Since Tuesday, I've been getting multiple emails asking me why Tony and Wilbon keep popping up randomly during commercial breaks. To answer all of your questions....I don't know why. Here's what I'm talking about....

PTI is the flagship program for the network, and they've been using it to keep people interested in shows like the 6pm Sports Center for awhile. This move seems along those same lines, but doing so with advertisers is just a bit annoying. It's obvious that these are on purpose, and I hate commercials as much as the next person, but this comes across as someone trying too hard.

I think PTI is by far the best show on the network (I think everyone knows that), but ESPN needs to be careful they don't ruin the show with all of this nonsense. The show suffers enough when guest hosts fill-in, and when you start breaking the show up and doing these cut-ins, it's only going to make more people change the channel.

If you're a frequenter of the convenience store 7-11, you'll be noticing an overhaul of their stores in the next few weeks. Much like last summer, when "The Simpsons Movie" took over the stores before it debuted, NBC is using Slurpie Cups and Big Bite containers as promotional vehicles for Sunday Night Football games on the network. Via Mediaweek....

Mike McCarley, vp, marketing, promotions and communications, NBC Universal Sports & Olympics, is hoping the partnership and promotion will not only reach avid football fans and regular SNF telecasts, but also "millions of casual fans."

"Sunday Night is Football Night is not just for die-hard fans but for their friends and family who gather around the TV and watch the game as a social occasion," McCarley said. "Partnering with with 7-Eleven allows us to reach millions more avid and casual football fans each week and allows those fans to stock up for Sunday night's big matchups."

In-store promotions in more than 6,000 7-Eleven stores will include special cups and hot dog containers that are preprinted with the 2008 NBC Sunday Night Football game schedule. Customers will also be able to enter a sweepstakes and each week, a customer will be randomly selected to win a trip for two to New York City to visit the pregame show.

That seems like a lame prize to me if they're trying to target casual Football fans. Most people would have used tickets to the Super Bowl, but hey....whatever you think will work. Other than that it seems like a great idea depending on the money involved. I can't imagine that it's cheap to turn over 6,000, 7-11's into a giant advertisement for a network, but the amount of traffic seeing the ads is probably worth the price.

NBC Sports Teams Up With 7-Eleven (Mediaweek)

(Photo via Sports Business Daily)

You knew it was just a matter of time before some men's product swooped in and made Erin Andrews their spokesperson and the first company to do so is Gillette. The shaving cream company has a campaign through Major League Baseball called the "Gillette Rookie Reporter Showdown" in which 48 guys compete to win....well I can't quite figure it out actually. They do have an entire Erin Andrews section though and are using the following clever tagline for the contest....

ERIN ANDREWS- The hardest-working, sexiest sideline reporter in Major League Baseball® wants YOU!

Get it? She WANTS you! There are about 4,000 videos on the site with random guys doing reports, but it's the actual Gillette ad with Erin Andrews in a Baseball locker room that got my attention. Here it is for your enjoyment!

Again....I'm not quite sure what all of that is for, or what you can actually win, but here is by far the best feature on the site. You can print out your very own Erin Andrews baseball card! Don't think for a second that I'm not going to print this out and keep it in my pocket like Bob Costas does with that Micky Mantle card of his....


Gillette 2008 MLB Rookie Reporter Showdown (MLB)

(Thanks to JT for the tip)

I always thought those Chunky Soup ads with the likes of Mrs. Tomlinson, Hasselbeck, Elway and McNabb, were pretty cheesy but there was still something appealing about them. Well according to the Wall Street Journal, the mamas "have been canned"....

For the past six years, the company has been running a well-received series of ads for its "Chunky" soup that feature National Football League greats and their mothers calling them inside for dinner and serving them soup.

But starting with this NFL season, those moms will be riding the bench. The reason for the change? Campbell Soup says its new research has revealed that the company's target consumers -- men in their 30s -- are finally achieving soup independence.

The new campaign, dubbed "Working Day," features San Diego Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson. In one of the series of five ads, which debut when the NFL season kicks off on Sept. 4, Mr. Tomlinson is shown in action on the field as a voice-over describes his job in blue-collar terms.

"Another grueling day on the job," the ad begins. "You're dying to get out of those work clothes. You're hungry. You take a can of Chunky soup. You think about your day. Was I productive? Did I do right by my boss?"

