Your Favo(u)rite Olympic Tv Commercials

[Durban Sandshark]

Carl Lewis sprinting in slo-mo in a mid-1980s Japanese TV commercial for the Fuji Xerox 1075 copier set to sax music normally reserved for movie sex scenes. Has to be somewhere between 1984-1986 for this one. Also what we simply call Xerox here was/is Fuji Xerox in the Asia-Pacific as it's a joint brand venture with Fuji Photo Film to develop, produce, and sell there as Fuji holds a majority 75% stakeholding

An 8-minute+ compilation of 12 commercials featuring Brazilian soccer superstar Neymar, who competed for Brazil in London 2012, from Police, Lifebuoy, Sabritas Potato Chips (known as Lay's here in North America, note the logo), Rexona (known as Degree in NA), WeChat, Guarana Antartica Black soda, Clear Men shampoo, Volkswagen (with Thomas Mueller in back-to-back dribbling duels with a Pele cameo in the second), Nike Brasil, Angfa Scalp-D Japan, and Heliar. Some of them are funny.

[Durban Sandshark]

With Super Bowl 50 less than a couple hours away in Santa Clara, California, I think this will be a great time to bring back one of the classic and beloved Super Bowl TV commercials with the 1993 McDonald's one from Super Bowl XXXVII with Jordan and Bird playing H-O-R-S-E with each challenge shot getting progressively ridiculous than the last entitled "The Showdown":

Tonight during Super Bowl 50 brings Abby Wambach and Serena Williams along with Tony Hawk, Randy Johnson, Harvey Keitel, T-Pain, and a few others in BMW's Mini USA Super Bowl commercial in a campaign about defying labels for themselves. I long thought Abby was a Jeep girl and even drove one as a fave for her. Guess she switched over. Mini surely paid her lots of money to endorse and drive:

[Durban Sandshark]

Been seeing that brand new Under Armour USA gymnastics commercial lately starring MyKayla Skinner, Maggie Nichols, and Madison Kocian, 18 undergo rigorous training in the early hours of the morning and then again late night, practicing their moves at the gym in a series of intense exercises and displaying their incredible upper body strength climbing ropes and continuous backflips repeatedly set to MIA's "Matangi" that dropped over a week ago before determined to conquer the world at the arena in competition in their leotards? If you haven't or like to see it again that's part of its "Rule Yourself" campaign likely for the Olympics, here it is. Shows that it's intense and never easy being a world-class gymnast. Very original here:

As part of T-Mobile's Fave 5 campaign roughly a decade ago, Dwayne Wade and Charles Barkley are at a Chinese restaurant and are petrified at the sight of the live shrimp served to them that Yao Ming strongly encourages them to "eat the head" via a T-Mobile phone (along with the waiter and chef). BTW, the Chinese don't eat live shrimp for the record, though it is hysterical to see Sir Charles' and D-Wade's reactions to it and is made up to make it funny:

[Chateau Petrus]

Not really a TV commercial, but you have to watch this one with two guys of the Canadian Bobsleigh Team

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=friF6s2z4cg

[Durban Sandshark]

Andrew Gaze is back here in a more recent commercial on Australian TV. To many in the Australian basketball sphere, he's still the man. His good-natured demeanor certainly helps in this commercial for Voltaren that helps in relieving back pain, mostly set in an exercise class in Melbourne. Think I can see the Olympic-standard swimming pool in the background

[Durban Sandshark]

Exceptional commercial Nike Greece just put up in the lead-in towards Rio 2016 with the Swoosh making an allusiory nodding comment on the impact the devastating depression-level Greek economic crisis on Greece's athletes and the increasingly-derelict abandoned expensive Athens venues. Really sad to see it happen to all that, as mentioned elsewhere here on these boards. Admirable to inspire Greek youth (and some old people for that matter) to be positive and empowered in the midst of these dire fiscal circumstances like slashed pay to reduce massive debt and high unemployment that aren't favorable and take charge of their futures by using sports. But this Nike commercial doesn't explicitly confront those things like the financial crisis and its horrible byproducts it oversimplifies. Maybe it's not expected to. Bootstrapping through empowerment just doesn't seem effective enough (as painful to admit at times), even when it's accompanied with high Hollywood production values of thunder and lightning and beating war drums as soundtracks. Ultimately, it's to sell Nike's wares, making the context of this commercial with its famous slogan a little awkward being the home of its namesake, the Goddess of Victory.

