This is SportsCenter

This is SportsCenter is the name of a series of comical television commercials run by ESPN to promote their SportsCenter sports news show. The ads are presented in a deadpan mockumentary style, lampooning various aspects of sports, and sports broadcasting. The commercials debuted in 1994. The New York office of advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy, of Portland, Oregon, is responsible for the writing and production of the commercials.[1]

A few of the ads are available for free on iTunes while many ads are available for viewing through the official ESPN YouTube channel.

Guest appearances by sports figures

A notable feature of the commercials is the seeming ubiquity of famous athletes on the ESPN campus. Some are even depicted doing menial, everyday tasks, usually while wearing their game uniforms. Athletes often have their idiosyncrasies parodied — for example, gymnast Kerri Strug being carried around ESPN headquarters because of her famous ankle injury.

Many famous athletes have been featured in the series, including Rob Ray, Andre Agassi, Ray Allen, Michael Andretti, Carmelo Anthony, Gilbert Arenas, Lance Armstrong, Paul Bearer, Rich Beem, Drew Bledsoe, King Kong Bundy, Bill Bradley, Drew Brees, Kobe Bryant, Mark Buehrle, Kurt Busch, Jennifer Capriati, Brandi Chastain, Chris Chelios, Roger Clemens (who was in 5 of them, the most of any athlete), Sidney Crosby, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Carl Edwards, Roger Federer, Kevin Garnett, Ozzie Guillén, Mia Hamm, Jim Harbaugh, Evander Holyfield, Tim Hudson, LeBron James, Keyshawn Johnson, Roy Jones Jr., Jim Kelly, Michelle Kwan, Alexi Lalas, Bobby Labonte, Lennox Lewis, Mark McGwire, Shawn Michaels, Gheorghe Mureșan, Dwyane Wade, Rafael Nadal, Steve Nash, Candace Parker, Chris Paul, Gaylord Perry, Adrian Peterson, Michael Phelps, Mary Lou Retton, Ben Roethlisberger, Tony Romo, Pete Sampras, Maria Sharapova, Andriy Shevchenko, Jerry Stackhouse, Kerri Strug, Fernando Vargas, Adam Vinatieri, Shaun White, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Tiger Woods, David Wright, Alexander Ovechkin, The Undertaker, Jeremy Lin, Buster Posey, Mike Trout, Clayton Kershaw, Cam Newton, Stephen Curry, Henrik Lundqvist, and Manny Pacquiao.

List of This is SportsCenter spots

1994

1995

1996

1997

1999

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

Sports practices

Many commercials in the series have derived their humor from parodying conventional professional sports practices, by applying them to working for SportsCenter:

Sports mascots

Sports mascots and cheerleaders are usually present in most ads, often seen casually milling around in the background, but occasionally they take on an active role:

References

  1. Lefton, Terry (19 September 2005). "This is SportsCenter". Sports Business Journal. Retrieved 13 November 2010.
  2. Barry Melrose - This Is SportsCenter (National Anthem)

Further reading

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, February 08, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.