Boooooo! Whether they were cheesy or not, at least they were original. The whole workday lunch thing has been done a thousand times over. Plus, where is Wilma McNabb supposed to get her income from now? Oh that right....her son is an NFL player....nevermind. I'll still miss you though, Wilma.

Campbell Soup Sacks NFL's Mothers (WSJ)

It was inevitable wasn't it? Almost immediately after I put up the Don King/Undertaker post yesterday, I noticed a DSRL commercial that seemed a bit different. The Mannings were at a press conference and....oh no....not Venus and Serena!

Lame. I do have to say though that the DSRL theme song is catchy as hell. These U.S. Open promotions are just everywhere and since someone guessed this one in the comments yesterday, I'm going to give it a shot. My prediction is that the next U.S. Open spot will come either during A) America's Got Talent or B) Hillary Clinton's speech at the Democratic National Convention.

Video: Williams Sisters Challenge Manning Brothers To Oreo Licking Race (You Been Blinded)

So earlier today, a good number of people all decided to forward an email they had received from ESPN wanting to know what it was all about. The message was in regards to something called FANography and my honest answer is....I have no idea what the heck it is. There was no press release on it and I haven't been able to find anything on the web. It's one giant mystery.

Here's the email message....

Welcome to ESPN FANography, Straight Talk from the Fans!

ESPN FANography is an exclusive online community made up of sports fans who are interested in sharing their opinions with ESPN. This is a forum for you to tell us about how we can better serve you – the fans!

As a member of ESPN FANography, you will get the opportunity to:

* Tell us about yourself and share your ideas on how ESPN can enhance your sports viewing, listening, reading, and accessing experiences
* Learn about the latest plans at ESPN
* Participate in surveys and join online discussion forums where you can share your ideas and input with ESPN and your peers
* Preview new creative concepts, then provide feedback on which ideas are best
* Receive updates that show how your input is making changes and improvements at ESPN

To join ESPN FANography, please click the NEXT button and complete the short survey which follows.

The goal of our first questionnaire is to learn a little more about you. You will be asked a series of basic demographic questions, as well as some more detailed questions about your usage of media (like TV, Internet, and Magazines), and your interest in sports. With this information, we hope to gain some understanding about your likes, dislikes, and opinions, so that we can deliver the best ESPN media products to YOU – the fans! If you’re ready, please click on the NEXT button below to begin.

New creative concepts eh? Your ideas are intriguing to me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter....

When you click on the link button it takes you to a series of questions about your viewing habits, income and living situation and from there it takes you to a set of queries about ESPN itself. You have to respond to items about TV programs as well as Radio programs and there's even a neato drag and drop section for which ESPN the Magazine issues that you've recently read. The whole thing takes about 10 minutes and after answering all the questions and confirming your email addy you get the following messages....

Congratulations! Thank you for joining ESPN FANography – Straight Talk from the Fans! You have already provided us with some great information and we look forward to hearing from you in the future. On the next page, please include your name and email, then create a user name and password so that you can continue to participate in our panel.

Congratulations, you are now a panelist.

You can't do anything after that yet, but it still lists "me" as a "panelist". So I've got that going for me....which is nice. It's kind of ironic that I wrote earlier today about ESPN actually listening to the fans and making changes. Forget starting a blog or contacting the Ombudsman because apparently now you can actually be a "panel member" and work at ESPN for absolutely free! Good times.

Fanography (ESPN FANography)

The last magazine he was offered to be in, Playboy, Tim Tebow decided to decline the offer. Well he's been asked by another publication and this time he decided to accept an invitation from fitness mag, Men's Fitness. Via the Orlando Sentinel....

Men's Fitness has had many athletes on its cover -- our Tiger Woods, Reggie Bush and LaDainian Tomlinson to name a few -- but this time they didn't want to wait until Tebow turned pro as they have always done before.

"That young man is a physical specimen, but your readers must know that," Johnson said. "He seems to embody what you want in a young athlete. So the story is not just for Gator fans but for everyone to get to know him."

The magazine quotes Georgia Coach Mark Richt, who gets a really good look at Tebow one-too-many times per year: "He's different from anybody I've seen. Some guys stand apart and they're just different from everybody else."

It's always interesting to see how certain players prepare themselves for the "real world" of Sports PR and Marketing that comes after College. Tebow's plan, however, has been a little different from past potential draft picks. He's almost gone with a political approach to his "brand" and that is definitely going to pay off for him if the NFL doesn't work out for the QB.

