Your Favo(u)rite Olympic Tv Commercials

[Durban Sandshark]

Petro-Canada comemorative limited edition Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic glass mugs engage in the beloved sport of curling for the purchase of C$3.99 to help support Canadian Olympic athletes. Man, I miss those Games...

When people think of David Robinson's endorsements, the Navy (of course) and Nike (think the Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood series) instantly come to mind. And to a lesser extent that 1992 Kellogg's Corn Flakes Dream Team edition commercial where you could get a Team USA jacket with proofs of purchase (get to that soon). But this is one of the lesser known endorsements the Dream Teamer had with Casio. See, he plays music with the sax and the keyboards in a jazz band, especially early in his career. A keyboard that happens to be a Casio one. But the 1991 commercial here is all about the series of advanced (at the time) digital sports-oriented watches in comparing their qualities to his.

[Durban Sandshark]

The Olympics no doubt are one of those sports events that captures lots of people's attention the world over gathering around in front of the TV to watch from Japan to Italy to the USA--the medal stand also coincides with those nations here. The Every Superbowl Ad YouTube channel just uploaded this 1984 Olympic-themed commercial that premiered during CBS' Super Bowl XVIII telecast--you know, the same one that showed the world-famous Apple 1984-themed Macintosh commercial (and forever changed the face of Super Bowl commercials) and the LA Raiders thrashed the Washington Redskins down in Tampa--with the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics starting to catch people's attention. IBM, Apple's rival surely, was an Olympic sponsor back then and was known to be very international in its commercials even then. We still have yet to see many of those IBM Olympic athletes profile commercials from 1998-2000 pop up on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wQJOgVtmww

Peru makes its debut on this thread here. Xoom, the Peruvian branch of the San Francisco-based digital money transfer comapny here, is a proud sponsor of the Peruvian Olympic Team. Showing a few of the 2012 Peruvian Olympic team members like swimmer Mauricio Riol Villeneuva, runner Gladys Tejada, and rower Victor Aspillaga with regular Peruvians getting behind them with the "Let's Go Peru" campaign in support by participating in their respective sports. During July of last year Xoom Peru donated a dollar in support of Peruvian Olympic athletes program for every digital money transfer in Peru, if I got that right.

[Durban Sandshark]

Top Canadian goalie Shannon Szabados on the value of eating right and customizing fresh food you want to eat to be at your best, either repping for Canada or for the NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology) Ooks men's team, with the help of Mongolie Grill in Edmonton.

[Durban Sandshark]

One of Latvia finest basketball exports, Gunta Basko. Led Latvia to a 2008 Beijing Olympics basketball appearance. She supports the Nike Riga Run 10km. Too bad it's only :15 long

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2UEDSFMFuc

Back when the uberpopular Bud Light beer was still very new (came into existence for two years prior, note the commercial here still sung it as Budweiser Light), the beer became a notable sponsor for Team USA back in 1984. Strange that this great 1984 commercial directed by Joe Pytka centering on two local cops discovering a St. Cloud, Minnesota family still asleep in their camper on the side of the road on their journey back from the Los Angeles Olympics never aired; it would've granted some type of wonderful closure to the 1984 Olympic campaign. One of the cops smile upon seeing the LA Olympic program and comments on the Closing Cermony with his partner getting back to their car.

[Durban Sandshark]

Jeremy Wariner stretching and warming up at the track in fast motion in a quickie 2008 Adidas commercial for Beijing (note the traditional Chinese music) entitled Gold is Never a Given

[Durban Sandshark]

I'm in a bit of a Coca-Cola retro flashback mood right now as I write this next post on Olympic-related commercials. I just watched some vids on the controversial and ill-fated 1985 Coke formula flop. So that got me going about seeking Coke Olympic commercials from the 1980s. Just found this one from Canada in 1987 with Canadian alpine skier Jim Read discussing, like plenty of others in Coke commercials before and since, the bonding of making wonderful friends from other nations through Coca-Cola Classic--and in his case, skiing in (West) Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and France (he mentions not speaking French and German except for Coca-Cola) with the Calgary Winter Olympics looming. Read finished 13th in Calgary, BTW.

