• by Aaron Baar , April 26, 2016

To hear NFL quarterback Drew Brees tell it, Tempur-Pedic got the spelling of its new, stay-cool mattress wrong. 

The New Orleans Saints star, whose name is a homonym for the company’s new “Breeze” mattress, appears in a series of videos touting the product’s cooling abilities. In one of them, he accuses the company of getting the name wrong. 

“One of the things we like about this relationship is he’s a customer and has been for 10 years,” Rick Maynard, a representative for the brand, tells Marketing Daily. “He’s got an authenticity to his story.”

For the digital campaign, Brees also “surprises” his teammate Max Unger with a late-night gift of a Breeze mattress. In the video, Brees wakes Unger, saying he knows how the latter is always complaining about sleeping “hot.” The new mattress, Brees says, can help change that. Other videos feature Brees and Unger — in the daylight, this time — debating which of them is cooler and Brees attempting to flip a football while jumping on a Tempur-Pedic mattress (a bit reminiscent of a wine glass remaining stable on a mattress in the brand’s previous advertising). 

“There’s an increasing awareness of sleep and how it relates to performance,” Maynard says. “Drew [also] really liked the opportunity to work with one of his linemen on the campaign.”

The effort will be a part of Tempur-Pedic’s digital advertising, and will be shared through both the brand’s and Brees’ social networks. 

Supplementing the digital campaign, the brand is running a sweepstakes in which one fan will win a new Tempur-Breeze bed and an opportunity to see Brees play in New Orleans this fall.