ESPN Shorts Combine Baseball, Groundskeeping, Death, Beer
ESPN Shorts, a series of well-made short films shown in
episodic fashion, have garnered popularity and critical
acclaim. The cable sports network, working in conjunction
with several major advertisers, has successfully produced
a series of ads that combine the American pastimes of baseball,
groundskeeping, death, and beer into extremely moving commercial
cinema.
| The first of these, entitled
"The Scout," is sponsored by Sears Craftsman
Lawn Tools. It features an aging scout who is sent to
visit a small-town pitching prospect, but is more impressed
with the young local groundskeeper, convincing management
to hire the underaged boy to mow the stadium grass for
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"Here's my room number. Be
there at eight, and wear something...shiny." |
the big-league team. The lad becomes a hot commodity, with
several other teams attempting to acquire him, but ownership
has apparently rewritten the laws concerning child labor and
indentured servitude, and the boy remains "under contract.
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In "The Squeeze" sponsored by Miller Brewing
Company, a family struggles to deal with the death
of its beloved, beer-swilling patriarch. Inconvenient
scheduling forces the family to choose between attending
the funeral or watching the World Series on TV. Luckily,
the family is able to reach a
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"Man, I sure miss Uncle ...um...er...ah, screw
it. Gimme another High Life."
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compromise, deciding to watch the game at a local bar while
the corpse festers in a hearse parked outside.
These short films are the brainchild of Wassermann and
Klaus advertising executive Brad Snively, who sought a new
approach to delivering ad messages to the consumer. Snively's
solution was to combine high production values with incredibly
convoluted storylines to produce high-concept advertisements
that seem somewhat related to baseball and are just nonsensical
enough to bewilder the viewer.
"The idea is to confusing the viewer as much as possible,
making them highly succeptible to suggestion. By the end
of the short, they'll be asking themselves, 'What the f*ck
did I just watch?' While they are in that brief fugue state,
the company logo will appear and become imprinted in the
viewer's mind."
The latest ESPN Short, sponsored by Sears, Miller Brewing,
and Earl May nurseries and entitled "In Bloom,"
attempts to combine all the successful elements of the previous
shorts. The film centers around a 10 year-old Brewers fan
who decides to take up beer drinking in order to generate
more revenue for his favorite team. Tragedy strikes when
the small, drunken lad staggers onto the field prior to
a game and is accidentally run over by an equally-drunk
Miller Park groundskeeper on a lawnmower. The boy's
body is instantly mulched and scattered across the centerfield
grass. Days later, roses miraculously begin to bloom in
the outfield. The Brewers front office makes millions selling
these roses to sentimental baseball fans on eBay for $100
each, and the extra revenue is used to sign the child's
favorite player (ace pitcher Ben Sheets) to a three-year
contract.
"We feel this new ad will be even more confusing,
horrifying, and insulting than our previous efforts,"
said Snively. "And who knows? Maybe life will start
to imitate art, if we're lucky."
Brewers officials were busy setting up an eBay account
and were unavailable for comment.
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