Your Favo(u)rite Olympic Tv Commercials

[Durban Sandshark]

Two Canadian Olympic-themed commercials this year capturing the Olympic spirit using regular Canadians are featured in this post.

Across Canada from Vancouver to the Prairies to Niagara Falls to Toronto to Montreal to the Maritimes, handiman, apparently Rona, workers engage in a cross-Canada relay involving a blue screwdriver while paying tribute to various Olympic sports enduring various obstacles along the way to Enrico Morricone's "Estacy of Gold" in this 2012 Rona commercial. Rona, a Canadian Olympic Committee and CFL sponsor, is a home and hardware chain that rivals Home Hardware is like Hoem Depot and Lowe's here in the US.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvEQtdtDuQk

If you're a Canadian resident, you could've watch the 2012 London Olympics anytime, anywhere you go through Bell Canada, majority broadcaster of the Canadian Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium, online, on TV, and on mobile phones. mUsic by Zero 7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=980y8JihtIM

PS: It's Ennio Morricone, not Enrico

[Durban Sandshark]

Hard to realize now but the Miller Bewing Company famously out of Milwaukee was an actual sponsor of the then-recently built US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado back in 1983-84 and was a US Olympic Team sponsor. I remember a series of Miller commercials aired at that time leading up to Los Angeles focused on a prospective US Olympian (an actor, of course) training in more spartan conditions before boosting his performance and results as a result of being trained at the USOC Training Center that ultimately see him or her succeeding at last--I recall most the "That Kid's Out There Again" centering on a male track star. They're not there yet on YouTube, Daily Motion, or on Vimeo. But there is one here in a nod to patriotism announcing that the training center is now open helping the US Olympians in 1984 to "win the 1984 Games" with a guy rising who looks a little like Jeff Blatnick (RIP) to me in retrospect getting a VERY shiny and blinding (I guess) gold medal. You can barely see his likeness. Staring in 1984, Budweiser just took over that making us Americans forget Miller's contributions to the Olympics.

From that same era. Coca-Cola's salute to all the hard working men and women building, reviewing, and designing the venues of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics getting it all ready for the athletes, coaches, and trainers that came to LA as part of that famous "Coke Is It!" ad campaign that time. Go ahead guys, take that Coke break and enjoy!

[Durban Sandshark]

Two Coca-Cola 1984 Olympic commercials also from the "Coke Is It!" era. Both from the same shoot and theme but slightly different. Reminds me of that 1984 Earth Grains commercial from that same year with the athletes worldwide coming together outside of their sports. Never seen these before. The 1984 Olympians here come together and make friends at the Olympic Village after the Olympic day through their respective dances from their nations (USA, Brazil, Spain, Soviet Union, Greece) and sharing Cokes getting into the Olympic spirit. Obviously filmed before the Soviet boycott with the Soviet Olympian dancers appearing. The first one apparently was on Hong Kong (if not Japanese) TV and the second shown on Australian TV.

[Durban Sandshark]

I love this Adidas Team GB "Great Britain Take The Stage" London 2012 TV commercial so much starring Jessica Ennis, Louis Smith, Philipps Idowu, and Tom Daley from the London 2012 marketing thread I posted, it's definitely worth bringing in here! All but Idowu won medals in London out of this group. Only Ennis won gold.

Few Swedish athletes are as revered as Peter Forsberg in his nation. Foppa has done some commercials back in Swden as well as in the US/Canada. The Olympic hero from Lillehammer 1994 did a couple of TV commercials for Swedish supermaket or bread company AXA. This is one of them when he's with, I think, hurdler Susanna Kallur, eating and discussing the various breads AXA has with Sanna in the kitchen making open-faced sandwiches.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvSlfX9g3Vg

[Durban Sandshark]

All 2012 Adidas Great Britain Take The Stage comes back with the Adidas Originals version of the Olympics with grime rapper Wretch busting rhymes through the day all over in London eventually heading into a nighttime rooftop party. With cameo shots from Derrick Rose, Daley Thompson, David Beckham, Keith Lemon, and Louis Smith. Another one of my faves.

