NFL Print Advertising
Team NFL Retail Apparel
Team NFL Retail Apparel
These unexpected celebrities showing off their favorite NFL colors in a 1992 advertising campaign promoting Team NFL apparel were selected to appeal to a more casual sports fan. The ads below featuring Muhammad Ali, Milton Berle, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Pete Sampras were effective in helping the league achieve its goal of expanding the NFL's appeal beyond its existing avid fan base. Other celebrities in the campaign included Rachel Hunter, Kathy Ireland, Orel Hirschiser, Martin Mull, Julie Brown and Gladys Knight. Burke’s efforts were the first to aggressively brand a professional sport – more specifically to position a pro-sport as a form of entertainment – long before becoming standard practice among other pro leagues, networks, licensees and retailers.
Bruce Burke: Creative Director, Victoria Eichinger: Art Director, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders: Photography
Bruce Burke: Creative Director, Victoria Eichinger: Art Director, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders: Photography
Muhammad Ali takes a jab as a NFL spokesperson for Team NFL branded apparel. "It's fun to be a team player. Even if you're the greatest all by yourself."
Uncle Miltie appeared in this ground breaking NFL campaign. Everybody loves the NFL, even the self-proclaimed inventor of television. "You didn't know I was an offensive co-ordinator? Just ask my wife."
Grand Slam tennis champ Pete Sampras, a long-time NY Giants fan, rounds out a diverse group of unexpected pitchmen in the NFL's ad campaign promoting its segmented line of branded apparel, Team NFL Collection. The campaign was one of many branding initiatives the NFL executed to promote its mission to broaden its fan base.
NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar sporting his Atlanta Falcons classic Team NFL Collection jacket. Incorporating unexpected celebrities like Kareem into the NFL's marketing efforts was an effective method to engage more people with the NFL brand.