From 1988: Coca-Cola by then had this very catchy and popular slogan "Can't Beat The Feeling" and the lyrics that and similar to many others Coca-Cola did in various commercials on diverse themes at the time (1988-91) surrounding the slogan, partly to suggest their original Coca-Cola Classic formula is authentic and sensational. Former athletes, actors, and models all taking part in various Olympic sports, many of which wear USA on them, in this montage. No doubt shown during NBC's Seoul 1988 Summer Olympic broadcast and on the CBC's

[Durban Sandshark]

Mo Farrah, one of the darlings of the London 2012 Olympics and not just for Team GB--well, actually for alltime Olympics, doing what he does best: endurance through running in a pack and then striding home for victory with the help of Lucozade. No Lucozade here in the US and Canada--we got Gatorade, Powerade, and All Sport.

Lindsay Vonn successfully tests Under Armour's latest Cold Gear at Dick's Sporting Goods winter downhill skiing/cold gear abuse simulator. Don't think she can convince Tiger to ditch Nike and come to Under Armour--they have their own golf gear. Do like their stuff, particularly the Cold Gear, the Storm Charged Cotton, and the UA Elite backpacks.

[Durban Sandshark]

One in a series of Bell Canada commercials for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics that was played on CTV, TSN, Rogers Sportsnet, APTN, MuchMusic, and OLN. A Canadian couple is more excited watching the Canada-Sweden hockey game and taking photos on their phone with Canada winning than their Swedish guests, who are struck and dumbfounded at how all pro-Canada it all is and are mute throughout.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn9NrmKnNa8

[Durban Sandshark]

Lauren Jackson, one of Australia's basketball shining lights, appreciates what qualities and the game plan David Sanders Homes brings to her in what she seeks in her home.

[Durban Sandshark]

The Turkish women's volleyball team led by Neslihan Darnel is back in another commercial from one of its principal sponsors VakifBank

1970 Head Skis commercial starring skiing legend Jean Claude Killy who thought about "funny things" like beautiful women and wine going down the slopes. Not exactly funny things being a guy coming from France.

[Durban Sandshark]

The one and only Nadia Comeneci, Ilie Nastase, and Gheorghe Hagi all invite you to their nation of Romania with all of its diversity. Each of them transitioning to the other from a realm or aspect they know so well.

Definitely one of the more iconic Michael Jordan commercials. The full 1992 Be Like Mike Gatorade commercial in all of his cheer, charisma, and confidence. Nothing was the same since. Now it's a slogan. He had recently left Coca-Cola for Gatorade back then--and even sang this song after a Dream Team scrimmage in Monte Carlo in victory to taunt his older teammates with. The song itself is adapted from a Jungle Book song

[Durban Sandshark]

Would've liked to touch on this during Sochi 2014. But didn't for various reasons. But it's now bumped back up with a new duo of commercials to savor...

This one's hilarious. Argentina's basketball gold medalist Manu Ginobili and bronze medalist Tim Duncan (both from Athens, good friends, and still San Antonio Spurs teammates) are denied entry to teammate friend and French basketball star Tony Parker's exclusive cookout of his H-E-B Prime 1 steaks that the Spurs Coyote is cooking at Tony's house and are not on the list. Meanwhile to add insult to injury, Spurs coach (and 2004 USA assistant coach) Gregg Popovich, who certainly knows a thing or two about international basketball, gets entry through the velvet rope with no effort at all! To those not familiar with H-E-B, especially outside the US, it's a major supermarket chain in the San Antonio area, South Texas, and even has some in northern Mexico that has a longstanding relationship with the Spurs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8RslFT-U7s

The beautiful Carolina Kostner skates through a huge field of various Grissin Bon snacks and collect them for her enjoyment and savor. Little bizarre but a little like being in Candy Land.

[Durban Sandshark]

Now, my German that I took back in my high schools days with last three of those four years at the IB level is rusty and more than can use a refresher. But this is German handball superstar, Olympic medalist, and former boyfriend to Franziska Van Almsick Stefan Kretzschmar comes by munching on a chocolate-covered vanilla ice cream bar on a stick at the beach while this German woman sitting beside him talks about Pricevergliech.de, a German internet search engine for price item comparisons, among other things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm49jVUxI4g

Inspired by a hotel receptionist nearby, Dirk Nowitzki shoots pebbles at glasses from a faraway distance at a hotel lobby in a ING DiBa commercial for non-retail branchless and direct banking services and its rates for its "DiBaDu" campaign. ING DiBa is a sponsor of the Deutchse Basketball Bund.