Marlene Esperenza, Mary Spencer, and Jennifer Kessey are all 2012 Olympic Cover Girls outlasting the competition

[Durban Sandshark]

ANZ, when it was sponsor of the Australian Olympic Federation (now the Australian Olympic Committee) back in 1984, saluted in this commercial not just all of Australia's great Olympians and Commonwealth athletes up to that point but also its other sports stars and those in other fields for being the best from such a remote nation to many. At the very beginning it shows the end of the anthems from the LA Olympics from Closing Ceremony that Network Ten Australia was showing live before cutting to the ANZ commercial.

Got a forgotten one for this. A French-Canadian Olympic Lottery commercial from 1975 whose objective was for the lottery funds from it would go towards raising C$8 million dollars for Canada's athletes in hopes of succeeding in Montreal. No gold for Canada in Montreal as hosts as we know though. Kinda like a precursor to Own The Podium for Vancouver and London.

[Durban Sandshark]

NBC commemorates its return to Olympic broadcasting back in 1988 (something that of course has never stopped and has only enlarged since with them) with a :10 promo telling US viewers to "come home" to it with significantly live primetime coverage. Would've done Moscow 1980 as its return but couldn't due to the boycott as we know. Aired during its NBC' broadcast of Sunday NFL football in early September on the final Sunday prior to the Games

[Durban Sandshark]

Still no more IBM Olympic commercials forthcoming that have arrived sine my thoughts on them. But there is this IBM commercial centering on fencing. Specifically if you're so inclined, epee fencing. This "silly" 1996 IBM fencing commercial aired during the Atlanta Olympics was uploaded by "NekoTayTai" that stars two of his former fencing teachers Vadim and Gago. Yet, their forms are gorgeous, Neko says. Emphasizing the "small planet" portion in IBM's campaign, the dialogue, over IBM processing each other's unfavorable/silly info, is all in French, but it's not them speaking it. The scripted French conversation was later overdubbed by actors.

A brief PSA from German speed skater Anni Friesenger for World AIDS Day

[Durban Sandshark]

Go behind the scenes in the making of that RONA 2012 Canadian Olympic relay commercial

Exactly the same RONA TV commercial but this is the French version that was shown on V, RDS, RDS2, and likely on TVA and TVA Sports

[Durban Sandshark]

Michael Jordan, one of THE greatest pop culture icons ever not just in sports and member of both the 1984 and 1992 US Olympic basketball teams, turns--would you believe?--50 next month during the NBA All-Star Weekend! Let's go back to where it all started back in 1985 when as a rookie he launched with Nike the Air Jordan sneaker and companion apparel line. In fact, the OG gear and OG sneakers are now reproduced and was rereleased last weekend! In fact, the first Air Jordans are lovlingly nicknamed the OGs! These are two commercials, both featuring airplane sounds and references, from 1985 that changed the face of sneakers and sportswear forever. The first one includes the now-famous image of him soraing to the hoop that's now his Jordan Brand Jumpman logo. "Who says man wasn't meant to fly?" We certainly believed afterwards.

He'll definitely return to this soon!

[Durban Sandshark]

Australia's first Winter Olympic gold medalist (and a member of Australia's first Winter Olympic medal as part of the men's short track relay team in Lillehammer 1994 with a bronze) Steven Bradbury promotes his hometown Brisbane's IceWorld, where he got his start.

Speaking of starts, Austria swimmer Mirna Jukic, settling into Austria after a brief time in her Bosnian birthplace, got hers and found her niche into swimming as she developed into a world-class swimmer through Osterreichische Sporthilfe (Austrian Sport Aid), a non-profit sports organization that helps and identifies young world class talent for Austria while teaching them important values. Values she endorses herself. Mirna happens to be one of the more notable Austrian athletes that benefitted from Osterreichische Sporthilfe. And so you see that reflected in all you see of her is in that 1995 photo of her celebrating with her swimming trophy from her nascent swimming career while hearing the ORF soundtrack of the call when Mirna swam to bronze in Beijing. Austria could've used her for London. Too bad Austria got shut out of the medals for the first time since Tokyo 1964, which was embarassing.

