Just Das It

When it comes to sports brand icons and their TV commercials, more often than not, I’m impressed by Nike, perplexed by Gatorade, and fascinated by Adidas.

While Nike continues to blast down the road of consistently strategic and surprising work, and Gatorade rambles along a twisty turny highway in search of the Holy Grail of millenial connection, Adidas keeps crossing the street and trying different routes.

They tell the story of Adi Dassler, the founder of Adidas, and the true origins of the company, to stake a claim as an authentic original. And they do it via a 3 minute film. In claymation.

And they make a House Party spot with David Beckham, Missy Elliott, and other funky friends, to celebrate 60 years of Adidas originals.

Adidas does a lot of really interesting, entertaining work. I usually like it quite a bit. Case in point: Two new shoe ads featuring Derrick Rose (he of the phantom SAT test)…



…and Dwight Howard (he of the perhaps-overthrowing King James tonight)…



They look and sound different, which is good (voiced by Chali 2na from Jurassic 5). And they do a pretty clever thing: They talk about the power and efficacy of the clothes and shoes in the context of the power and efficacy of the athlete. I thought this was a smart way to surround the info they so desperately want to convey.

So in terms of breaking through the insanely crowded communications clutter, I’d say they’re successful.

But they’re not as strong as the new Nike work.

For me, the Adidas work doesn’t resonate as much as the new Nike puppets with Kobe and LeBron, for a simple reason: Even the most sports-astute marketers often forget how great it is to just watch amazing athletes do amazing things. It's why I love this spot so much.



You get humor, you get personality, and you get authenticity. While Adidas has cool technique, Nike 180’s that and goes anti-cool; you can’t get much more low tech than felt puppets.

I’m not saying the Adidas work isn’t good. It’s pretty darn cool. It just doesn’t feel as spot-on authentic as the Nike work. Am I wrong? Am I too Old School? Am I on the Nike payroll?

Maybe, probably, and definitely not. But you tell me.

Old School goes New School

I am not what they call an early adopter, but I like to think I embrace new stuff quicker than the average suburban dude in his 40’s. That said, I can’t help being Old School in many ways. I still hate the DH, I think the skirts (aka shorts) basketball players wear on their bottom halves belong on a Jean Paul Gaultier runway, and it annoys me that the size of some people’s drivers are bigger than Art Donovan’s head.

I like things that have been around for a while and are still really good. James Bond and Sloppy Joes and Iambic Pentameter and wine.

And great product demos, when they’re done well. Not Shamwow well. Tastefully well.

From Tide in the late 80’s to the iphone today, there’s nothing like the power of turning on the camera and showing what a great product can do. A demonstration that convinces you this product does something you really need. Or you really want.

But how do you do great product demos in the exploding world of new media? Here’s one answer.

Thank you, Puma, for focusing on one compelling reason to believe we should buy your shoes, and demonstrating that RTB in a fun, captivating way. It’s very smart. Great use of Usain Bolt (although not as good as Gatorade’s use of him in their Quest spot), and hey, I guess I never really thought a sea urchin would be that heavy. Or that Puma had such cool, light shoes.

You learn something new every day.

Be Like Nike (Cont)

At this rate, Gatorade can soon start putting G’s and bolts on hi-tops and compression shorts. They continue to successfully blur the lines between themselves and Nike with this ad featuring John Wooden and great college basketball stars of the past. It ran the night before the NCAA basketball championship.



It’s a terrific ad; John Wooden is an inspired choice. You’d be hard pressed to find a more credible and respected spokesperson. Out of a very small handful of coaching legends, he stands alone, having won 10 championships in 12 years (and seven in a row) at UCLA in the 60’s and ‘70’s.

He is the Yoda of basketball and coaching, having taught countless players and coaches, not just about basketball, but about life.

Which explains why he makes so much sense to be doing this ad.

And his delivery of the poem is breathtaking, especially considering that he’ll be turning 99 in a few months (that means he was only 17 years old when Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs). Coming out of the mouth of an eighth grader the poem might have sounded juvenile, but it seems like just another homespun lesson from the great coach when it comes from John Wooden.

The archival footage of Walton and Jordan mixed with more current film of Dwade and Candace Parker dunking shows great respect to the game and even more credibility to the brand.

And the music immediately made me think of Heritage, one of the original great Nike spots, with a solitary man running against the musical backdrop of a simple poignant piano track.

