Ad of the Day: ESPN

United and City fans belittle each other in style as the famed Manchester derby comes to advertising By Tim Nudd

December 7, 2012, 1:03 PM EST
Advertising & Branding

Listen up, wankers. Two British soccer fans would like a word.

While their French counterparts are spending their time moronically knee-skidding through wheat fields, the fans of Manchester United and Manchester City have more serious business to attend to—namely, denigrating each other in the most colorful language they can find. In this ESPN spot from Wieden + Kennedy in New York, it is certainly colorful—so much so, particularly to the American ear, that it requires a whole second spot to give helpful definitions for most of the insults.

The conceit for the spot is to ask each fan to imagine rooting for the other side. But they simply can't do it. To the United fan, supporting City means you've been doomed since birth to be a moppet, a billy-no-mates, a plonker. To the City fan, supporting United means you're likewise preordained to be a divvy, a minger, a right git. None of these are compliments. Had they been born on the other side of the rivalry, both lads confirm, they'd have no self-respect, no value, no girlfriend (sorry, no "fit bird") and no future.

It's a timely spot—the latest Manchester derby will be played on Sunday—and it fits nicely into the ongoing "It's not crazy, it's sports" theme. We'll ignore the inconvenient fact that British fans often are crazy, renowned for having criminals and bigots in their midst, and focus instead on the more lighthearted core truth here—that ridiculing the opposition's fans is a fundamental, and usually harmlessly amusing, part of sports.

Got that, you tosser?

CREDITS
Client: ESPN
Spot "Born Into It"

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, New York
Executive Creative Directors: Scott Vitrone, Ian Reichenthal
Creative Directors: Brandon Henderson, Stuart Jennings
Copywriter: Dave Canning
Art Director: Cyrus Coulter
Head of Content Production: Lora Schulson
Executive Producer: Temma Shoaf
Brand Strategists: Jason Gingold, Marshall Ball (Digital Strategist)
Account Team: Casey Bernard, Katie Hoak, Alex Scaros
Business Affairs: Sara Jagielski, Kara Driscoll

Production Company: Imperial Woodpecker
Director: Stacy Wall
Executive Producer, Chief Operating Officer: Doug Halbert
Line Producer: Sam Levine
Director of Photography: Danny Cohen

Editorial Company: Mackenzie Cutler
Editor: Ian Mackenzie
Post Executive Producer: Sasha Hirschfeld

Visual Effects Company: Mass Market
Visual Effects Flame Artists: Fabien Coupez, Drew Downes
Executive Producer: Louisa Cartwright
Producer: Giselle Bailey

Telecine Company: Company 3
Colorist: Tom Poole

Mix Company: Heard City
Mixer: Philip Loeb
Sound Designers: Sam Shaffer, Mackenzie Cutler
Producer: Gloria Pitagorsky

Song: "Beginning of the End"
Artist: Cockney Rejects