A Progressive official brings in a screen to prove that, yes, the mother in question really did say that her potential football hosts “never stop talking,” but that’s apparently just the beginning of such challenges this season. Progressive promises that football players and throwback music acts will get involved as the season wears on, with the company countering that its savings on bundled insurance can’t be challenged.
Smirnoff
Diageo’s Smirnoff is entering its third year as the official vodka sponsor of the NFL, and it’s mixing things up a bit for the 2023 season.
Its new “We Do Game Days” campaign with actor Anthony Anderson looks at the traditions, rituals and superstitions of NFL fans, with Smirnoff pouring a different cocktail for every team. During Week 1, Smirnoff gave 21 fans free Smirnoff cocktails on game days for the entire 2023 NFL season based on the coin tosses ahead of the first week’s games.
The coin-toss promotion included a 21-story digital billboard in Times Square with appearances by Anderson and former NFL player Vernon Davis just ahead of the Thursday Night Football kickoff. This season, Smirnoff is also serving as gaming site FanDuel’s exclusive NFL Sunday Prime Time vodka partner. The deal includes a custom Smirnoff No. 21 Cocktail Game Mode that gives fans a chance to win more than $200,000 in cash prizes from now through Super Bowl 58 by visiting fanduel.com/smirnoff.
“This NFL season, Smirnoff really wanted to show our fans how We Do Game Days, including the addition of a new roster of Smirnoff cocktails for every fan and every team to help celebrate what truly brings football fans together,” said Jennifer Holiday Hudson, North America brand leader at Smirnoff.
Hyundai
Hyundai and its agency partners used Amazon Prime’s Thursday Night Football and NBC’s Sunday Night Football to welcome football fans back to a cultural tradition: commuting. It may have inadvertently reintroduced a habit far more familiar to football viewers: yelling and throwing things at the screen.
Hyundai and creative agency Innocean’s ad for the new Kona and Kona EV depicts (and nominally applauds) the vehicles taking drivers back to the office after years of remote work. However, YouTube commenters don’t share the marketers’ mirth, remarking “Thank you for reminding us all how awful RTO is” and “This is corporate propaganda to get people to return to the office.”
