In another FIFA World Cup campaign, Gatorade signal their support for the USA national soccer team in “The Road”. The spot, which first aired on April 24, 2006, was designed to catch the attention of an audience with a preference for baseball, not soccer. To the sounds of “Take me out to the ballgame” played on piano, the Gatorade World Cup spot opens with an airport arrivals board, showing Tenerife, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Singapore, Begawan-Sharjah, Kuala Lumpur, Johannesburg, Miami, Ho Chi Minh City. The ad features games from the CONCACAF qualification matches leading up to the World Cup.
U.S. Men’s National Team members bus through to play in a CONCACAF match in Central America, facing soccer fans on the streets cheering for the local team. Security is high but the occasional banner slips in, with one saying “Yankees Go Home”. with banners telling them to go home. The Americans face tripping, losses, blistered toes and playing in the snow before their luck starts to turn. By the end of the spot we see Americans scoring goals and hear a more hopeful sound in the Ball Game sound track. With fireworks over the soccer stadium we have the super: “It’s a whole new ballgame”, and “is it in you?” with ‘it’ in stars and stripes. The spot finishes with the Gatorade logo.
Click on the image below to play the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDgEosqZGCM
Credits
The Gatorade ‘The Road’ campaign was created at Chicago advertising agency, Element 79, by creative director Jon Flannery, art director Mike Lyons, copywriter Tom Wilson, with agency producers Peter Hullinger, Craig Jelniker and Rob Jaeger.
Director and director of photography was John Perez, Oil Factory.
Editing was done at Lost Planet, Los Angeles, by Jennifer Dean.
Music was arranged at Elias Arts.
Audio was engineered by Dave Gerbosi at Chicago Recording Company.