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November 8, 2005
Win One, Get Your Own Commercial!
Mastercard: The Official Credit Card of Week Nine Regular Season Victories Against Injury-Ravaged Opposition
Correct me if I'm wrong, but did Mastercard actually run that Peyton Manning commercial near the end of the fourth quarter of last night's Colts-Patriots game on Monday Night Football? The one that listed all of Peyton's achievements and concluded -- in the Mastercard trope -- with "Winning at Foxboro: Priceless."
So we're supposed to empathize with Peyton Manning's "struggles" against "the Patriots" (he'd lost seven straight times at Foxboro, including the past two years in the playoffs) such that we'll all be able to savor his victory through this highly timely mass market TV spot? Are we all pulling for Peyton Manning? I must not have gotten that e-mail. This is the same Peyton Manning that signed one of the most lucrative contracts in NFL history? Whose father and brother were/ are lavishly paid NFL quarterbacks as well?
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the faux drama and/ or storylines of pro sports. If you've got sports soap opera, I'm listening. And it isn't like I don't know it's made up, but at least the presence of the "sports media" allows me to pretend that this isn't all just Angelina-and-Brad for the male 18-34 demo. (It is. It most definitely is. Shhhh! Don't tell anyone!). But when the actual sponsors are participating in the storylines? Gross. The imagined authenticity of it all starts to evaporate. And I end up feeling played. And I don't just say that because I tend not to root for the Peyton Manning character.
I need to know if they actually showed that ad in New England, or if they had some sort of option where they managed to show another spot in the Boston-Hartford-Providence DMAs. If anyone can confirm/ deny, do contribute to the comments below. I mean, if they pulled that nonsense on MY team (like, say, following an Eli Manning victory against the Birds) I might never use Mastercard again. Ever.
(I can't believe I'm taking the Boston side of this argument. Call it a testament to my loathing for the Peyton-Manning-will-break-Dan-Marino's-records-and-restore-balance-to-The-Force hype machine.)
Posted by thatkid at November 8, 2005 12:37 PM under
Sports
Comments
I don't know if they showed that commercial in the Boston market. I don't think they did - I watched all the post-game BS and interviews and didn't see it. Thus:
I had no idea what you were talking about in your text messages last night.
Posted by: Thorles at November 8, 2005 2:02 PM
When you buy National TV, you buy National TV. The only commercials that will vary by DMA are the pods (or portions of pods) sold by the cable provider and they don't usually get any spots during an MNF broadcast. The pods are sold in all markets. Mastercard decided to stick it to NE that night.
Posted by: Chris at November 10, 2005 11:50 AM
Sportsguy had a line about how it was a fake commercial run by ABC (see http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/blog/index?name=simmons for details). Even so, it isn't like Mastercard isn't cool with it (I'm sure they were THRILLED). I guess we got confused in the midst of the shouting? I wish we had an answer on this.
Posted by: ThatKid at November 10, 2005 4:15 PM
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