(The days of Bruce Jenner turning decathlon gold into fame were long gone.) Carl Lewis? Michael Johnson? Nope. Here was a major marketing campaign built around two athletes from a second-tier track event. The whole thing was an oddity from the start and that's what made it so damn compelling. Dan and Dave would become the greatest cautionary tale in sports advertising. And then, in the span of a few minutes on a hot, sticky New Orleans day, everything crashed and burned. They've helped them become the best, after all. It was all "to be settled in Barcelona." Oh, and while you root for them, notice that they're wearing Reebok cross trainers and Pumps. Are you for Dan or Dave? Better yet, root for both.
The hook was simple and downright brilliant: Here are two guys fighting to become crowned the greatest athlete in the world. America had fallen in love with Dan and Dave. Starting with ads run during Super Bowl XXVI, Reebok put all its eggs in the baskets of two guys no one had ever heard of before, running commercial after commercial hyping their impending showdown and selling some sneakers along the way. Sports and advertising had never seen anything like it.
Over an innovative eight-month, $30 million ad campaign, Reebok groomed unknown decathletes Dan (O'Brien) and Dave (Johnson) into American sports heroes who would medal in the Summer Olympics in Barcelona and, most importantly, push Reebok back ahead of Nike in the ongoing sneaker wars. Heck, it was one of the biggest advertising campaigns in the history of sports.
It was the biggest advertising campaign in track and field history.
0 kommentar(er)