You should seriously expect to see him as a Congressman by the year 2025.

Fitness mag takes a closer look at the 'physical specimen' that is Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow (Orlando Sentinel)

Okay, Nike has done it again and whoever came up with this idea is a freaking genius. The new campaign is called "Train Like LT" and features LaDanian Tomlinson heading over to Kimbo Slice's house to train the "old school way". Via Yardbarker....

First of all, that car that LT rolls up in is badass. Second, when Kimbo swung the freezer door open, I just lost it. Outside of that "I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier" ad, I can't think of one Nike has put out there that hasn't been awesome. Great work again, Swooshers.

First Look at Nike's New "Train Like LT" Campaign with Kimbo Slice (Yardbarker)

Okay so this was long in the works, and created quite some time ago, but I still found it pretty wild. Visa had a spot reserved in the first commercial block after the 200 Meter Butterfly, so when Michael Phelps earned his 10th career gold medal they were ready to congratulate him on his achievement....

Man, Morgan Freeman could sell me just about anything. Thank goodness he's okay after that car crash because that ad would have given me even more chills if he hadn't. The crazy part of the whole story surrounding the ad though comes from Phelps' agent. According to Sports Business Daily, Octagon's Peter Carlisle thought this whole spot up back in 2006 at the Pan-Pacific Championships! Now that's a good agent.

I thought Home Depot owned all the advertising space within College Gameday but apparently I was wrong. ESPN has sold the naming rights for the Corso Picks segment (you know the one where Corso puts the mascot head on?) to Chick-Fil-A....

In the segment, ESPN analyst Lee Corso predicts the winning team by donning the mascot head or gear of one of the competing teams. It's the culmination of the show, drawing cheers or jeers from the crowd depending on Corso's pick.

Aptly enough, "GameDay's" first show this season will be in Atlanta for the Chick-fil-A College Kickoff, an Aug. 30 matchup between the University of Alabama and Clemson University.

The move is significant for the chain of about 1,400 restaurants because it does little national advertising, choosing instead to focus on local and regional efforts.

College students, alumni and fans make a great audience for Chick-fil-A, said Steve Robinson, the company's senior vice president of marketing. "GameDay" and football tailgating create a lively atmosphere for marketing products, he said.

The agreement includes Chick-fil-A TV commercials during the show and a live shot of a Chick-fil-A fan interaction area. Event staff in "College GameDay" and Chick-fil-A co-branded uniforms will escort a crate carrying the mascot head for Corso's announcement.

And here they come to ruin the best show on the network! I can understand a main sponsor for the show, but naming a cheesy segment that no one really cares about it, is a little much. Soon they'll have cows bringing out the headgear to Corso, while Desmond Howard eats waffle fries. It's only a matter of time.

Chick-fil-A in pick 'em role on ESPN show (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

This is actually via NBC, so I'm not sure if I entirely believe it, but they have evidently proven me wrong. I had them coming up short of their break even mark ($1 Billion) for months now but they seemed to have reached and passed their lofty goal....

NBC Olympics has surpassed $1 billion in advertising for the Beijing Olympic Games. The announcement was made today by Seth Winter, SVP Sales & Marketing, NBC Sports & Olympics.

"We've always said that the Olympics is one of the most powerful properties in all of television," said Winter. "While we are thrilled with this milestone, we still expect to write more business as the Games begin and great stories continue to evolve."

NBCU's Olympic sales received a boost from its primetime coverage of the U.S. Olympics Trials for Swimming, Gymnastics and Track & Field, which saw ratings increases over 2004 and featured buzzworthy performances from marquee athletes such as Michael Phelps, Dara Torres, Tyson Gay and Shawn Johnson. Advertisers also have noted the recent stellar ratings for the U.S. Open and Wimbledon on NBC, as well as the Super Bowl.

With the help of a John McCain campaign to best Obama and the addition of primetime coverage for popular Sports like Swimming, NBC is back in the black. All the big ones will be there (Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Kodak, VISA, Nike, Google) and don't forget those fancy Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor ads either. I hope the $750K turns out to be worth it.



(Via NBC PR)

Get Ready For A Ton Of "Mummy" Promos During The Olympics (Awful Announcing)

Marvin Gaye performed one of the best live renditions of the National Anthem back at the 1983 NBA All Star Game in Los Angeles and Nike has decided to use it for a new Team USA commercial. Via Fanhouse....

