ESPN Major League Baseball

During the MLB playoffs, ESPN had the rights to broadcast all of the match-ups except the major marquee games - the ones that everyone wants to see. We decided we had to make the entire playoffs a special event, rather than just the big games.

After thoroughly immersing ourselves in the sport - we realized the baseball has something close to a million and a half games during the regular season. Meaning that fans have a quite a bit of tolerance for dropped balls and strike outs from spring to late summer. But during the playoffs in October - things change. The heat is on and if you mess up during the playoffs - you’re out of the running for the World Series. And thus - October is different.

The campaign was a huge success in the States, but I’ve been told that in Europe advertising folks were completely shocked by the ads. I guess the only thing more disquieting than watching a big hairy man scream at a kid is to see him berate an old woman about an inch from her nose. Funnily enough, despite the child and elderly abuse, the only spot we had to pull was this one because Disney (who owns ESPN) couldn’t stomach the word “barf.” Which makes me question whether any of those guys actually have kids.

CW: Kristina Slade
AD: Pat Harris
CD: Court Crandall, Kirk Souder
Director: Sean Mullens