Contact: Owen J. Dougherty
212-546-2551
odougherty@grey.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THE NFL UNVEILS SUPER BOWL COMMERCIALS
Lyrical Ads Celebrate the Athleticism of the Game and the Loyalty of Fans
New York, NY, February 4, 2010 – The National Football League today announced that it
will air three new TV commercials, a :60, :30 and :10 during Super Bowl XLIV on Sunday,
February 7, on CBS.
The new commercials are the latest chapter in the NFL’s highly successful integrated
brand campaign that debuted in August, unifying all its business units and properties
together with one consistent message for the first time in its history.
The campaign captures the ritual, the spectacle and the moments of truth when the NFL’s
extraordinary athletes put everything on the line and victory can come in a fraction of a
second with fans living each minute of the emotional journey.
“It has been an incredible year of football made even more spectacular by the passion and
loyalty of our fans," said Mark Waller, Chief Marketing Officer of the NFL. “We are using
advertising’s greatest stage, the Super Bowl, to thank them.”
In the :60 commercial, “Greatest Fans on the Planet,” high-resolution, slow-motion
imagery of the New Orleans Saints’ running back Reggie Bush hurtling through the air to
make a touchdown, one of the greatest football shots of all time, is combined with a
NASA-like T-minus 10, 9, 8, voice-over countdown to a rocket lift-off. The commercial
features quick cuts of rapt fans, old and young, for several NFL teams savoring the
moment. A simple slate ends the spot with the message, “To the best fans on the planet,
thank you” followed by the NFL heart-beat logo. The commercial will air at the end of the
third quarter of the game.
A :30 commercial, “All Four Seasons,” promotes NFL Network and NFL.com. The
message is that seasons may change but there’s always football and you can catch it on
NFL media. NFL players, Brett Favre of the Minnesota Vikings, Drew Brees of the New
Orleans Saints and Chris Johnson of the Tennessee Titans are featured intercut with
footage of the changing seasons courtesy of the BBC, including landscapes from their
award-winning ”Planet Earth.” Of Drew Brees, the spot says, “Before summer training
camp, who knew he’d be playing in the Super Bowl!” The commercial will air in half-time.
-more-
Another :10 commercial, “Draft Primetime” will air once in each half promoting the kick off
of the 2010 NFL Draft in prime time television for the first time ever. The 75th NFL draft will
air over three days on NFL Network and be featured prominently live on NFL.com—the
first round is on Thursday, April 22, at 7:30 p.m. ET, with the next two rounds on Friday
night at 6:30 p.m. ET and the final rounds, four through seven, on Saturday morning.
Developed by Grey New York, the campaign and Super Bowl commercials were shot
using a Phantom HD digital video camera that captures a thousand frames per second
and creates the striking slow-motion images which have won high praise from sports
enthusiasts. NFL Films, known for its leading edge cinematography over the decades,
shot all the film footage.
Tor Myhren, Chief Creative Officer of Grey New York said, “The campaign is based on a
pure, simple idea: own moments of truth that can only happen in the NFL. Hopefully,
these are moments that will stay with NFL fans for the rest of their lives.”
The soaring music featured in both commercials is called “Wake-Up,” a track by Arcade
Fire in their first commercial endeavor. The band, along with their record label Merge
Records, and licensing company Bank Robber Music, have donated their $200,000 fee to
Partners in Health for Haiti relief.
GREY| Famously effective since 1917 Grey New York is the flagship and largest office of Grey, a unit of Grey Group
http://www.grey.com. Grey Group ranks among the largest global communications companies. Its parent company is
WPP (NASDAQ: WPPGY). Grey New York's blue-chip client roster includes many of the world's best known companies:
Procter & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, Diageo, Darden Restaurants, Wyeth, Canon, 3M, Eli Lilly, Dairy Queen, E*Trade,
NFL and TJ Maxx.
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