Sports fans’ favorite campaign is back with a new ad—this time starring Olympic gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin and SportsCenter anchor Hannah Storm.
The latest spot in ESPN’s iconic “This Is SportsCenter” campaign, titled “Seconds,” will make its linear debut on Saturday on ESPN during the Duke and UNC men’s basketball game, tipping off at 6:30 p.m.
A 15-second ad created with agency Arts & Letters, the new spot was filmed inside the ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn., and features the track and field star working in the ESPN office while Storm comes over to see if she has time to catch up.
“I’ve got 51.46 seconds right after lunch, or I’ve got 51.41 seconds later this afternoon. Or wait, I have 50.86 seconds right now,” McLaughlin responds.
The declining numbers aren’t random—51.46 was when she broke her own 400m hurdles world record for Olympic gold in Tokyo. The 51.41 number was her 400m hurdles time at the 2022 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships (then a world record), and 50.68 was her 2022 World Athletics Championships time, again shattering her world record mark a month later.
“This Is SportsCenter has featured the greatest athletes of the past three decades. Sydney is the latest superstar athlete to come to our campus in Bristol, Conn. She is the the very best at her craft,” Laura Gentile, evp of commercial marketing, networks and ESPN, told Adweek.
The spot featuring McLaughlin and Storm is the fourth ad since ESPN revived the “This Is SportsCenter” campaign in late 2022. Two of the ads, “Orange Slices” and “Stoppage Time,” feature U.S. Women’s National Team stars Megan Rapinoe, Becky Sauerbrunn and Sophia Smith. A third spot, “Performance Evaluation,” stars the beloved Delta State University’s Fighting Okra mascot.
The SportsCenter campaign began airing in the mid-1990s, mostly produced by agency Wieden+Kennedy. ESPN brought the campaign in-house in 2017, and it was discontinued shortly after. Now, it has new life with Richmond, Va.-based Arts & Letters.
“It’s really exciting that part of our brand personality is alive and well. It’s always been the fun side of sports,” Gentile said.
ESPN shot all four spots in Bristol in a single day. “Orange Slices” was not initially a planned campaign and instead ended up being a “bonus” ad—and the one that led off the return of “This Is SportsCenter.”
And expect more spots to roll out throughout 2023, starting during the NFL Pro Bowl. “Wet Willy,” featuring Peyton and Eli Manning and first created in 2017, aired Thursday night during the NFL Pro Bowl on ESPN and ESPN+, and all of the new creative will air during the Pro Bowl on Sunday.
