ESPN 2007 MLS Commercials

By: Bob | March 27th, 2007

You are a major sports network that has bought the rights to show Major League Soccer games. The league is beginning its twelfth season in the United States and recently expanded to Canada. Arguably the most famous athlete on this planet is on his way to play in the league. Your station had its highest soccer ratings ever during the World Cup last summer. Millions of people play the sport in your country. It only makes sense then to use cartoons comparing soccer to baseball, basketball and football to market the sport, right?

Nice job, ESPN. We all can’t wait to see your MLS coverage when your announcers compare the rivalry between New York Red Bulls and DC United with the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, when they liken goals to home runs, and when they call a playmaking midfielder his team’s “point guard”.

You are doing us all a big service. Without those analogies and without the constant comparisons, we just wouldn’t be able to understand that funny foreign sport called soccer and we surely would not want to tune in. Can’t wait to see Beckham take a free throw, I mean, free kick.

First spotted on Who Ate all the Cupcakes

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Category: MLS, World Football

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jz

If, through ESPN and these types of commercials, they can get more people to tune into the sport, I'm all for it. The MLS needs viewers who don't watch EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga games. If one of the ways to reach these viewers is through analogy, I'm all for it. I thought they also did a pretty good job of showcasing the beauty of the game.

Now, to really start attracting the casual sports fan in the US, they need to crack down on flopping and faking injuries. There is nothing that pisses off an (American) football fan than players faking injuries and flopping for fouls. I think it is time to institute video review and retro-actively award yellow cards or suspensions for these types of violations. That would go a long ways towards bringing the casual American fan into the game.
chuck

I agree with "anon."

Besides, Bob, people in the USA like to compare sports, and wax hypothetically about the atheletes.

What if John Elway played baseball?
Does Bo Jackson know basketball?
Randy Moss basketball clips to the tune of the Dukes of Hazzard...
Deion Sanders and Jeremy Bloom...
The Olympic track medalist that plays Wide Receiver in the NFL...

If you are a mature adult, you are probably set in your ways, and these commercials will not do much to influence you one way or the other.

I'm guessing for teenagers (and to a lesser degree pre-teens and early-20's age groups), they may not yet be set in their ways, and so I think that's where these commercials really shine.

I remember I started watching hockey because of all the bone-crunching hits they would highlight on SportsCenter -- those things got the best of my curiosity, and I think if a similar series of commercials that compared aspects of hockey to the NFL, the MLB and the NBA, would go over pretty well, IMHO.

I don't really watch hockey anymore, however. Strikes are bad.
David

This is a tough one, you have to hand it to espn for finally starting to create ads, but at the same time though it's a bit late especially with the season just around the corner. What I find funny is that arena football, the once almost bankrupt league, is getting more ad time then the MLS.

But that is espn for you, they are a monopoly and as such will do whatever they feel like.
Nick

Football commentators are sadly tripe the World over. Yet they seem just a tad more annoying on ESPN.
BUILDERARCH

DAVE O'BRIEN IS A COMPLETE TOOL...IT IS EMBARRASSING TO WATCH FOOTBALL WITH THESE CLOWNS ANNOUNCING....I WATCHED MOST OF THE WORLD CUP ON THE SPANISH SPEAKING STATIONS OR WITH THE VOLUME MUTED....."YOU GOTTA DO THIS AND YOU GOTTA DO THAT"...."OF COURSE MEXICO IS THE COUNTRY BORDERING THE US ON THE SOUTH"---IMBECILES
Bob

Anon - I'm glad you like the commercials. I hope I am in the minority and that they go over well and they help convince people to tune in.

If they ran these commercials 12 years ago I would have had no problem with them. It just seems to me that MLS/soccer in the US has enough momentum and enough merit to stand on its own without having to convince people that it is ok to like soccer because it is similar to other sports. I can't imagine any other sport in the US having to make the same argument. It is almost as if ESPN is justifying their decision to show soccer on a sports network.

I'd be happy to read yours and anyone else's thoughts on why this makes sense from a marketing standpoint.

Cheers
Anon

Actually, Bob, they are very clever and well-conceived ads. The snobs won't watch MLS - are you seriously suggesting that the marketing campaign should be directed toward them?

Fans of MLS will already watch. The snobs won't. Who's left? Why is is so sacrilegious to have commercials compare the game to sports that are already popular in this country? Would you like to name one legitimate reason, other than an intense inferiority complex about it?
Nick

As long as I never hear Chris Berman yelling "back, back, back" when a goal kick is launched skywards.
Tom

Let's just hope ESPN doesn't call the MLS Cup final the 'SoccerBowl' a la the NASL.
wes

It is good that they are trying to reach out to American sports fans but if you are a fan of baseball, basketball and football you might be left wondering why you should turn off those sports to watch soccer if it provides the same thing.