Goosebumps. There's a 30-second version and a 60-second version that you will begin seeing on 08-08-08 as well as a two and a half minute version of the commercial will air on August 5th. That extended version will follow the final episode of “Road To Redemption presented by NIKE” on ESPN2.

Marvin Gaye + USA Basketball = Chills (Fanhouse)
Just Do It: Marvin Gaye (Inside Nike)

The last time we talked about an ESPN Ad Agency campaign, it was those weird eyeball balls that they mailed out. Well this time them gone even further out the box and into the laundromat....literally. From AdFreak via STIR has the details....

Boston Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers last Thursday. ESPN agency Ground Zero quickly sprang into action, and by lunchtime Friday, “nearly every Laundromat in Los Angeles county had at least one ‘Lost Red Sock.’ ” Even the Encino Quickie Wash? The agency’s interns must have loved tooling around all day, dropping off socks, pocketing fabric softener.

Weird. The eyeball thing was at least promoting the fact that ESPN has Sports on 24-7, thus given you red eye, but this doesn't seem to make much sense. Maybe ESPN wants to get in good with the Dodgers for some reason, but it seems like a giant waste of money to me. There could be an advertisement for ESPN Radio on the back though now that I think about it. Clever but certainly very very questionable.

Red Sox Trade Manny: Laundromats Rejoice (Stuff That Is Relevant)
Manny: machine wash cold, tumble dry low (Ad Freak)

If you happened to be perusing ESPN.com today you may have seen a new Reebok ad for their "Speedwick" line of t-shirts. The ad however shows recently suspended nose breaker, Steve Smith in a rather ironic pose (click for larger)....


I know breaking your teammates nose is serious business but that one just made me laugh out loud. Thanks to JV for the screenshot.

Well I guess it isn't exactly "introducing", but rather reintroducing. ESPN has decided to go with daily coverage of Action Sports online and apparently one website wasn't enough. The "Leader" plans on taking it's one X-games like site, EXPN.com and turning it into a vast hub of multiple platforms for your viewing pleasure....

Signaling ESPN's dedication to complete, daily coverage of action sports, ESPN is re-branding its online home for action sports. The site will become ESPN Action Sports this fall as part of a new multimedia initiative that will also mark the launch of the ESPN Action Sports Network - a group of interconnected sites, including sport-specific vertical sites from ESPN (ex: ESPN Skate) and other premiere action sports destinations such as Surfline.com, Vans.com, Active Ride Shop and more. The new network of sites, with ESPN Action Sports as its central hub, will create multiple drop in points for action sports participants and enthusiasts, with the mission of developing the best, deepest, most useful network of action sports content and community anywhere.

"ESPN Action Sports signifies an ongoing focus to bringing ESPN.com's standard of excellence and comprehensive coverage to the action sports arena," said Dave Finger, senior director, action sports, ESPN Digital Media. "We have been building towards this vision for more than a year - piece by piece - and this marks a new starting point for the next stage in the evolution of what our digital media assets will deliver to athletes and enthusiasts around the globe."

Seems like a lot of work for an X-Games event that comes only twice a year, but there has to be a market for this sort of thing, or they wouldn't be trying it. I personally thought the fad had run its course, but you're going to get ratings and viewers with dudes falling 40 feet out of the air (ala Jake Brown above). The demo is an advertisers dream, so if they tap into something other networks couldn't (NBC), they'll be raking in the dough. It will more than certainly come at our expense over on ESPN, but what's new right?

The added use of sites like Vans.com is curious to me as well, but not something ESPN hasn't done before.

(Via ESPN PR)

I passed on this story last week because it didn't seem that noteworthy, but that was until today. A few people got upset with the "homophobic nature" of a few of Wieden+Kennedy's latest efforts for Nike's "Hyperdunk" shoes and the company has in turn pulled a few of the ads....

Nike is strongly opposed to discrimination of any kind and has a long history of supporting athletes regardless of their sexual orientation. The advertisement in question is based purely upon a common insight from within the game of basketball - the athletic feat of dunking on the opposition, and is not intended to be offensive.

However, after listening to concerns expressed around specific executions, we have decided to drop them from the campaign to underline our ongoing commitment to supporting diversity in sport and the workplace.

Nike has a strong record of support for diversity and is proud to have been honored with a 100 percent score over several consecutive years in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's Corporate Equality Index.

