• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, September 5, 2024

America is ready for some football, and as the National Football League’s season gets underway, brands are banking on opening-week mania with light-hearted new campaigns.

Hellmann’s is building on its partnership with Will Levis, the Tennessee Titans quarterback, who extols his love for condiments in a series of 15-second spots. The ads playfully position Levis as a sort of romantic poet, voicing lines that are so bad they’re good: “Mayo team reach higher, and may your Buffalo chicken dip be fire,” he says in one. “Mayo dip be creamy and your quarterback…dreamy.” 

The ads, created by VML, debut this week and are scheduled to run through December. In addition to the TV schedule, the campaign also uses radio, print and shoppable QR codes on CBS Sports and “The Drew Barrymore Show.”

Social media includes TikTok, Meta, and Pinterest, while out-of-home ads focus on priority college towns in the Southeast and NFL fans in the New York metro area.

Best Buy is also looking for laughs, using Gram, its helpful spokes-hologram, to face off against NBC Sports’ talent Mike Tirico, Maria Taylor and Chris Simms.

The electronics retailer, entering its fifth consecutive year as an official NFL sponsor, will also introduce spots with two NFL players – Mercole Hardman and Marquis “Hollywood” Brown, of the Kansas City Chiefs – and a Kansas City chef, showcasing tech assortment in a less traditional way. And in “Ultimate Tailgate” the brand taps a bit of Green Bay-inspired bratwurst humor to further show off its product range.

Best Buy created the ads in-house.

Ariat, the Western boot and apparel company, is also getting into the game, announcing a multi-year deal with Brock Purdy, quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers. The company says Purdy exemplifies its hard-working ethos, rising from the last player selected in the NFL draft to his current star status.