Add in those great Nike athletes like MJ and Kevin Durant and D Wade, and you have another fantastic Nike ad.

Except that it’s for Gatorade. It’s tied up by a G bottle and “Then. Now. Forever.” Which is a very cool sentiment and makes a ton of sense for the brand. Smart to put a stamp on their heritage and authenticity and try to ensure they stay current.

It’s the latest installment in Gatorade’s continued efforts to sell a brand, not a product. It's building buzz. Lots of people are talking about it, and liking it. It’s a valid way to go for brands that aspire to sell themselves as a lifestyle. Nike has done it, Adidas is working on it. Gatorade is dreaming of it.

They are clearly, consciously walking away from making hydration the reason to buy this product, which is the reason why people have aligned themselves with the brand in the past. They’re making a big bet that you’re going to want to join them because they’re cool. Are you?

Is that a shark Gatorade just jumped over?

I’m trying to find the right words here.

This new Nike spot—I mean, Gatorade spot—is one of those that makes you scratch your head so hard you find dried blood under your fingernails.



You can see the other spots in the campaign here.

The folks at Nike— sorry, I mean Gatorade, I got confused by all of the Nike logos and Nike imagery—have created a fun spot. I'm just not sure who it’s for. Or what it's selling. It’s about “dehydration for concentration.” So when and where am I supposed to use it? And what’s it called again?

To be sure, it’s a buzzworthy spot, and it’s received buzz. With cool celebrity voiceovers including Samuel L. Jackson, and an original track created by Funkmaster Bootsy Collins. And Tiger Woods, for heaven’s sake, animated or not. Plus, it arrives just in time for his hopeful recoronation at the Masters.

People will like it. They already do, especially 13-24 year olds. It has its detractors, too. So it's being talked about.

The question is, will a commercial that borrows from Pulp Fiction, the Jungle Book, classic Nike advertising, and the Keebler Elves help Gatorade sell an already confusing product and promote the overall brand?

Chiat Day has done a terrific job of making people sit up and take notice of a powerful brand that always could have been bigger and shinier in the public eye. Thing is, the business was always big and shiny.

Hopefully little Eldrick Woods will put on another green jacket this year and help the business be as shiny as the advertising.

Be Like Nike?

As hard as it must be to be Nike because of the demands for them to be excellent every time they make something, it’s harder to not be Nike. Trust me. We felt it on Gatorade.

But Gatorade is a functional beverage. And while we had opportunities to major in emotion and minor in function, we mostly had to find ways to give people the functional reasons why they should drink it, and still make it cool (thank you, Keith Jackson).

On TV, Nike basically just does pure brand advertising. They sell coolness and authenticity. Anyone who tried to go down that route has to live up to their standards. And they quickly find out how hard that is.

So here comes Dick’s with a need to sell a shoe that helps you perform.



They don’t talk a whole lot about the shoe or the properties that help you perform. They just make a point that this shoe may feel good, but it performs like a champ. And that baseball’s not about feeling good, it’s about performance.

Huh?

OK. Strange logic gap aside, I give them credit for not making another oversaturated high speed film about shoes that help you terrorize the ball and dramatically slide into third with a triple every time you come up to bat.

It’s a funny spot. But it falls short when it comes to the coolness and authenticity that Nike chasers crave.

They use Jimmy Rollins, which is a nice surprise. Especially since he has nice comedic timing. He makes the spot good. And do you know how I knew it was Jimmy Rollins? Because one of the guys says, loudly and clearly, “JIMMY ROLLINS!!”

YES IT IS. AND THERE ARE FOUR GIANT DICK’S SIGNS AND A NIKE SWOOSH IN THE BACKGROUND TOO. And there are a lot of Nike shoes, too. And today is Thursday.

Listen. If you’re a baseball fan, you know that’s Jimmy Rollins. If you don’t know it, you’ll find out. Too bad Weiden & Kennedy, the agency that’s done so much great Nike work, often featuring athletes who you don’t know (yet), couldn’t convince Dick’s to stop taking their obvious pills. They felt the need to make sure everyone knew who this potentially anonymous looking baseball player is, since they were paying the former MVP a lot of money to stand in their store and get hit by baseballs.

Wait… are those really baseballs? Could’t be, right? They wouldn’t really do that. But the way I saw it, they looked fake. If I’m wrong, tell me. But they look like foamy rubber balls bouncing off his chest, and Nike would’ve found a way to make sure they didn’t look fake.

Hey Dicks, are you sure you want to Be Like Nike?