[Durban Sandshark]

Cola Cao is not a chocolate soda, as one might think, but a chocolate powder used with milk (and possibly water) to make rich cocoa. Back in 1992 with the Barcelona Summer Olympics in full swing and even up to that, it was an official sponsor for those games. The commercial you see here from 1989 makes the official announcement of said sponsorship or partnership, if you prefer..

Yi Jianlian may be among the current faces of Chinese basketball right now, like when he carried the Chinese flag in London. But based on his NBA career with Milwaukee, New Jersey, Dallas, and Washington, Yi and much of Chinese basketball presently is not quite of the same class the nation enjoyed with Yao Ming, Wang Zhi Zhi, Mangke Bateer, Sun Yuen, or even back to Song Tao. He's now back in China for the Guangdong Southern Tigers and doing well there. He's a good looking guy, and in this lengthy commercial for milk (company says short drama film) with him meeting cute with singer/actress Liu Yifei and Thai actress Taew (real name Nuttaporn Temeerak), it can leave the impression that things would be better with milk after while either heartbroken or having endured a bike collision. Not surprisingly here, Liu is pursuing a music career while her girlfriend Taew has basketball dreams. There's even this cheesy text message about the three of them being together (take that for what you will)!

[Durban Sandshark]

Michael Johnson going all light shade of purple and lower-case lettering graphics in the hot, dry, cracked land with his Nike Huarache running sneakers. This was 1992, after all

[Durban Sandshark]

Belgian snowboarder Seppe Smits for Etixx Sports Nutrition and reveals how it helped him recover and repair

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ89HnREAss

[Team USA]

That Coke ad where all the people get their medals They've been showing that for years

[Durban Sandshark]

Well, so far I couldn't find much in the way of a Janet Evans commercial. Up until around the late 1990s, she had a Bull Frog swimmer shampoo endorsement to go along with Buick, Speedo, and Ray-Ban. Not quite a commercial per se so but more resembling a infommercial testimonial on a product that apparently improves on what Bull Frog used to do with Reflect H2O Swim Hair Care set. She loves it so much, she got even her family into it.

As part of the large and worldwide Sochi Samsung Galay Team, legendary luger and Sochi 2014 Italian flagbearer Armin Zoeggler knows what it takes to stay among the top in that sport in an advanced age with all the training and finishing high at the track...and while still communicating with a Samsung Galaxy S4

[Durban Sandshark]

Legendary Swiss ski jumping multiple gold medalist Simon Ammann quietly stacks multicolored cone-like blocks sitting on a Euro-style beach seat in a brief French commercial for Swiss insurance company Helvetia Assurances. He almost looks unrecognizable without his glasses here:

When he was a rising star in the NHL back in the 1990s having already won a Stanley Cup with his equally legendary teammate Mario Lemieux in Pittsburgh for the Penguins, Jaromir Jagr with his ready-made hockey mullet already achieved stardom coming out of Kladno, Czech Republic. In what may seem odd to us, Jagr pitched for Bubble Tape for the Czech market at that time in this flashback. Bubble Tape was a pretty huge deal back then...Oh, how we forget now. Surely, it sold well there, especially with his likeness on it for four different flavors. On the other hand, he had his own peanut butter too that sold well. But that was for the Pittsburgh market, as far as I know:

[Durban Sandshark]

Melbourne's own basketball legend Andrew Gaze in his Boomers uniform shows off his buzzer-beating shooting skills driving through the busy Kmart aisles in this 2000 Kmart TV commercial--with him doing his own pretend play-by-play against the US. Surprised to discover that Kmart down in Australia in 2000 held and sold the largest array of official Sydney 2000 merchandise for purchase in its host games. How did that happen? I would expect stores like David Jones or Grace Brothers or Target. Looks like at the very end, there's a quick shot of Susie O'Neill if I'm not mistaken.

