ADWEEK's Anthony Crupi notes Bud Light yesterday introduced a pair of new 30-second spots on NBC during the NFL Kickoff game “celebrating what Anheuser-Busch InBev has dubbed the ‘Year of the Fan.'" The first spot, called "'Very Superstitious,' tips its cap to the various rituals enacted by football fans in the name of helping spur their team on to victory.” Over a snippet of Stevie Wonder’s song “Superstition,” a 49ers fan “clutches a lucky rabbit’s foot, a Titans fan reverently taps the team’s logo and a Colts backer constructs a horseshoe out of cold cans of Bud Light.” The second spot, entitled “My Bud Light,” encourages viewers to “sign up for the beer brand’s fantasy football league.” Two more spots are “expected to debut" before the end of the season. Bud Light will also buy, on average, “two 30-second spots" during every NFL game broadcast on each of the league's network partners (ADWEEK.com, 9/5). In St. Louis, Tim Logan notes Bud Light has got “other programs to reach out to fans, including a ‘Season Tickets for Life,’ sweepstakes, and lots of in-store promotions.” It also will “roll out team-themed cans in the 28 markets ... where it sponsors the home team,” while the rest of the country "will see cans with the NFL logo" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 9/6).
TURNING THE TIDE: Procter & Gamble's Tide “Show Us Your Colors” campaign officially launches Sunday at Lambeau Field with the Tide Green and Gold Out. All fans who attend the 49ers-Packers game will find a free, Tide-branded Packers T-shirt on their seat. Throughout the regular season, the campaign will feature a number of activities that allow fans to join Tide in expressing the passion they have for their team and their colors (Tide).
GEARING UP: ESPN.com’s Paul Lukas reviewed each NFL team’s ’12 uniforms. Aside from the Seahawks, who were “put into the Nike centrifuge and emerged with a predictably eccentric costume, the rest of the league still looks like the NFL, at least for now.” There are “three Nike-related visual elements” on jerseys this season: the collar, the neck roll and the stretch/ventilation panels. The NFL Equipment patch, “which has appeared on every jersey collar and pant thigh for years now, has been revised.” It is now a “little plastic chip instead of a cloth patch, and the word ‘Equipment’ has been eliminated” (ESPN.com, 9/5). In Houston, David Barron notes according to Fanatics.com, Houston is the “No. 1-ranked city on its websites for the purchase of NFL-licensed merchandise.” Sales of Texans-branded merchandise are up 145% over last year, "trailing only the Super Bowl champion Giants and the Broncos." The three “top-selling Texans items on the site are a New Era cap bearing the Texans logo and the blue home jerseys” of WR Andre Johnson and QB Matt Schaub. Texas is the “No. 2-ranked state for NFL sales at Fanatics.com” (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 9/6).
