatever that recognizes when it’s slowing down and makes a graceful exit. Even more, though, I respect one of those that apparently will never slow down and should never exit. Entertain me, Fansville. Amuse me, SportsCenter. And let Hairy Dawn catch that stick, Heisman House, because a stick interception is almost as bad as a fake throw, and we know how bad fake throw is.
Go Dawgs.
While I have you here:
This is just your reminder that the end of the FBS regular season marks the start of Weepy Award Season. If you run into a tearjerking ad you love — or, for that matter, have an old favorite you’d like to see acknowledged — drop it in comments, hit me up on social media, or whatever to get it into contention.