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Marketing and Sponsorship

Time To Shine: AT&T Set To Debut Sochi Ads Focusing On "Less-Heralded" Athletes

AT&T is "focusing on the less-heralded athletes" of the Sochi Games in the "It's Our Time" campaign, which debuts its first spot on Monday during NBC's "Today," according to Beth Snyder Bulik of AD AGE. The spot features skeleton racer Noelle Pikus-Pace "lifting weights in her home basement, feeding her kids, watching them play soccer, and then later saying good-night via video before she jumps onto her sled for a late-night training run." BBDO, N.Y., created the campaign. AT&T VP/Brand Management & Advertising Rudy Wilson said, "These aren't made-up stories, these are real stories about sacrifice and determination and how they made it." BBDO Chair & Chief Creative Officer David Lubars said, "These are the less-famous athletes who do what they have to do in real life, but also train hard. They're athletes trying to make their mark." Other athletes who will be "featured in the four TV spots" include alpine snowboarder Justin Reider, short-track speed skater Alyson Dudek and Paralympic alpine skier Heath Calhoun. In each, "some type of AT&T-enabled communications plays a support role" (ADAGE.com, 1/28).

SOCIAL ISSUES? In N.Y., Stuart Elliott reports Coca-Cola, McDonald's and other big advertisers for the past week have been "having to fend off gay rights activists who have hijacked their Olympic promotions on social media." The "tug of war involving McDonald’s began Jan. 21 when the company introduced on its Twitter feed a hashtag, #CheersToSochi." Activists who have been protesting a Russia law against homosexual propaganda "filled Twitter with posts that used the hashtag for their own purposes." The "hijacking then spread to other sponsors of the Winter Games, most notably Coca-Cola" (N.Y. TIMES, 1/28).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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