Thursday, January 01, 2009

1992 Rebok Ad Campaign

During the spring of 1992 Reebok started airing a series of ads featuring U.S. decathletes Dan O'Brien(the number 1 ranked decathlete in the world) and Dave Johnson. Reebok was trying to build the "rivalry" between the two leading up to the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.

The ads aired so frequently they started driving me crazy. One day I was walking up to class in Pullman and I thought I had gone completely looney toons when I saw Dan O'Brien jogging towards me. I was relieved to find out he really did live just down the road in Moscow Idaho.

The ad campaign ended up being a complete disaster because O'Brien choked at the 92' Olympic trials and failed to make the U.S. team.

O'Brien rebounded four years latter in Atlanta winning gold in a world record setting performance.

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