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There were a ton of Super Bowl commercials during last night’s game between the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams, but one ad that’s receiving a helluva lot of positive attention is the NFL’s spot to promote it’s upcoming 100th season. If you left the room prior to the halftime show — or were just too hammered to remember any of the Super Bowl commercials this year, take a look at the video below.
Featuring Commissioner Roger Goodell at a gala for the 100th season, there are as many as 50 NFL superstars, both present and past, that make an appearance. You’ve got Marshawn Lynch starting things off, and then Hall of Famers jumping at the ball or passing it across the room. Overall, it was one of the best Super Bowl commercials of the year; and it was for the league itself, which is always a good thing for Goodell and his cronies.
But, how was the NFL able to get so many NFL stars in one room to film it? Peter King answered that question with a pretty cool story in his Football Morning in America column on NBC Sports, per Yahoo! Sports, with the NFL’s new chief marketing officer, Tim Ellis, talking about the kick-ass Super Bowl commercial.
“When I came on board, I felt we needed to take a new communications direction. I had the best agencies in the country compete for our business, and [full-service ad agency] 72 And Sunny won the business. We said we wanted a big ad to kick off the NFL’s 100th season, and they said they could get this ready for next fall. I said no, that’s the Super Bowl spot. We want it for the Super Bowl.”
“The turnaround was incredibly fast. There’s almost 50 stars in it, and we didn’t start contacting people till last December … and we taped it in mid-January. The reason we were able to pull it off is because it felt genuine and authentic to the players. The players said, ‘Whoever put this together knows football.’ “
“I felt in my gut this would be a big commercial and a big way to launch our 100th season,’’ said Ellis.
While that’s how the idea came about, actually getting every one of those stars in one room to film the ad took some work; especially since the Super Bowl commercial was actually filmed in the middle of the playoffs in Los Angeles. According to King’s piece, though, it all came together — but it took some re-arranging of some schedules to make it happen.
Logistics were fun. With the spot being taped in the middle of the playoffs, Ellis had some faux banquet rooms, with tight shots, built with the same décor as the L.A. venue. Mayfield flew to Boston and did his piece with Brady there. Mahomes flew to Orlando and did his piece with Wilson there, making a throw that was “caught” on the L.A. set by Beckham. Extra credit to Brees and Kamara for doing their piece in New Orleans a couple of days after the bitter loss in the NFL title game.
Peyton Manning was booked solid on the days it was being taped in L.A. But he found a way to make it to the set and did his part in 90 minutes.
Directed by Peter Berg, “The 100-Year Game” was one of the best Super Bowl commercials in a long time, and it’s pretty awesome to see how the idea all came to fruition, even if it was in such a short matter of time.