Yes, Mirna stands on top of the medal podium in that photo

[Durban Sandshark]

Tunisie Telecom, sponsor of the 2012 Tunisian Olympic team, presents Tunisia's top handball star and London OC flagbearer Heykel Megannem doing damage to his opponents en route to the goal in a gritty indoor version of street handball (Why are the Vimeo videos small in comparison to YouTube's and Daily Motion's?).

http://vimeo.com/46484344

Also showing no mercy in her sport through her dominance is another OC flagbearer from London. Argentina's top field hockey star from the silver medalists Les Leonas Luciana Aymar for Gatorade in a 2008 commercial. But it's more in a practice/workout mode compared to Megannem's situation.

[Durban Sandshark]

Sorry, that's Las Leonas. Must regard the gender prefixes of "the".

Lucha's back this time stumping for hometown of Rosario, Argentina in its 2019 Pan American Games bid campaign. In this case to get at least 1 million signatures.

Another Rosario product--and a far bigger name in the global sports world--is that goal scoring machine genius named Leo Messi. Doing the same brief word for word statement to get Rosario's 2019 Pan Am bid a success. Obviously, Rosario surely is more than proud to have these two world class athletes at the top of their games from that city.

[Durban Sandshark]

French handball legend Jackson Richardson (definitely not a typical French name) performing random acts of kindness along the way--even later for himself--in his French overseas territory home of Reunion for French telecommunication company Orange's Campagne Coach there.

From one French sports star to another. Louisa Necib has been called the "female Zidane" as one of the top stars in the women's game. She certainly has several things in common with Zizou: same Algerian heritage, same hometown (Marseille), mutual love of soccer, appearances for Les Bleues, even same athletic endorser in Adidas, and both got immense mad skillz on the pitch. I like to think they've already met and discussed those things. Necib is flattered by the comparisons as a source of "pride", but she's quick to say she's her own person. Playing for top UEFA women's champion league team Olympique Lyonnais with other notable European stars like Lotta Schelin will make that a dream team of sorts. In this Adidas commercial she discusses training and working hard.

[Durban Sandshark]

Finally got a Norwegian entry in this! Does getting injured--or better yet, faking an injury--allows you lots of time to relax and enjoy a hot dog on the bench? The now back to back Olympic gold medalists Norwegian women's handball team certainly think so in this hilarious 2008 commercial for Gilde hot dogs. All but one of them pretending (hence the song "The Great Pretender") just to have one. So much so, play had to stop.

Jarome Iginla, Gillian Apps, Dion Phaneuf, Janya Hefford, and Jordan Eberle among others all don't give a f--- about destiny explaining why as they instead work and practice saying "we do" in this excellent Nike Canada Hockey's "Destiny/Force Fate" 2010 commercial for Nike's Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010 campaign. Music by TV on the Radio's "Wolf Like Me", which was later used by the Toronto Blue Jays' 2012 get your tickets commercial. You'll see actual wolves on the ice!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9KctxKiO4w

[Durban Sandshark]

Another handball entry. Can't yet find the Orangina drink commercial featuring another back-to-back gold medal handball powerhouse here--The French men. But I hope that I will soon. For now, the behind the scenes look at the commercial (or publicite/pub, as the French would say) they did will suffice.

[Durban Sandshark]

Sir Chris Hoy, Britain's most successful Olympian having now surpassed Sir Steven Redgrave, one of Scotland's favorite sons, and London 2012 OC flagbearer for Team GB, pitches for Gillette ProGlide Fusion line of products narrarating about having great starts. Products I enjoy very much too. Song is "Divenire" by Ludovico Einaudi.

See how relentless the Canadian Olympians are in training and in their passion leading up to London. The 2012 Canadian Olympic Team's "Give Your Everything" campaign ("Tout Donner" in French) starring the women's soccer team with Christine Sinclair, Mary Spencer (boxer), Paula Findlay (triathlon), Ryan Cochrane (swimming), Alexandre Despatie (diving), Julia Wilkinson (swimming), Adam van Koeverden (kayak), and Jennifer Abel (diving). Music: "Trouble" by We Are Wolves. The Toronto Blue Jays had a similar commercial last year for their tickets with its top players practicing hard at spring training for the then-upcoming season. So maybe there was some inspiration for this.

[Durban Sandshark]

Time now for two Olympic female gold medalists from the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics in this post!

Kim Yu-Na, South Korea's biggest star outside of PSY and any of those K-Pop stars out, has fun with Lacvert Ice Kiss lipstick in a commercial that aired before winning gold in Vancouver.