Anyway, it stars Milwaukee Bucks star and Greek basketball Olympic hopeful Giannis Antetokounmpo, swimmer Eleni Hatzimitrou, Paralympic runner Michalis Seitis, and pole vaulter (and bronze medalist) Nikoleta Kyriakopulou prepare to hone their craft in those disrepaired facilities with a Greek voiceover spitting defiance building tension:

Diana Taurasi just getting through the morning in her home with the help of Eight O'Clock Coffee. Not seen as much these days

[mattygs]

Air New Zealand has launched a series of tv/net spots in the lead up to Rio featuring Air NZ flight crew hanging out with Olympians .

The promotion, * Proud to be mates with New Zealand's greats* features the likes of Valerie Adams, Hamish Bond and Eric Murray etc etc.

This one features sailings Peter Burley and Blair Tuke.

Not only two talented guys, but it's filmed where I live

[Durban Sandshark]

Andy Murray ready to have "time to play" after working out on the SoCal beach for Rado watches

We're all still saddened--including myself--over the passing of The Greatest over the weekend. But here's something that will make us all smile a little about him and who I will talk about. At this point, he couldn't well. This has got to be a commercial from the early-to-mid 1990s that also stars his old late trainer Angelo Dundee (who died in early 2012) that brought the two together again for this. After a tough training session his pupil couldn't get right and thus got frustrated, Angelo and his pupil head out to Pizza Hut and much to their pleasant surprise, the two get a pan compliments of Ali, that makes the young boxer instantly realize who Dundee was, as a return for Dundee's motivation and kindness. Just like Muhammed:

[Durban Sandshark]

Can't forget about The Greatest pitching D-Con Four Gone roach killer spray back in 1979. Certainly he didn't want us living with roaches. And I used to live with roaches growing up...

[Rob2012]

I'm liking Samsung's School of Rio ads (they did similar ones with Jack Whitehall for the Rugby World Cup last year)

 

 

 

 

[Durban Sandshark]

               Size 

Back after several months--and I wish that this was done during the Olympics as far as my involvement was concerned. The latest San Antonio Spurs H-E-B TV commercial hit. They're always hilarious whenever the Spurs are involved. Rio 2016 basketball Olympians Manu Ginobili and his new fellow Spanish-speaking teammate Pau Gasol are grilling up a real good asado (barbeque), displaying how H-E-B Supermarkets has the best and biggest meat department as Boomer Patty Mills, making out the trio of Rio 2016 Olympians coming up to Manu and Pau with Danny Green talking about the grilling, only to discover, as part of the need to incorporate the Hispanic community with this TV ad, those two are only speaking Spanish and can't understand them until Patty and Denny take a bite of the rich, grilled meat display--and start speaking Spanish fluently themselves. The Spurs Coyote comes at the very end for a cameo, but, since mascots aren't supposed to talk, brings up his Spanish comic cartoon balloon for his raving of the H-E-B meats:

Behind the scenes of Russian long jumper Darya Klishina's Seiko watches print advertisements photo shoots. Hard to tell if the shoots were on location in Miami, Dubai, or at Surfer's Paradise, Queensland. Could be two of the three (Miami or Surfer's Paradise):

[TeamBlakeUSA]

I Like The Bridgestone Commercial The Animation Was Pretty Good, Bridgestone Has Been A NFL Partner Over The Past Decades.

[JMarkSnow2012]

Ouch.

On my screen, DS's two videos are pushing right out of the message space, underneath TeamBlake's latest.

[Durban Sandshark]

Entirely my mistake. I wrote and posted mine after a quirky board time limit. My only hope is to write them again after things are clear at this thread for a while so as to not interfere with the subsequent posts.

Many of us Americans know of Ben-Gay and how it helps athletes. Here, the recently retired Australia Olympic multimedalist cyclist Anna Mears pitches for Goanna Oil ligment down under, playfully using both her name with the product under the "Go Anna" campaign and her "bigger" muscles. And yes, it has the requisite "use as directed" and "consult your physician" fine print and stuff on the screen:

 

[TeamBlakeUSA]

These Commercials Are Different.

[Sir Rols]

5 hours ago, TeamBlakeUSA said:

These Commercials Are Different. Just like the GamesBids logos

GamesBids Olympic Logo Winners' Cup - Quarter Finals 1 & 2

GamesBids Olympic Logo Winners' Cup - Quarter Finals 3 & 4

Why not show us your visions and concepts

10th Annual GamesBids Olympic Logo Design Comp

Agreed!

Edited December 9, 2016 by Sir Rols

[Durban Sandshark]

Couple years back I brought out a Nike Spain commercial with Paul Gasol, Rafa Nadal, and Raul Inesta that came before the King Juan Carlos' address to the nation. Here Pau and his fellow NBA All-Star and national team member brother Marc, the "Hermano" in question, play one-on-one at a playground court just themselves refreshing themselves with San Miguel 0,0 alcohol-free beer after all that hype Paul brings to the public of playing a big-time opponent. Not Gatorade or Powerade, beer. San Miguel actually sponsored the Spanish national basketball team on their jerseys recently back when Li Ning was REB's athletic outfitter

With a design and graphics that really scream the 1990s in the 1997 Wattie's Baked Beans NZ TV commercial that sees legendary horse reinsman Tony Herlihy being powered by Kiwi Olympic and Commonwealth gold medal-winning cyclist Sarah Ulmer as they're competing against thoroughbreds along a racetrack. Both actually enjoyed Wattie's Baked Beans that day  

 

[Durban Sandshark]

I'm really glad that I just now found this. In a part of the world where sports is overwhelmingly dominated by men through still-enforced cultural traditions, Nike is helping through its stable of its female Arab sports stars to help shatter those still-prevailing and still-persistent narrow cultural assumptions regarding Arab women getting active in sports with the coded underlining of "you shouldn't be doing this", largely coming from men, as they show that they're just as good as the guys. Nike already had Algerian-French dancer-turned-actress Sofia Boutella for several years, but this commercial takes it to another level with this campaign to them that pays tribute to them entitled "What will be said of you?". To be sure, there has been progress and pioneers involving women in the Arab-Muslim world. Think Nawal El Moutatwakel and Hassiba Boulmerka and the serious challenges both had to go through towards success. But there still has ways to go. Women's gyms are nearly non-existent there and in some countries like Saudi Arabia, girls are prohibited from having PE classes in their schools. What we got now is the latest wave who will shatter that: these athletes the global sportswear brand are behind with shown are Jordanian boxer Arifa Bseiso, Emirates artistic skater Zahra Lari, fellow athlete Amal Murad, Tunisian fencer Inès Boubakri, famous emirator-Yemeni singer Balqees Fathi. Boubkari is no stranger to Olympic competition with Beijing and London already under her belt in her experience. But it was with Rio last summer that Boubakri scored bronze in fencing, a first for African women in the sport that she dedicated her victory "to the Tunisian woman" and "all those who fight for freedom". Filmed in Dubai and since sparked serious debate from its February online release.

And it's voice of the Saudi artist Fatima Al-Banawi who answers the question "What will be said of you?" in critiquing the reactions from those in the Arab/Muslim world to those women indulge in competitive/recreational sport. She says (translated):  "You should not be there," "It's not very feminine," "You're not for that," she would say. But she can choose to listen to the voice in her, the one that blows her "You are strong," "No one can stop you," "You will find your way" or "You will become something great". I'll discuss more next time: 

Belgium's 2008 high jump gold medalist and 2012 flagbearer Tia Hellebaut wishes for some Pizza Hut after clearing another bar and gets some as a group of actors, pun intended, sing (or is that lip-synch?) a cheesy song about its wares at a Pizza Hut restaurant for Pizza Hut Belgium:

 

[Durban Sandshark]

Blanka Vlasic and the two Skelin rowing brothers appear in a black and white 2008 HPB commercial that set in and around Zagreb as the two are practicing their routines. An orchestra appears too. Only thing in color is the CGI red cube spinning around serving as the company's logo. HPB is Hrvatska Postanska Banka (or Croatia Post Bank), Croatia's national banking chain originating from its national post service, of which both parties are account holders. IMO, we should have something like here in the USA with the USPS:

Apollo Anton Ohno, one of the most decorated US Winter Olympians, speed skates around a darkened ice rink in what quickly turns into like a vinyl LP for this 2010 AT&T TV commercial that was surely played heavily during NBC's Vancouver 2010 broadcast that encourages viewers to follow Team USA during Vancouver as the instrumental music from London-based British band The XX's "Intro", easily one of my favorite instrumentals, plays during this: 

 

[Durban Sandshark]

Some of Serbia's Olympians including shooters Andrea Arsovic and Damir Mikec, swimmer Caba Siladi, judoka Aleksandr Kukolj, Serbian Olympic Committee's VP and basketball legend Zarko Paspalj have all been chosen, summoned, and assembled by then-Serbian Olympic Committee president, now Sacramento Kings GM, and Paspalj's old pal Vlade Divac and Vojvodanska Banka president Marinos Vanthis at night all across Belgrade in their mission to get to Rio and succeed as part of Vojvodanska Banka's Rio 2016 Olympic sponsorship campaign while promoting its Olympic-themed credit/debit cards under the campaign of "Divac is calling you...". What we have here is the full director's cut of this commercial that was directed by Nikola Lezaic. This bank was recently last year named as a principal sponsor for the Serbian Olympic Committee that included an announcement of this campaign. There's also a couple of Vojvodanska Banka commercials starring volleyball legend and 2000 gold medalist Vladimir Grbic and soccer star Dejan Stankovic back from 2000 in reverse roles. They're both there on YouTube but independent of the RTS Olympic basketball video. 

 

[Durban Sandshark]

Going back to circa 1983-1984 with these when not even the eventual Soviet-led boycott would dampen the high excitement for Los Angeles to the Americans. Because that of course meant more medals, including gold ones, for Team USA!

First is when Converse was the official sneaker of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, and I think this was the only distinction for sneakers to get involved in the Summer Olympics as far as I know since athletic apparel companies that get official Olympic sponsorship nowdays is head to toe. With that in mind, Converse, still known as a basketball-oriented company, promoted the classic Converse Chuck Taylor All-Star sneaker back in 1983 with its biggest faces of the company in future Dream Teamers Larry Bird and Earvin "Magic" Johnson (both establishing their supremacy during this decade) along with Julius "Dr. J" Erving, all in astonishment in seeing an 11-person multiracial and unisex b-group being in their presence across the nation, saying that they're "everywhere" now beyond the basketball court for decades. Music sounds like it was straight from Yaz's (Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet) "Situation": 

Another one of those McDonald's infamous 1984 "When The US Wins, You Win" coming up. This time a dad who apparently skipped work that day to compete in the sprint against world-class sprinters that trained for years to golden glory. Still in his business suit. Much to the shock but jubilation of his three kids watching live on TV at home each with their McDonald's in their hands. When the United States won a particular event after a ticket scratch-off with the event discovered then McDonald's customers would be given a free menu item: a Big Mac for a gold medal, an order of french fries for a silver medal, and a Coca-Cola for a bronze medal. Of course as alluded to what I began here, the Soviet boycott caused the USA to win far more medals than originally predicted, causing McDonald's promotion to near financial ruin:  

 

[Durban Sandshark]

From 2000 is now-defunct Ansett Australian Airlines TV commercial promoting and celebrating perseverance in competition in the face of adversity set to Kate Bush's "Don't Give Up" chorus portion from her 1986 duet with her pal Peter Gabriel that includes footage of the great Emil Zatopek happily embracing in what looks like his French rival Alain Mimoud after the former won a hard-fought race for gold with Mimoud winning silver in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics' 10,000m. Ansett, founded by businessman and devoted aviator Reg Ansett as a very solid rival to the more internationally known Qantas, was an Olympic sponsor back then for Sydney 2000, only to cease existence less than two years later with the intellectual property and administrations under KordaMentha. But its website amazingly still exists!

Four years earlier in 1996 with Atlanta, Michael Johnson was the undisputed king of the track breaking WRs and earning the admiration of Jesse Owens' family. His name still garners much respect to this day like his admired subsequent BBC track commentary after falling victim to food poisoning from eating at a Barcelona restaurant that cost him earlier and certain glory, prompting him to write his best-selling "Slaying The Dragon" book. Still trying to figure out what this Nike commercial is about. Something about the dual competition-crushing mentalities sides at work before the gun is shot at the track. One more perverse apparently than the previous one. Narrated briefly by Willem Dafoe: 

 

[Durban Sandshark]

Another one of those immense Olympic TV commercials aired during 1984 with the Summer Olympics in the United States that automatically transformed them into a marketing goldmine. Sure antiperspirant deodorant from Proctor & Gamble certainly took advantage of this as one the leading and best-selling deodorants back then and surely (pun intended) back during the daytime hours here in the US. Back then it was a unisex deodorant starting from the 1970s serving as the people's deodorant with an unforgettable campaign calling for people to confidently "raise their hands (and their full fresh, clean arms too) if you're sure" with a very defined target audience. No longer. Since this commercial's era, the deodorants' game has changed dramatically--it's become more complex, more sophisticated, more gender-specific. Like that global juggernaut Axe/Lynx from Unilever. The Sure brand has since been bought by a different company that's now making it women's only and who instantly knew it couldn't compete effectively against the likes of Axe/Lynx, Gillette/Right Guard, Old Spice, and Degree/Rexona nowdays. Still, it's never easy to alienate a whole demographic for brands and be successful. 

Anyway back to the commercial itself, seeing all those US Olympians (and what looks like Montreal Olympic Stadium spectators all celebrating to me) raising both arms, often in victory and competition, is all that footage from both Munich 1972 and Montreal 1976 like Dwight Stones after a successful high jump. Hyping up the fact back then as the 1984 US Olympic Team's deodorant. Had that US boycott did not happen for Moscow in 1980, we'd no doubt see some footage from that on US Olympians winning gold here. This is not to be confused with Sure line that's currently sold in the UK and Ireland with the recognizable Degree/Rexona/Shield (in South Africa) check mark:

No doubt this Visa 1988 commercial had some athletes in various sports who weren't on Team USA with some odd foreign ones like hosts South Korea, Japan, and that Antiguan long jumper training at these facilities. Yes, those are the actual facilities used in Seoul for those Summer Olympics back then like of course the Olympic Stadium, the Olympic Gymnastics Hall, the Jamsil Olympic Swimming Pool, and various gyms used for training around Seoul that was filmed months in advance of those Games. All part to encourage Americans to pull out their cards and travelers checks to "pull out for Team USA" whenever those were used that Visa in turn will make a donation to the US Olympic Committee that was expected to head north of $3 million that ended up to September at the time. Ends with that now famous closer "...and it/they won't take American Express". It started a whole new era and as a key player. Became a TOP Olympic Sponsor in 1986 as the "only card accepted at the Games" well after Los Angeles and Sarajevo and certainly embraced and bragged about that Olympic exclusivity with those taglines. Still chummy with the IOC over 30 years onward. Music here similarly reminds me of Alphaville's "Big In Japan": 

 

[Durban Sandshark]

Creating and adding commercials here involving Olympic athletes, sponsorships, and themes without bringing up the Great Wayne Gretzky so far. Well, this changes right now! During his time with the Edmonton Oilers during the late 1970s upwards to 1988 becoming the dominant legend that he is shattering goal and points records in the NHL acting like Babe Ruth or Wilt Chamberlain on ice skates, Wayne instantly became a Canadian pop icon (as well as its own royalty) when creating incredible poetry in motion on ice that greatly appealed to many and thus the most sought-after Canadian athlete pitchman during the early-mid 1980s, someone that even Americans will know about with his frequent trips south of the border on the road with Edmonton. Up in Canada by 1982 all in his early 20s, he had several endorsements like 7UP soda, Jofa hockey equipment, GWG Jeans, General Mill's Pro Stars cereal, his own table game, his own doll. Not to mention winning year-end sports publications' accolades as "athlete of the year" from The Sporting News and Sports Illustrated, who couldn't ignore his accomplishments. Too bad he couldn't win a medal in Nagano in 1998 when NHL players were fully permitted to compete as it tried to make their own version of the NBA's Dream Team with various hockey power nations as it tried to spread the hockey gospel to the lucrative East Asia; Canada for its part perhaps could've used his friend Mark Messier, a very strong leader, to get there. During those Nagano Winter Olympics Gretzky was by far the most popular Olympian with thousands of messages sent to him daily. But four years later in Salt Lake as Team GM for Canada, there was golden success though he couldn't get a medal.

