FS1 yesterday launched "Sorry for All the Football," the "biggest-ever college football promotional campaign" in Fox Sports history, according to Michael McCarthy of ADWEEK. The effort, via Pereira & O'Dell, N.Y., includes "TV spots, print and online ads and social media." The "tongue-in-cheek campaign gives voice to long-suffering wives, girlfriends and pets left bereft when their loved ones become consumed with college football, for which FS1 will 'apologize' to noncollege football fans for putting a strain on those relationships." The campaign began yesterday with a "letter of apology" that ran in both the N.Y. Times and N.Y. Post. Other elements of the effort include a "long-form mockumentary Web video" that begins with a "resentful college football widow giving FS1 the bird for adding more Pac-12 and Big 12 games to its Saturday lineup." The video will be cut down for 30-second spots "that will air across Fox channels as well as paid media." FS1 is scheduled to air more than 100 college games this season. While the channel has not named Pereira & O'Dell as its agency of record, Fox Sports Exec VP/Marketing Robert Gottlieb "sounds happy with the agency's work." He said, "They killed it on this one. It's such a well-rounded campaign" (
ADWEEK.com, 8/13).
