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Marketing and Sponsorship

AT&T Debuts Ads With NBA Legends, Playing Off Recent Spots With Kids

AT&T's most recent ads in its "It's Not Complicated" campaign feature comedian Beck Bennett speaking with a group of Basketball HOFers instead of children, and in a “sight gag that also serves to link the two series of commercials, the new ones, like the original ones, take place in a classroom,”according to Stuart Elliott of the N.Y. TIMES. AT&T's new spots featuring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Bill Russell began running on Saturday around the NCAA Tournament. AT&T Mobility CMO David Christopher said the company for its NCAA Tournament ads thought it would be "fun to do a riff" on the commercials with the children, cast the former players as "a fun way to give a nod to basketball fans." Bennett in an ad called “Up Top" asks the players whether it is better to be bigger or smaller in basketball, a question that "echoes one he asks the children." He then "tries to high-five them," but it “proves awkward.” In another spot called “Slow Break,” Bennett says, “I mean, they don’t call it a slow break, do they?” Johnson jokes, “Well, in Larry’s case maybe they do.” The other players laugh, and Bird says, "It’s like I don’t have feelings." Bennett then “tries awkwardly to give the much-taller Mr. Bird a hug.” Christopher said that the two ads will “alternate with the commercials featuring the children." Elliott notes the basketball ads are “scheduled to end with the NCAA national championship game on April 8.” However, BBDO Atlanta Creative Dir Stephen McMennamy, whose agency created the ads, said "it's not out of the realm of possibility" for the company to continue showing them if the public likes them (NYTIMES.com, 3/29). USA TODAY’s Sean Highkin wrote the ads with the children “can be grating after a while,” but the spots with the former players work because of their "obvious camaraderie" (USATODAY.com, 3/30).

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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