By far one of my favorite soccer commercials! In 1998, Nike filmed this commercial involving the Brazilian soccer team to commemorate the CBF having the swoosh as its official athletic outfitter (still with it to this day) in time for the World Cup in France. Noted HK director John Woo directed this with Romario (1988 Olympian) and Ronaldo, Cafu, Lucio, Denilson, Roberto Carlos, and Edmundo at the Rio De Janeiro International Airport all bored until Ronaldo decides to perk up his teammates with some impromptu soccer ball fun throughout the airport. Sergio Mendes' "Mas Que Nada" is the soundtrack. This is the full version.

[Durban Sandshark]

30 years ago at this time, US TV viewers on ABC (and very likely on CBS, NBC, independent TV stations, and cable networks) witnessed an Olympic themed commercial from Coca-Cola saluting all the athletes (models and actors, really) from all over the world ready to come together at Los Angeles for the Olympic Games. Except for the fact this multicultural crew of various heritages here are all donning Team USA sweaters being a very multicultural and multiracial national team and were at the foot of New York's Statue of Liberty

Florent Manaudou, Laure's gold-medal winning brother in London at the pool, publicizes his own collection line of Ice Watches, preparing for a practice run

[Durban Sandshark]

In celebration of the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics 30th anniversary, I like to present a couple more Olympic TV commercials from 1984.

Michelob Beer and the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics both surely "speak for themselves", saluting the US athletes. It was at this time that A-B ending up taking over as USOC sponsor from Miller. You don't really hear much from Michelob Beer much these days, let alone with the Olympics.

Even if you have to raise up the volume all the way, you'll still won't hear much in this 1984 Xerox Olympics commercial about a runner with a Xerox bib as the official copier and faxer of Los Angeles

[Durban Sandshark]

A short animated :21 Chiquita bananas British TV commercial from 1980 promoting its Winter Olympics competition by winning the sports equipment of your choice . All the while Britain was still debating whether or not it should attend the Moscow Summer Olympics, which it of course eventually did. Funny, I thought much of Britain's bananas came from its Caribbean Commonwealth members. Maybe Chiquita has operations too in Belize (formerly British Honduras, which was a year away from independence and located along the Central American isthmus).

When Britain was just getting into the video boom back in the 1980s, the Olympics was definitely one of those mega events Brits just want to record and watch over and over. Even if one such Brit person here in this 1984 Sharp VC-8381 VCR commercial leaves his training, workout, and performance for Los Angeles overall something to be much desired in comparison to the actual athletes soon to compete. Rather than watching it all on his VCR. So that was why he worked and limbered so hard at all. But that's part of the humour in this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw2scvKGgQc

[Durban Sandshark]

Greek basketball legend Fanis Christodoulou, who played for the beloved Eurobasket 1987 champs, the first Greek Olympic basketball team in 1996 at Atlanta, and longtime star at Greek basketball club Paninios, stars in a commercial for Eurobasket 87 puffy snack that supposedly resemble small basketballs with him straightforwardly shooting and dunking:

Another one of those solemn and understatingly inspiring 1984 LA Olympics-themed commercials from Bud Light, proud sponsor of the 1984 US Olympic Team. The crack of dawn and Caldwell father and son farm tandem like to do things early and don't shut down briefly for something different. This time though, with the Olympic flame passing by, they do and applaud at the Olympic spirit along the lonely road with them as the sole spectators. With the way how torch relays are organized now, they start when everybody's more likely to be up and lining along the road, well into the daytime hours instead of being at dawn:

[Durban Sandshark]

The LA Olympic Torch escort apparently seems modest back in 1984 in that Bud Light commercial compared to what we see nowdays.

IBM in South Korea promotes then-new and advanced IBM 5550 PC that was used for not just the 1988 Seoul Olympics but also for the 1987 Asian Games also held in Seoul to bring faster and up-to-the-minute results and info with (supposed) Olympic/Asian Games action ties with the aid of the Alan Parsons Project's "Sirius". Even then with new computers when they hit the market, they're already outdated:

Popular German Winter Olympians speedskater Anni Freisinger and biathlete Kati Wilhelm get a taxi driver's attention and discuss how they pay with everything through DKB-Cash that takes of everything they need without the aid of a credit/debit card or traveler's checks in this 2007 DKB "Taxi" commercial. DKB now operates under the Bayern LB umbrella if not completely absorbed. Kati's taxi whistle takes no effort at all: