A CNN/SI.com poll asked, "What's the funniest sports
commercial right now?" Of 5,957 votes, Nike's "Hitting
Homers" with Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine was first with 83%;
Gatorade's "Anything You Can Do" with Mia Hamm and Michael
Jordan earned 5%; A-B's "Radio Robert" hockey foosball spot
earned 4%, along with AND 1's "American Dream" with Latrell
Sprewell and Miller Lite's "Who's Right?" with Rick Reilly
and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos (CNN/SI.com, 5/17). "NBC on NBA"
analyst Bill Walton, on AND 1's Sprewell ad, which has Jimi
Hendrix's version of "The Star Spangled Banner" playing in
the background: "Latrell's not worthy of Jimi. I didn't
like it" (N.Y. TIMES, 5/18). But in Philadelphia, author
Crispin Sartwell writes that the AND 1 ad's "dualism of
American nightmare/American dream gets things exactly right:
Figures such as Sprewell and [76ers G Allen] Iverson are the
sorts of people we both disdain and lionize. Americans have
been admiring bad boys in politics and the arts for a long
time: from Tom Paine and Sam Adams to Ernest Hemingway and
Jackson Pollock" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 5/18).
LEVERAGING ITS NHL TIE? PRICELESS: The FINANCIAL POST's
Patrick Allossery reviewed MasterCard spots running in
Canada around the NHL playoffs, and says that while two of
its spots "fall flat," it "does a much better job in two
hockey related spots it's been running" as part if its
"Priceless" campaign. One spot featuring Sabres G Dominik
Hasek "serves the brand particularly well because it puts
the focus on flawless performance, which is precisely what
you'd expect from your credit card" (FINANCIAL POST, 5/17).
STRAWBERRY BENCHED IN PROMO: Yankees P David Cone has
replaced OF Darryl Strawberry as the "TV pitchman" for
Burger King's trading card promo in N.Y., following
Strawberry's arrest (Terry Lefton, BRANDWEEK, 5/17 issue).
