NFL Super Bowl Ad Goes Back to Flag Football Future

Two years later, the National Football League and its creative partners at 72andSunny have placed girls and women’s flag football at the center of their latest Super Bowl ad. The two-minute “NFL Flag 50” airs immediately after halftime and takes viewers back to 1985, where Liberty High School and U.S. Girls’ Junior National Team flag football player Ki’Lolo Westerlund shows up as the new girl in school to the tune of Yello’s “Oh Yeah” (aka day-bow-bow).Awash in big TV perms, male jocks hoarding the varsity jackets, and seemingly little knowledge of the Title IX education amendment a decade earlier prohibiting sex-based discrimination in schools, the ‘80s setting is slowly dragged into the present day by Westerlund and some noteworthy teammates.With heavily disguised former NFL punter and current ESPN personality Pat McAfee as a principal excited that girls’ flag football has become a varsity sport, this stand-in for a John Hughes movie high school gets an education from flag players, including Serenity Simon from Miami’s Palmetto High School, Keiser University and U.S Women’s national team player Ashlea Klam, and U.S. flag football veteran and 2022 Super Bowl ad star Vanita Krouch. Together, the flag football players rock the school’s retrograde jocks like a hurricane as Scorpions provide the soundtrack.“The biggest difference is the first [Super Bowl flag football ad] sparked the global excitement, and it was all about the Olympics and the giant stage,” said Marissa Solis, svp of global brand and marketing for the NFL. “This time it’s more personal: It’s about high school, seeing the journey of these young ladies, and making it an official high school sport, and it starts in local communities.” Like the NFL Super Bowl ads before it, this one is replete with current players, including the Cleveland Browns’ Myles Garrett and the Minnesota Vikings’ Justin Jefferson (an NFL flag football ambassador). Plus, there are alumni such as former running back Marshawn Lynch—who’s thrown support behind women’s football and the Women’s National Football Conference (WNFC) tackle league. Unlike past ads, however, NFL talent serves largely as comic relief for NFL global flag football ambassadors, including Brazil’s Gabi Bankhardt, France’s Elisa De Santis, Australia’s Kodie Fuller, Germany’s Mona Stevens, and Mexico’s Tania Rincon.Ki’Lolo Westerlund and her squad are about to school some ’80s jocks.NFLDirected by Peter Berg—the Friday Night Lights and Lone Survivor director who steered the NFL and 72andSunny’s first Super Bowl collaboration “NFL 100” in 2019—the spot ends with a reminder of how far girls and women’s sports have come—and where more can be done. Since the NFL and 72andSunny’s ad with Mexican flag quarterback Diana Flores ran in 2023, the league and its teams have sponsored youth flag football programs through their NFL Flag, pushed to make flag football a varsity sport in 15 states (with pilot programs in 18 others) and successfully lobbied for men’s and women’s flag football’s inclusion in the 2029 Los Angeles Olympics. The “50” in “NFL Flag 50” is the number of states the league inevitably wants to sanction the sport at the high school level. It’s much easier to argue for that future when players can show it’s already here.“Just this week, two more states have sanctioned girls’ flag football as a varsity sport, and we have had a 100% increase in sanctioning in just the last year, so this year’s spot is on that momentum,” said NFL CMO Tim Ellis. “People see it happening in their own communities, in their own schools, [so] let’s just shine a light on it with the ultimate intention of getting more high schools to sanction girls’ flag as a varsity sport. We have 15 now. We have 35 to go.”Pointing toward progressEarlier this week, just before Super Bowl 59, the New Orleans Saints announced that it would partner with Louisiana and Mississippi to add girls’ flag football as a varsity sport in each state. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell also used the leadup to the Big Game to say that the league is considering professional flag football leagues.But for all of the action that the league and teams like the Saints, the New York Jets, the Chicago Bears, and others have taken to promote girls’ flag football and create opportunities for players, the best arguments still are made on the field. Glenn Cole, 72andSunny’s founder and chairman, noted that the ad and its humor were aimed directly at the players who know exactly how far their sport has come in the last four years—nevermind 40—and have the influence with parents and school administrators to make a difference.Pat McAfee does his best Ed Rooney impression.NFL/72andSunny“We’re not gonna shame our way to states getting on board—they have to be inspired to get there,” Cole said. “Thanks to the Super Bowl, we can use the entertainment lever to help.”Throughout the NFL’s partnership with 72andSunny, one of the hallmarks has been a “helmets-off” strategy that lets audiences get to see players’ faces and know their personalities while maintaining a narrative pacing similar to in-game action. With flag football already removing the helmets, director Berg’s focus on fast-paced sports choreography—including giving the ball to Utah Girls Tackle Football League founder Sam Gordon—could showcase flag football players’ talent and personality at the speed of the game.It’s a different world for NFL Flag ambassador Justin Jefferson.NFL/72andSunnyTo make the action as realistic as possible, Berg teamed with a women’s sports choreographer who worked with the flag football players to create highlight moves and drill them for filming. With the exception of a Saquon Barkley-style hurdle that required some technical assistance, all of the on-field moves were made on the spot, with cameras cutting to Lynch and others for instant reactions. The creators involved wanted to let the flag football speak for itself—and make its best argument.“I think we’re going to be the only commercial talking to a state athletic board,” said Zach Hilder, executive creative director at 72andSunny. “A lot of brands are trying to sell chips or beer, and that’s great, but the messaging on this is really to get a groundswell of people to create real change for these girls.”Gaining yardageThe “NFL Flag 50” campaign is one of two initiatives the league launched with 72andSunny this postseason. Debuting during the conference championship games, the 60-second “Somebody” spot used the Reverend Jesse Jackson’s interpretation of Rev. William Holmes Borders’ poem “I Am Somebody” to pair NFL players with kids from New Orleans Big Brothers Big Sisters, InSideOut, and Special Olympics programs and highlight league youth efforts like PLAY 60 and Character Playbook.The day before the Super Bowl, the NFL’s called attention to flag football by hosting a game between teams coached by WNBA star Angel Reese and captained by influencer ambassadors Kai Cent and iShowSpeed. Even after “NFL Flag 50” airs, the NFL plans on showing fans social clips of Westerlund and her international colleagues’ athletic journeys, the NFL stars’ ‘80s transformations, and the flag football players’ navigation of the post-Super Bowl media circuit. All of it is part of a greater strategy to draw interest beyond NFL games themselves and get young fans involved in the NFL Flag participation program.“It’s using the power of the NFL and all of its ambassadors together, as well as the 32 teams,” Ellis said. “It’s how we make it exponentially more powerful than could be otherwise.” Source link

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