I really have no idea how this spiraled out of control, but Nike has pulled the three ads seen within this post. While some sites like Out Sports don't seem to find a problem, in the end it's a good move. The ads seemed like a sloppy effort at best and certainly could be taken as perpetuating stereotypes. That's not something we need more of in Sports these days.


Nike drops three Hyperdunk ads (Oregon Live)
Some Nike crotch-to-the-face ads are catching "homophobic" heat (Out Sports)

This idea ranks just above Who's Now in the pantheon of stunts, but the more I watch it, the more I think it could be the worst of all time. Bayern Munich was unveiling their uniforms recently and they decided they would be best served by blasting some dramatic music and having women do a choreographed dance to it. From WL via SBB....

Good lord....that just kept going didn't it? Just when you thought it was over they just continued the crapiness. Seems like a lot of time wasted for a jersey that just says "T-Home" on it, but okay. I also loved the reaction of the reporters after the show as well. No one even moved. That was the epitome of fail right there.

F-Minus (With Leather)
Soccer Team Unveils New Jerseys, Hilarity Ensues (Sports by Brooks)

I know I'm not alone here in noticing that AOL's Fanhouse has seemingly recently received a bump in their advertising budget. At the beginning of the month, I noted that Fanhouse had a rotating ad on the scoring table at a WNBA game. Since then I've noticed them popping up everywhere. Even on other blogs.

Now I'm not against getting the word out there, but this is just a little bit more than weird. Fanhouse is advertising their Fantasy Football somethingorother and has featured ads on both The Big Lead and Deadspin....


I don't deny that some Sports Blogs reach a ton of people, but this campaign is more than just a bit curious. Outside of hitting up your friends for a spot on their site, I also have no idea what the campaign is about. Sure it's about Fantasy Football, but what does a cellphone and a shady looking motel have to do with the topic?

It's a very curious decision, but hey....whatever works right?

The WNBA Has Some Interesting Advertisers (Awful Announcing)

Everyone is anxiously counting down the days until the new Sports Center starts (okay not really) and we finally have an idea of how ESPN is going to market it. Get some random guy and put him on the air live....375 times between now and August 11th. Steve Braban is a 25 year old program coordinator but will soon be the star of the network. Via USA Today....

But next week, David Letterman's monologues might mention Braband's breakfasts. Starting Sunday, Braband will begin appearing daily in at least 25 30-second ESPN TV ads over 15 days — yes, at least 375 total ads — that will all be live.

The idea is to hype ESPN's new live SportsCenter weekday shows — from 9 a.m. ET to 3 p.m., hours that have been used for reruns from the night before — that will debut Aug. 11. Not coincidentally, that's the first weekday of the Beijing Olympics. Wieden & Kennedy, the Portland, Ore., ad agency that created Nike's famous ads and produces SportsCenter ads, suggested picking an ESPN employee who comes across as a fan.

More than 160 staffers showed up for an open casting call. Braband says he felt like he was "rushing through (his audition) like a big idiot. But they said everybody else was being like Johnny SportsCenter anchor. I was real. Plus, they got a big kick out of seeing I'd locked myself out of my car."

On the surface this seems like a ridiculous idea but the advertising firm W&K's recent ads have been outstanding. My hope is that the kid has a "Boom Goes the Dynamite" performance but whether he's good or not won't matter. Either way it'll bring attention to the new lineup.

Updated: ESPN sent along a picture of the guy so I added it above.

ESPN gives novice on-air role in ad campaign (USA Today)

I'm really being honest when I say that I don't go out of my way to pick on ESPN in any given day, but today is "special" (what are you gonna to do? [/shrugging shoulders]). It's the perfect storm of ESPN "News", nothing else going on and the timing of this blog thing. All day ESPN.com has displayed basically an advertisement for it's brand new Football Network and it's, well....big....


Pretty huh? To be honest, I'm not hating the content so far, but the thing is definitely a complete rip off of Pro Football Talk. You would think someone with an ESPN Credential would have more access, but as TBL pointed out yesterday, there are almost no opinions and really only one of the new "bloggers" is reporting from a training camp.

There are also zero links to any real blogs out there, but I could have told you that by just looking at the "Our Blogosphere" tag line on the front page of ESPN.com. There's obviously no specific format that a "blog" needs to follow, but I think they still have some work to do. Good use of the terminology though.

Taking Another Look at ESPN’s NFL Blog Network (The Big Lead)