Following TV commercial we have is a popular Canadian 1981 one with Wayne getting into the peak of his athletic powers and talents doing those popular "Feelin' 7UP" commercials while "sharin' smiles" and 7UP drinks with cheering hockey kids, all who surely loved being with their national sports heroes the Gretzkys during the commercial's filming. And this features his little brother Keith, still sporting his now-defunct hometown OHL's Brantford Alexanders jersey engaging in a silly brother rivalry fun with Keith claiming it was he not Wayne "teaching him everything he knows" in picking up the puck with the stick and hit it like a bat. They all enjoyed themselves. Keith was only moderately successful there. Despite the Buffalo Sabres selected him with the 56th pick in the 1985 NHL Draft, Keith never made it to the NHL on a regular season roster. Did appear in a few preseason games, including one with female goalie Manon Rheaume as teammates. Later bounced around in some minor league hockey teams like five seasons with IHL teams and a couple with two ECHL ones and then onto Finland and Britain. Turned onto coaching and scouting like even with the phantom roller hockey team Toronto Waves in 1994. Keith is currently Edmonton's Assistant GM with Wayne as advisor to owner Stan Katz. Interestingly, their baby brother Brent managed to get into the NHL by getting selected by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 1992. He made it to the regular season for 13 games, scored a goal and made three assists alltime. Even managed to play against his successful brother Wayne in face-offs in winning 1 of the 15. Together they had the most combined NHL points for brothers. Never as successful as Wayne, Brent managed to forge a lengthy minor league career before becoming an Ontario Provincial Police officer. Middle brother Glen never played in the NHL either. This is the first of two 7UP Canada commercials Wayne and Keith made together. This would be years before Wayne would ditch 7UP and head towards Coca-Cola. By then, he was of course extraordinarily traded in August 1988 to Los Angeles, and, consequentially, earned even greater endorsements and a higher American Q rating.

Another fun one from that "feeling 7UP" early 1980s era coming up. Future Dream Teamer Magic Johnson and Ann Meyers, then in her WBL's New Jersey Gems days, from the first women's pro basketball league, happily sharing the outdoor basketball court, very likely filmed in Los Angeles, with cheering kids in 1980 doing their things. We all know about Magic--but I absolutely HATE the Lakers, him included (Phoenix Suns fan here)! Ann Meyers meanwhile was already an Olympian being part of the first United States Olympic women's basketball team in women's basketball's Olympic debut in Montreal in 1976, where she and her team won silver that also included the late Pat Summit. In 1979, she caused headlines by becoming the first woman to land an NBA contract (a one-year one) with and tried out for the Indiana Pacers. Mind you this was in the era of the ERA. Didn't make it, but the Gems matched that Pacers offer with $50,000 on the first year. A legend at UCLA, Meyers was one of the first women's pro sports athletes to pitch products with 7UP, basketball included. In print ads, she would appear in her old UCLA uniform. Went to marry the late great Los Angeles Dodgers pitching great Don Drysdale and now works as a Phoenix Mercury GM in the WNBA. Anyway, the two and the kids surely had loads of fun as both have strong LA ties and were tailored-made for the charisma the city exemplifies. Magic, living up to his name, shows the kids his magic trick in turning the basketball disappear into a bottle of 7UP. Ann confidently one-ups him in the end. Certainly the two are still good friends.

 

[Durban Sandshark]

25 years ago this summer up to the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics, Mexicans could collect up to 4 different collectors' edition bottle caps with mascot Cobi on them in sports such as soccer, judo, equestrian, and fencing off of Coca-Cola bottles. Does use some comedy aspects here you might expect from plenty of Mexican TV commercials. Coca-Cola's ad campaign slogan at the time in the early 1990s before giving way to Always Coca-Cola not long later in the decade was very much like our "Can't Beat The Feeling"--called here in Spanish as Viva La Sensacion! This was taken from either Televisa's or TV Azteca's 1992 Barcelona coverage as both shared it.