Billy Mays here for the unbelievable, indescribable ESPN360!
Posted on Tue Dec 23 2008
ESPN has long enjoyed mimicking lowbrow ad genres in campaigns targeting hip sports fans. So, what better way to promote ESPN360.com, where fans can watch their favorite teams and games "anywhere, anytime," than to hire Billy Mays, that yelly man who sells OxiClean, Mighty Putty, Mighty Mendit and other amazing crap on late-night infomercials?
See the four ads here. In one of them, Mays meanders into an office and opens with a pitch that will be familiar to late-night basic-cable viewers. "Billy Mays here for ESPN360.com! The revolutionary tool for watching sports!" he shouts in his customary, this-one-goes-to-11 voice, as if reading snakebite-antidote instructions to his deaf grandpa. Soon, he's crawling under a cubicle and giving an office drone a Ted Stevens-worthy "series of tubes"-type explanation of how ESPN sends live sports through the Internets right to his desktop.
Another ad shows Mays with his blonde wife and young daughter, who also sport his trademark black werewolvian beard. In a third, he's hiding out from criminals in a motel room so tacky even the once-bolted-down TV has been ripped from its casing. Hmmm, maybe there's more to this Ted Stevens connection than we thought?
The ads, created by Arnold in Boston, will run on TV and online.
—Posted by Becky Ebenkamp
