• by Teresa Buyikian , August 23, 2024

With fall approaching fast, football season is upon us. And with the sport comes a plethora of new football-themed advertising campaigns, including the latest for Fireball Whisky.

This week the brand announced its latest football rivalry-fueled TV and online video campaign. The two spots, both in :15 and :30 versions, depict two 30-something friends (actually comedians Andrew Santino and Stavros Halkias) at a bar, watching the game. In both spots Halkias’s team is on the losing end, and the two have made a bet over the game.

In the first, entitled "Eyebrows," after Halkias’s loss, an animated Fireball devil appears on Santino’s shoulder as the bartender simultaneously places two shots of Fireball in front of them. Santino holds Halkias to their bet, and hands him an electric razor. For a moment it appears that Halkias has to shave his head as the loser, but we soon find out it is much worse: He shaves off his eyebrows.

In the second spot, "Tattoo," the setup is the same, except this time results in Halkias getting a hideously embarrassing permanent tattoo of an illustrated sea creature with Santino’s head, ridden by Halkias.

Beginning this month, the work will air during the Big 10 and Notre Dame college football games on NBC, and on the Peacock-exclusive game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers from Brazil. This effort includes pre-game and in-game spots, in addition to Fireball serving as the exclusive sponsor of the 2nd quarter, with branded segments and Fireball integrations.

Commercials will run adjacent to all "Sunday Night Football" games on Peacock for the rest of the season. Additionally, the ads will air across several streaming ESPN properties, YouTube and Meta. The work will also appear on TikTok, marking Fireball’s first paid media spend on the platform, “tapping into the (its) vibrant community to engage with a new generation of fans,” said a brand representative via email.