Adweek: Reebok's Hot Streak
Good article discussing the thinking behind Reebok's Terrible Terry Tate campaign.
How did this 330 pounder in the red jersey become a national treasure in a mere two weeks? The back story is as intriguing as the commercials. The office linebacker character had such immediate power because he was hatched as a fully formed hero of a screenplay, a work by USC film-school grad student Rawson Thurber in summer 2000. Thurber was also working as an intern at William Morris at the time. He loved football and he hated office life, and decided to combine the two sentiments.
Thurber originally pitched his work as an Internet film, and Propaganda Films gave him a tiny budget to produce it on digital video in the fall of 2000.
The interesting thing here is that because Terry Tate started life as an internet film, different values dictated what he was about, and how his story played out. Entertainment was key, as internet ads require both the advocacy of site owners and peers in order to spread. On this level certain ad critics have missed the point, for instance AdAge's review gave Terry a poor 1.5 stars stating "Laugh-out-loud funny bit about mythical linebacker Terry Tate as the office enforcer. But it has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with sneakers. " Yeah and? So what? Perhaps you are beginning to realise that they've got a plan.
