Just after the start of last night's CFP National Championship, Nike tweeted "a fascinating photo that sure seemed to be a remarkable shot of the coin flip," but it was "fake and completely staged," according to Jay Busbee of YAHOO SPORTS. While the photo showed "actual people and an actual coin," they "weren't the actual players who went out for the coin flip." The photo "is an ad, and college players can't appear in an ad, knowingly or unknowingly, without risking their eligibility," so Nike "used models instead to pose for the picture ahead of time" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 1/12). SBNATION.com's Rodger Sherman wrote the Oregon and Ohio State players who went out for the coin toss were "wearing different numbers from the ones in the Nike image, and as you'll notice, all the players in the Nike image are wearing visors." It "seems probable those are just random people in Ohio State/Oregon jerseys." Sherman: "We probably could've figured this out when none of Ohio State's captains had a single Buckeye sticker on their helmet" (SBNATION.com, 1/12).
WHERE'S THE CREATIVITY? ADWEEK's Christopher Heine wrote there was "very little real-time marketing by brands during the first half of the game." While the first half did see some "pre-planned tweets pushed in an obvious fashion," there were only a "few good on-the-fly examples to speak of" (ADWEEK.com, 1/12).
WINNING THE DAY, AND NIGHT: In DC, Des Bieler wrote before yesterday's title game even got under way, Ohio State had "already triumphed in a crucial arena: merchandise sale." Ohio State was "the top-selling team" on Fanatics.com since Jan. 1, while Oregon was second. Of the 50 states, 27 "bought more Buckeyes merchandise than Ducks gear" (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 1/12). Meanwhile, in Cleveland, Bill Livingston writes of Oregon's uniforms for last night's game, "So Oregon spends all this money for cutting edge duds in colors that have not been seen outside of a Day Glo poster from a dorm room in the ‘60s and comes up with -- Penn State West?" (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 1/13).