Adidas: Close, but not really

Adidas.tv is here.

In their decades long attempt to catch up to Nike, Adidas is launching an online TV channel. According to Advertising Age online, “The player is designed to encourage Hulu-style sharing and can be embedded in blogs and other social-networking sites via an Adidas-branded video-player module.”

For now, it just feels like they’re selling stuff.

Sure, they need to get it up and running, so they’ve loaded it up with some slick videos starring Dwight Howard and Gilbert Arenas and featuring Adidas products, with the hope that soon, others will join in and post their own videos.

But for now, it just feels like they’re selling stuff.

The secret to Nike’s success over the years was that they made marketing materials, especially TV commercials, that connected you to the Nike name vs any one certain thing.

They sold coolness. They got you to want to be on their team. That’s what sports is all about, right? Be on the best team. Or at least be a part of it. Who wouldn’t want to be with these guys?



They grew their brand by creating emotional bonds with consumers. And grow their brand, they did.

When I worked on Gatorade, we wanted the same ending, but we couldn’t do it the same way. Gatorade is a functional product that we not only needed to sell, but we also had to explain why you should use it. It’s obvious that you need shoes to play sports. You can’t go barefoot. But you could drink anything.

So even when we made almost purely emotional spots, we still needed to make sure the functional message came through. Hence, colored sweat, even if it’s just for one second. Like in this spot.



As much as we tried on Gatorade, we could never be like Nike, because we had a story to tell, and it made sense for us to tell that story, because people wanted to know why they should drink Gatorade over something else.

So while Gatorade had “Be Like Mike,” “I like Nike” was good enough for the guys out in Beaverton.

Adidas has never fully appreciated the fact that in their category, you’re not selling products, you’re selling a brand. They've made some very nice ads over the years, and clearly have forward thinking ideas. But they haven't been consistent enough.

They should stick to capturing people’s hearts, and letting their brains follow.

Is any press better than none at all?

If so, then so far, so good for G. The reviews are pouring in, the chatter's at full force, and the reception is most definitely mixed.

In these times of fragmented media and distracted eyeballs, there's a very valid argument to be made for the value of making a splash, regardless of how favorable the reactions are.

The media buzz has been mostly negative, which is to be expected from branding experts. Much of the online reaction has been positive and intrigued. Then again, the initial splash from the TV spots isn't translating into youtube success, according to the above article.

So we still need to wait and see. The current spots are just teasers; the proof will be when the campaign rolls out in earnest. I've heard rumors about some wackiness to come on the upcoming Big Game.

I'm sure the work will be fun to watch. I'm not sure the brand will survive it.

Shouldn't they shower first?

Sports Marketing guru Terry Lefton reports in Sports Business Journal that the winning players in Super Bowl XLIII will be able to drape themselves in the first ever official Super Bowl Bath Towel on the field after the game. It’s a high-quality, nine-pound towel (I’m assuming that means dry).

In Lefton’s article, McArthur Towel and Sports President Gregg McArthur says, “[The towel] has always been a great vehicle in sports...anyone at Gatorade could tell you that. We’re taking the next step by turning them into an authentic championship item.”

Except that the Gatorade towel had a reason for being. Athletes sweat, towels soak up.

That said, I’m all for finding new revenue streams; the exposure at the Super Bowl is just about priceless, and I applaud all parties involved for being innovative and forward thinking.

In fact, more marketers should embrace the potential for getting their brands out there on the biggest and brightest stage in the world.

I’d like to see Burger King sponsor Championship paper crowns instead of the same old baseball hats. They

SPAM could be the official post game snack.

And just once, I’d like to see the game’s MVP, when asked where he’s going now that he’s won the Biggest Game on Earth, say: “Vegas, baby!”

Got any other ideas for official post game celebratory items?

Time out for some joy

Enough about the Gatorade ads already. Nobody knows who they're for, but they’re cool. Gatorade is gone. It’s now G. It was a sad day for me when they changed Sugar Smacks to Honey Smacks but I got over it and they still taste pretty good. In a couple of years Lil Wayne will be shilling George Foreman grills. We move on.

For now, let’s just be entertained. Here’s a commercial that, kind of like “G,” has nothing to do with sports; it barely has any words, isn’t even in English, but is so clear and to the point and does such a wonderful job of selling the product that it just makes me smile and I want to watch it over and over.



Let’s hear it for pure, unadulterated joy.

Plus, Dutch just sounds cool.

