72andSunny, ESPN Talk Retirement Plans with Big Papi

By Erik Oster 

Last month, MullenLowe launched a spot for JetBlue which pictured David Ortiz imagining life after baseball and a career obliterating pinatas. Now 72andSunny has a pair of new ads for ESPN which similarly featured Big Papi mulling over plans for after his retirement, as part of the campaign promoting SportsCenter at Night which it launched last September.

In a 3o-second spot, Ortiz watches a late night edition of SportsCenter, jotting down ideas for Papi-branded food products inspired by the program, presumably for his Big Papi’s Kitchen line. When he hears “Holy potato, what a day,” he thinks up “Papi’s Fritas” (a play on “papas fritas,” Spanish for french fries) and “icing out the competition” leads him to “Papicicles.” His teammates, namely pitchers David Price and Eduardo Rodriguez, meanwhile, are a little concerned. The 15-second spot riffs on the same idea, with the Red Sox slugger expressing his love for pizza.

The spots fit the campaign’s humorous tone, and that of the larger “This is SportsCenter” campaign from W+K well, managing to find a way to make athletes watching sports highlights entertaining while leading into the “End Your Day on a Highlight” tagline. While the premise is getting a bit familiar, it makes sense for Ortiz to address his post-career plans, as it’s hard to imagine the slugger doing anything other than swinging a bat, and the charm of the goofy-pun fueled ads make them pretty hard to hate, even for an Orioles fan.

Credits:
Agency: 72andSunny
Chief Creative Officer/Founding Partner: Glenn Cole
Executive Creative Director/ Partner: Jason Norcross
Creative Director: Jed Cohen
Sr. Designer: Dave Estrada
Sr. Writer: Nick Ciffone
Jr. Writer: Carlyle Garrick
Jr. Designer: David Jung
Group Brand Director: James Stephens
Brand Director: Jessica Francis
Brand Manager: Rochelle Farnum
Brand Coordinator: Hector Romero
Director of Film Production: Sam Baerwald
Sr. Film Producer: Eric Rasco
Group Strategy Director: Matt Johnson
Strategy Director: Heather Lewis
Business Affairs Director: Christina Rust
Jr. Business Affairs Manager: Noah Winter

Production Company: Hungry Man
Director: Wayne McClammy
Managing Partner/EP: Kevin Byrne
EP: Mino Jarjoura
EP/Director of Sales: Dan Duffy
EP: Nancy Hacohen
Producer: Dave Bernstein

Advertisement

Editorial: HutchCo Technologies
Editor: Jim Hutchins
Executive Producer: Jane Hutchins
Finishing: Method Studios
EP: Robert Owens
Lead Flame Artist: Aidan Thomas
Flame Support: Louis Schachte
Senior Producer: Cara Lehr

Mix: Lime Studios
Audio Mixer: Rohan Young
Audio Assistant: Ben Tomastik
Executive Producer: Susie Boyajan

Advertisement