How snowboarder Torah Bright uses HP ePrint from whereever she is and sends them back down to Australia. We're starting to see that Australian Winter Olympic pedigree at work here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABMLfp93Fq8

[Durban Sandshark]

Staying with Australia here. Susie O'Neill and Kirsty Marshall (along with Greg Norman and a Wallaby star whose name I can't get right now--help me Sir Roltel!) star in this mid-90s Qantas commercial (circa 1996-1997) with the ever ubiquitous "I Still Call Australia Home". No Qantas Children's Choir here though.

[Sir Rols]

a Wallaby star whose name I can't get right now--help me Sir Roltel!)

John Eales, our last RWC winning captain!

Real Australiana - pity Qantas has moved away from the "Still Call Australia Home" ads and identity - but still, when they're outsourcing all their maintenance to Singapore ...

[mattygs]

A Maccas New Zealand ad , one with a very identifiable theme for antipodeans - based around *proud supporters of everyone staying up*.

Also of note is the commentary in the spot is done by Kiwi Olympic broadcaster Brendan Telfer

[micheal_warren]

A Maccas New Zealand ad , one with a very identifiable theme for antipodeans - based around *proud supporters of everyone staying up*.

Also of note is the commentary in the spot is done by Kiwi Olympic broadcaster Brendan Telfer

This is a good advert! Good old Brendan Telfer... I missed his commentary of the Athletics in London. His replacement on Sky (I cant remember his name) was terrible and made errors all over the place.

[Durban Sandshark]

I chuckled when I

[Durban Sandshark]

I chuckled all the way through when I saw this very good McDonald's commercial! Surely, I know you Antipodeans can relate to watching the Olympics live on TV when it's late at night for you, many times over. I wonder does the family know about DVRs that SKY offers to work around that? Still. there's nothing better than seeing the Olympics live. I can relate to covering the TV with bedsheets and quilts so that only I can watch for hours on end as a kid. Thanks Mattygs!

You know the Olympics on TV have gone heavily commercial back in the late 80s and early 90s when, during the third commercial break in the first hour of NBC's daily Olympic primetime coverage, it will kickstart that commercial break with MCI presenting Seoul: The Last 24 Hours--Let Us Show You with :20 of highlights of the previous day's highlights set to symphony music. This was the case to Barcelona and Atlanta. Then, in 2000, NBC went to Coca-Cola doing this with U2's hit at the time "Beautiful Day" and changed the music for Salt Lake City to another artist on that. Since then, it had been McDonald's. Correct me on some of the details if I miss them.

Shown on Mexican TV on the likes of Televisa, TV Azteca, and TVC, this Ana Guevara Nike commercial was shown a short time after she won silver in Athens 2004 celebrating her accomplishment

French pole vaulter Jean Galfione just can't enough of that Danette yougurt...and tries to sing too!

John Eales, our last RWC winning captain!

Real Australiana - pity Qantas has moved away from the "Still Call Australia Home" ads and identity - but still, when they're outsourcing all their maintenance to Singapore ...

Thanks Sir Rols!

[Durban Sandshark]

I definitely miss Yao Ming. One of my alltime favorite NBA players and a great guy. Wish he was still playing and not have the foot injuries curtail that. Yao was like the people's champ for the Chinese basketball scene and everytime he played, be it with the Shanghai Sharks, the Houston Rockets, or in the Chinese red, people stopped and watched. Already the best Asian basketball player ever in the NBA far and away, he deserved a better and longer pro career than he had. Like winning an NBA title and going deep in the playoffs, he'd still at his prime now if that was the case. No disrespect intended but Yi Jianlian, Sun Yue, Wang Zhi Zhi, and Mengke Bateer all paled in comparision.

As one of the local Chinese faces globally for Beijing, he ends up getting a shooting challenge in the playground from a boy who wants his Coke in this 2008 Chinese Coca-Cola commercial. Kinda reminds me of that 1993 Shaq Pepsi commercial when he tries in vain to get the last Pepsi bottle that the boy ultimately has.

Yao is held back by an invisible and sticky force field on his way to another powerful dunk. But drinking Gatorade helps him gain strength to fight it. There's a surprise foe awaiting for Yao coming at the end (HINT: not Michael Jordan)!