Here it is

The new Gatorade TV ad.



A lot of the usual Gatorade athletes: D. Wade, Kerri and Misty, Jeter, Candace Parker.

Some interesting, surprising new athletes: Serena, skater Chaz Ortiz, softball player Jessica Mendoza (Usain Bolt is in another of the ads).

Some aging athletes who stand for something significant: the great Muhammed Ali, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, Bill Russell.

And current pop culture icons, like dance troupe Jabbawockeez and Lil Wayne, who narrates the spot. PS, I love his voice.

This ad will appeal to a lot of new people. It already has. Especially among hip hop culture, where it's generating buzz and discussion. If Gatorade wants to branch out to young urban influencers, this is a good thing.

It looks different than most tv spots and does an excellent job of making you sit up and take notice. And it’s clear that Gatorade is happy to turn away from hard core athletes and athletic influencers and turn their attention to cultural trendsetters.

For more proof, check out the youtube channel they’ve created (thank you, commenter Carol). There’s sports in there, but you have to listen for it.

A couple of things seem clear:

Gatorade was a functional beverage. G is a cultural beverage.

Gatorade was about function. G is about funktion.

Stay tuned.

The new Gatorade ads Think Different, but...

There’s so much to talk about on the Gatorade front. New packaging, new positioning for the products. Go to their website to see how it all breaks out, and I’ll follow up with some thoughts soon. But their new TV advertising is fresh in my head, having seen it on the BCS games today.

When I saw the ads, I thought of this Apple commercial. It’s one of my favorite ads of all time.



First of all, it’s beautifully written. A wonderful manipulation of language within a scant sixty seconds. Excellence and moderation.

The message glows equally bright. A forward thinking company connecting itself to some of the most forward thinking people who ever lived. A creative company trying to appeal to millions of creative thinkers, encouraging them to join other originals who weren’t afraid to think differently. Or Think Different, as Apple’s somewhat grammatically incorrect tagline exhorted us to do.

Talk about building a relationship and cultivating loyalty.

Like Apple, Gatorade is a great American brand that constantly needs to stay current to maintain its iconic status with young cultural trendsetters and influencers in the world of sports. So after years of colored sweat, Gatorade is headed in another direction.

And it is most definitely different.

I can’t find the ads online yet but I’ll post them as soon as I do. If you see them, please pass them along. The ads on today’s games were teasers for a big reveal that’s reportedly airing on the Super Bowl in a month.

I give PepsiCo credit for “Thinking different.“ They’re not afraid to change. They’ve already demonstrated this with their Pepsi marketing, and they’re turning their lust for change to Gatorade.

To quote the Apple ad, “They have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.”

I think these ads are hard to ignore. And along with the new packaging, I do think they’ll change things for Gatorade. My early observation is, it won’t be change for the better. So far, it all seems messy and random. Bold, yes, but confusing.

But I'm a big fan of change when it's change for the better. So let’s see what they show us on February 1.

The packaging? Well, that's a different story...

G is here

The news is out: Gatorade is busting a move. They're either going to take it to the next level or confuse the hell out of us.

This is big. More to come.

G, it should be interesting

I'm extremely close to the Gatorade brand, having written, produced, and creative directed their advertising from 1991-2006. I am unapologetically, emotionally attached to Gatorade. Not only did I savor every minute I spent helping build the brand, I actually believe it works for athletes on the playing field. Really, I do.

So you can safely assume that I'm a bit biased.

And you won't be surprised that I will have an opinion on the massive rebranding effort Gatorade has embarked upon. But not yet. The packaging re-design has been much debated. The new bottles are ready, and are starting to appear on the shelves. But the website hasn't changed (please lord, help it get better).

And the ads haven't appeared yet. They're being done by TBWA/Chiat Day. They're a smart agency with sports minded folks who've done good work in the past. From what I understand, it's all about "G." Cool idea. I won't be surprised if the work is top notch.

Big question will be, will they mess with the tremendous equity that's been so important in connecting the brand to millions of athletes?

Stay tuned.

Opportunity Missed

Sometimes the best thing that can happen to a really good creative person is to get a ridiculously challenging assignment. It brings out the best in talented people.

Conversely, having too much fodder has the potential to set yourself up for failure. Great expectations can lead to disaster if the finished product isn’t spectacular.

I know this from years of creating ads for Michael Jordan and Gatorade, and directing creative teams to do the same. We did some great work but it was never easy. Having the single greatest sports asset on the planet at our disposal was awesome and amazing but also added a great deal of pressure to create greatness every time.

