The 10 Greatest Ad Campaigns in Sports

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Do you ever wonder sometimes how you end up buying a certain product or watching a certain show?

It's probably because of the advertising geniuses that come up with the ads to pick your brain and find out the best way to sell that product to you.

And sometimes the best way to get you, the public, to buy the product is to get your favorite sports celebrity to sell it to you.

Some of the ads were genius and a few fall flat, but they all had one thing in common: they got the public talking. Here's a list of some of the best sports advertising ploys ever.

10. Kasey Kahne, Allstate

NASCAR fans are known for the loyalty to, not only their driver, but to the products who sponsor them. The Kasey Kahne Allstate ads were a brilliant play on a couple of NASCAR fans' loyalty gone a bit far with their devotion to their favorite driver.

The ad not only sold the product but the driver too.

9. Kobe/Lebron, Nike MVP (Most Valuable Puppets)

Normally Nike is the leader when it comes to ads, but they missed the boat on this one.

First of all the ads were silly.

Second, neither of the puppets' voices were LeBron James or Kobe Bryant, but the ads did one thing: it kept people talking about Nike.

Whether you liked them or hated them, you still talk about them and the product which means the ad campaign was a success.

8. Danica Patrick, GoDaddy.com

Either these commercials are the most sexist of all time or the smartest, but probably both. GoDaddy uses sex to sell their products and they do it well.

Using Danica Patrick as a spokesperson has made this company not only smart but legit.

7. Dan vs. Dave, Reebok

Reebok decided to get in the Olympic Games by producing an ad on two Olympic hopefuls, decathletes Dan O’Brien and Dave Johnson.

At first this seemed like a good idea because both were supposed to make the Olympics and compete against each other. However, there was a problem when only one made the Olympic team and he only got bronze.

Reebok tried to rebound by producing a funny ad with the pair but it was a little too late; the damage was done.

6. Under Armour

Who have ever heard of these guys before their ads started running a few years ago?

Now when you hear the phase “WE MUST PROTECT THIS HOUSE!” you know it’s Under Armour. Their company has become so big that teams like the Auburn Tigers use their products.

5. Bo Knows, Nike

While Nike might have missed the mark on the Kobe/LeBron ads, they hit a home run with the Bo Knows campaign.

For those of you who may have forgotten, Bo Jackson was a one of the first two-sport athletes (football and baseball), but his career was cut short due to injury.

Nike’s ad campaign focused on this multi-talented athlete and all he could do, but he couldn’t do one thing…..

4. Tiger and Earl, Nike's Tribute

Again, either this was a brilliant idea or another idea that missed the mark.

Tiger Woods came back to golf after months of being away because of a sex scandal.

So, the ad men and women at Nike thought it would be a good idea to use the voice of Tiger’s dead father, Earl, to "talk" to Tiger in a scolding tone while the younger Woods was filmed in black and white looking sad.

Now, as I said either this was a good idea as a lot of PR people thought, or creepy; I landed on the creepy side.

3. Mean Joe Green, Coca Cola

Some of you might be too young to remember this, but tough guy Mean Joe Green of the Pittsburgh Steelers starred in a Coca Cola ad featuring him walking off the field with a little boy wanting his hero’s autograph.

The ad not only made you smile and tugged at your heart, but it also coined the phase “Have a Coke and a Smile.” Which America did.

2. ESPN, This is Sportscenter

Did you ever want to know what it would be like to go behind the scenes of the World Wide Leader of Sports?

Well the ad producers of the ESPN, This is Sportscenter spots thought it would be fun for viewers to see what it is like.

Little did they know that those ads would make ESPN bigger and better than ever, and make celebrities out of its anchors. And as an athlete, you know you have made it in the sports world if you appeared in a This is Sportscenter ad.