Adnatomy: How ESPN and State Farm Pulled Off the Most Talked About Ad of the Year

The 'deepfake' spot was a product of pandemic precautions

For the latest installment of Adweek’s Adnatomy—a new video series exploring how brands, agencies and production companies continue to make commercials during the pandemic—we sat down with the team at ESPN to chat about their much-heralded “deepfake” spot, dubbed an MVP performance by Adweek. The ad aired during the first episode of the network’s highly anticipated Michael Jordan Documentary, The Last Dance, in April.

Watch how ESPN anchor Kenny Mayne, ArtClass’ Geno Imbriale and Shaun Collings, and ESPN CreativeWorks’ vp of production Anthony Nelson put together the entire spot in the early days of the pandemic, with a bit of help from Mayne’s tech-savvy daughter.

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