So I understand the challenge the folks at Y&R had when creating ads for the upcoming Winter Classic at Wrigley Field. The Blackhawks and the Red Wings playing a hockey game outdoor at Wrigley Field; how cool is that? Tremendously, opportunity-filled cool. The mind races with possibilities.

Unfortunately, Y&R’s minds didn’t race very far, choosing to produce what could be the most unremarkable, uninteresting ad of the year, considering the fodder they had.



Sometimes, the first thing you think of is the most obvious, but because it's pure and simple and great, you just say, obvious be damned, it’s great. In this case, they nailed simple, but definitely not great. They should have pushed much harder for something far more surprising.

For example, something like this…



Fresh, surprising, unexpected use of film and music. Not at all what you’d expect.

Sure, I’m biased. But “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” to promote an emerging American sport? Cool and unusual. “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” to promote a hockey game at Wrigley? An uncontested layup. Too bad.

There are other ads in the campaign that I haven’t seen that may take a different tact. If you see them, please pass them on. Hopefully, they take better advantage of the opportunity.

Gee! No, G!

Sometimes a brand has to reinvent itself.

And sometimes a brand thinks it has to reinvent itself only to realize that the old way was working just fine. How do you know the difference?

So hard to know. Almost impossible. Just ask Nike. 10 years ago, they gave it a shot and strayed from “Just Do It.” Remember?



Probably not. And Nike hopes you don’t either. After their red faces regained their color, they quickly scrambled back to their vaunted tagline faster than you can say “Ooopsee!”

One thing that’s certain is that a brand that’s strongly established and firmly established in the consumer’s mind with a likeable, consistent campaign is a beautiful and rare thing and money in the bank, even for brands that depend on coolness and hipness to stay current and contemporary.

And another thing that’s certain is that change is good, especially for brands that depend on coolness and hipness to stay current and contemporary.

Gatorade is about to become the poster child for either change or constancy. They’re going through a massive overall of…well, just about everything, including positioning and advertising. We’re getting our first looks at the packaging, which is a radical departure from the classic bolt (this is just a redesign of the basic logo; extensive packaging do-overs are to come). The new logo is mostly getting raked over the coals. Mindy McCready would probably get a better reception at the Clemens house for Sunday dinner.

I have a particular interest in the saga, having worked on the brand for 15 years, writing some famous ads and having been very emotionally connected. So I promise, more to come on this one, for sure.

If you hear or see anything, please pass it on.

What makes a good endorser?

Is it important for an athlete to use and believe in the product he or she endorses? Does that make the endorsement more authentic, and therefore, more convincing?

Years ago, I might’ve said yes, but every day the endorsement world becomes more of a Show Me The Money kind of culture, and a real connection between athlete and product matters less.

As true as that might be, athletes (and their agents) still try to put the right spin on it. When Michael Beasley signed with Adidas last week, Steve Reed, his business manager, said "Mike has agreed enthusiastically to endorse Adidas and wear the shoe as he has done his whole playing life."

Thing is, as reported by Darren Rovell in his SportsBiz blog, photographic evidence of Beasley shows him playing in Nikes more than any other shoe, including a pair of Jordan Aqua VIII's for games against Wisconsin and USC in last year’s NCAA tournament.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/26874362

So they’re saying the right thing, even though it may not be true, and they’ll get no flack for it. Because it’s understood that endorsers are paid to endorse. When we would talk to 13-24 year old athletes about this stuff, they automatically assumed that the sports stars they saw shaving with Schick or wearing a Tag Heuer were doing it because they were getting paid to do it. The trickier and more important question was around sports-related products like Gatorade, which can affect performance on the field.

Gatorade chose their endorsers very carefully. For ten years, the only celebrity endorser they had was Michael Jordan. And after that, they associated themselves with only the most elite, and more important, most championship-winning athletes. Jeter, Hamm, Manning.

For Beasley and Adidas, it’s a little different. It’s more about exposure than anything else. No skepticism there. Just wanting get in with the cool kids.

Great Sports Ad = Tingle?

A comment from one of my recent posts talked about The Tingle. The commenter’s simple criteria for a great sports ad is whether or not s/he gets a tingle when seeing it—or chill bumps, scalp fizz, however you describe it. OK. But I would argue that any and all Tingles would remain dormant if the ad you’re seeing is afflicted with fakeness. You’ll know it when you don’t feel it.

