ESPN has had some really great and creative commercials in the past five years. Whether they involve the College Football Live crew, the Sportscenter anchors, the Baseball Tonight crew, but some of the most memorable ones were with the Pro Athletes. Recently there have been ESPN/NBA commercials, where the analysts and commentators are all riding in an RV across the country to each arena they are calling the next game at. Jeff Van Gundy, who never cracked a smile while coaching in NY, has been involved in a lot of these ads and he has been hilarious. The latest one has Van Gundy in the passenger seat and the Gorilla mascot from Phoenix in the driver seat of the RV, parked waiting for the #1 overall draft pick, Blake Griffin, to get back on the RV via the side door with his fast food in hand. Van Gundy is hanging out of the window yelling to Griffin to get in and let's go! Of course, as Griffin grabs the handle, the RV pulls away and they begin laughing at the rookie, urging him to hurry up. They get Griffin two more times, hysterical and acting like little kids, on the last attempt to trick Griffin, the RV hits an electrical pole and knocks it over and the next shot is of the Gorilla and Van Gundy just looking straight ahead and now they look like two kids who just broke a vase in their mom's house. Brilliant use of all the people involved!
When ESPN decided to use their analysts and commentators and ex-players in their ad campaigns, they looked like marketing geniuses. They have reenacted scenes from sports movies using them, they have simulated fake newscasts and all the while not taking themselves too serious. This is one of the reasons why ESPN is so widely successful. They are a credible sports news source, but at the same time they realize that they are covering sports, not the war in Iraq. Having fun becomes an integral part of ESPN's broadcasts. It was laugh out loud funny, when Peter Gammons and Karl Ravich did the Baseball Tonight parody of the "Bull Durham" scene and when John Andersen switched chairs with Lebron James, giving him the desk chair, taking his "thrown" and pretending he has no idea where Lebron's chair, it makes you wonder how many takes that took. Seeing stars like Albert Pujols, Lebron and Steve Smith dressed in their uniforms, working in the ESPN office cubicles and copy rooms seems almost normal, like it would happen in your office and of course, at work you always have to watch out for Terry Tate "Office Linebacker". He was the funniest creation from the ESPN marketing team.
So, when girlfriends and wives ask their men how can they watch ESPN all day long, over and over again, its because no other channel taps into the male psyche like ESPN. Men love comedy and sports. With the addition of all of these funny and creative ads, parodies and promos, turning off ESPN is now nearly impossible for men to do. ESPN is doing a fine job counteracting the influx of shows like "Real Housewives of Somewhere", "So You Think You Can Do Something", "Bitchy Brides", "Make Me Into Something I am Not" and so on and so on. Women can no longer sit there and say to their significant others, "you have to watch one my shows since I sit through hours of sports for you", because it's not just sports, it's entertaining comedy.
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