Let’s talk about using sports figures in your advertising. In honor of the World Series I’m going to focus on baseball players. I have to watch the commercials since my Phillies won’t be playing; the commercials are the only thing I care about at this point.
One of the commercials that was running frequently during the playoffs for the NLCS and ALCS playoffs was with NY Yankees Joe Girardi and Mariano Rivera.
The commercials are for Taco Bell and feature the coach taking away a taco that is too big for the customer to eat and instead he brings in Rivera as a sub to eat it for him. The commercial was running at the same time the Yankees were trying to win the ALCS against the Texas Rangers, but they ultimately lost.
The commercial is cute but now that the Yankees are out of the running is it going to be worth airing. That can be the problem when you put a sport figure in and the team doesn’t perform. You have to decide if people will still be interested in the product if it’s endorsed by players who aren’t contenders anymore. The next challenge when you deal with athletes is that all their talent can be on the field and not acting. For the perfect example of that check out the series of commercials Comcast runs with Cole Hamels. He is a great pitcher who is also a World Series winner. Cole is athletic, talk and handsome but his commercials can be painful to watch.
What do you think? Do you think athletes make you more or less likely to want to use the product?
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