• by Danielle Oster , November 4, 2025

Ahead of the upcoming debut of the fifth and final season of “Stranger Things” later this month, Gatorade partnered with Netflix for ads simultaneously celebrating the sci-series and a 1987 campaign for the PepsiCo-owned sports drink brand.

The fifth series of the show is set in the fall of 1987, allowing Gatorade to nod to its own “No Ordinary Thirst Quencher,” but with a supernatural twist to fit the show’s themes. Scenes switch from basketball, baseball and football games being played in daylight to shots of the dark Upside Down, the alternate dimension in “Stranger Things.”

And, instead of “No Ordinary Thirst Quencher,” the 2025 version is “No Ordinary Athlete.” The 30-second spot, narrated by Cleveland Browns All-Pro defensive end and professed “Stranger Things” superfan Myles Garrett, debuted Nov. 3 across digital and social media platforms. It arrives on the heels of the release of the Oct.  30 trailer for season five of the show, and ahead of the Nov. 26 release of the first episode of the season.

“No Ordinary Athlete” will expand to CTV during Netflix’s live stream of Christmas Day NFL games, which will coincide with the release of the final episodes of the series’ final season. According to Netflix, last year’s Christmas Day NFL games drew an average of 30 million viewers globally.

The campaign also includes major OOH takeovers across three major cities. Gatorade’s NYC OOH campaign is currently running, ahead of a Los Angeles installment launching later this week, and one in Cleveland later this month.

Gatorade is also bringing back its Citrus Cooler flavor as a limited-time offering in retro Upside Down  ‘Stranger Things” packaging. The brand also collaborated with Netflix on “Stranger Things” merchandise drops, including retro apparel and Gatorade towels, launching via a “1987 Hawkins Capsule” and “Upside Down Capsule.”

The campaign follows Gatorade looking to a different iconic campaign from its s past last year, reviving the “Is It In You?” tagline with what PepsiCo called the brand’s “largest ever” campaign.

“The Gatorade ‘Stranger Things’ 5 collaboration celebrates our authentic 1980s heritage by reviving iconic products and ads from our vault and pulling them into the ‘Upside Down,’” Gatorade Senior Vice President, Marketing Anuj Bhasin said in a statement.