The last Tingle I got was from the Nike basketball TV commercial that aired during the Olympics, featuring Marvin Gaye singing the Star Spangled Banner intercut with images of the US Olympic basketball team.



Using that old footage was pure genius. The unique look of the film, Marvin’s pure and blissful expression as he sang, the funky arrangement of our national anthem, the sincere, animated hooting and hollering of the crowd behind him…it just made me smile. Gave me chill bumps.

The way they weaved in the mostly high speed (slowed down) footage of the current basketball players was artful and athletic. And the ending, with the players coming together and raising their intertwined arms and hands, was Knute Rockne, George Patton, and Mike Krzyzewski rolled into one, with Francis Scott Key providing the voiceover. Not too shabby.

It was one of those ads I’d look at when I was doing work for Gatorade and wish I’d done. Nike at it’s best. And every frame of it Authentic.

But…just for your consideration, here’s a question to consider as you watch the ad:

What was it selling?

The Nike brand? A specific Nike product? Nike Team USA gear? Team USA? The Olympics? Kobe Bryant (He is a Nike endorser and many people felt that he dominated the ad)? Marvin Gaye? Francis Scott Key? All of the above?

Does it matter? As a sports fan, it made me like Nike. Isn’t that good enough?

Is anything really authentic in sports advertising?

I yak about authenticity being the end-all, be-all in sports advertising.

But consider this possibility:

Nothing in sports advertising is truly authentic. Because my definition of authentic may differ from yours.

We once shot a Gatorade spot called “Get Up,” featuring the James Brown track of the same name. It was about athletes who return to action, more fired up than before, after getting knocked down. One of the vignettes showed a catcher getting a throw from the outfield and blocking the plate. The throw comes in high, and he runner slams into the catcher, who gets sent flying but holds onto the ball, still dripping Gatorade’s trademarked colored sweat.

The group of us who were responsible for making the ad had days-long debates on whether or not the baserunner should barrel over the catcher or try to slide around him, since the throw came in high. Serious disagreements and strong opinions. Pens were thrown. Paper was ripped. It was nuts!

Ultimately, we agreed to disagree , but the losing side was not happy and felt we had compromised the ad with action that wasn’t as authentic as it could be.

Did we get crazed letters? No. Did it make the ad any less good? No. Did it put a chink in Gatorade’s armor of authenticity? Some would say yes.

Truth is, we make stuff up when we make ads. We have to fake it. When you fake it poorly, you get busted. When you fake it well, you look like you know what you’re talking about. Which makes you even more authentic. Ironic, isn’t it?

So who’s to say what’s truly authentic?

Authenticity. Seriously.

In 2005, we made a Gatorade spot called Winning Formula. It was created to demonstrate the precision behind the formulation of Gatorade and the science involved. To prove how the smallest of differences can profoundly affect an outcome, we changed three iconic moments in sports history: we made Michael Jordan’s shot over Craig Ehlo roll out of the hoop, we caused Joe Montana’s pass to fly just over Dwight Clark’s outstretched hands, and we made Derek Jeter’s flip to Posada a fraction too late to nail Jason Giambi at the plate.



To recreate these events, we did ridiculously comprehensive research. We talked to cameramen who shot the original video to get the right film stocks, camera lenses, and angles to make sure it looked absolutely real.

We plotted the angles to make sure the balls matched the flight of the balls that Jordan, Montana, and Jeter threw. We had the actors who played the ref and ump watch the original footage over and over so they could call Montana’s pass incomplete and call Jason Giambi safe at home with the exact same motion that the original ref and ump called the touchdown good and Giambi out.

The jerseys are exact replicas, down to the shoes. The playing surfaces were recreated to the original specifications, down to the chalk marks, floor markings, and height of the grass. Even the haircuts were perfect matches. And even if you couldn’t tell that by looking at the film, we’d have done it that way.

Gatorade was so successful for so many years because they respected authenticity above just about everything. Because without it you’re a cheater and a pretender and nobody should ever trust you as a sports authority ever again. Even if you do it just one eentsy weentsy little time.

Seriously.

I truly believe that if we had missed on anything, we would have been called out, and the commercial wouldn’t have been so believable—or received as much positive buzz. The irony is, to make this spot feel completely real, we had to do a tremendous amount of faking. But that’s movie magic. You’re watching it all the time without knowing it. And it’s a big part of making sports ads authentic.