AD AGE's Michael McCarthy reported Jaguar's ad campaign for its new F-Type Coupe, which will lead up to an ad running during the third quarter of Fox' Super Bowl XLVIII broadcast, begins on Sunday "with a 30-second teaser" from in-house ad agency Spark 44 called "Disruption." The spot "will air on NFL games" and BBC America. The Super Bowl involvement "ties in with the company's hiring" this year of 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick as brand ambassador (ADAGE.com, 11/7).
NOT A GAME: ESPN.com's Paul Lukas wrote under the header, "An Open Letter To Under Armour," noting the company's flag-design uniforms for Northwestern Univ. in support of the Wounded Warrior project are "turning out to be more controversial than you probably expected." Lukas raised four points in regard to the uniforms, writing, "Patriotism and wounded veterans don't lend themselves to comic-book treatments. You can't treat this stuff like a video game and then try to claim the moral high ground regarding something like the Wounded Warrior Project, and you can't deal with adult issues by employing design and marketing techniques geared to appeal to teenagers" (ESPN.com, 11/7).
HIT THE GYM: Exercise equipment company Cirrus Fitness will sell products featuring officially licensed marks from collegiate rights holders CLC, Licensing Resource Group and Strategic Marketing Affiliates. The company beta-launched its goods at Wisconsin, Syracuse and Georgia in '12, and now has secured approval from more than 100 schools including Alabama, Florida, Ohio State, Michigan and Kentucky (Cirrus Fitness).
SHAMELESS PLUG: In Syracuse, Hank Domin wrote Giants OT Justin Pugh "shows off" his dance moves "for about 10 seconds in a commercial for" NRG Energy. Pugh in the ad "loses energy and plugs himself into an electric car charging station." The ad is narrated by ESPN's Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic (SYRACUSE.com, 11/7).
