Olympic Memories - “Dan v. Dave”
When I think of the Olympics and advertising, I think of the old Reebok "Dan versus Dave" campaign. The hype was unreal in the beginning of 1994. The campaign started during the Super Bowl, and it was actually making me care about the Olympic decathalon. Seriously. But also seriously, what's a decathalon? Unfortunately, even worse than the yearly letdown the Bud Bowl used to create, the lead-up was better than the actual competition. In fact, there was no competition. Five weeks before the Olympic games started, Dan O'Brien failed to qualify. Can you imagine being the agency team watching that errant pole vault? And that, my friends, is why we drink. I'm pretty sure I was devastated that there would be no "Dan v. Dave" battle that year. But I'm also pretty sure I had no idea what a decathalon was, either. Seriously, what's a decathalon? Ah, the power of advertising. By the way, who had those pump up Reeboks? Those things were sweet!
Comment by Scott Patterson
August 3, 2012 @ 10:14am
Love it. The Barcelona Olympics were the first that I started really getting interested in. I was 13, and it was exciting. Neat campaign. I did have some off brand high-tops that were like the Reeboks.