9 Months to Tri

So, my day-job is working for ESPN as a Web Designer. I do mostly internal and B2B projects, so no, you probably haven’t seen much of my work.

Anyway, early last week, this ad came through on our intranet and I immediately wanted to share it with everyone. I just really liked it. I almost posted it immediately, but then decided I wasn’t sure if it would cost me my job or not, so I started asking around. Turns out I wasn’t the only one who liked it, and finally, we got permission to post, print and share the ad.

So, a quick bit of history. As you know, the Olympics were covered here in the US on the NBC network, not ESPN. As you might guess, a good majority of the people who work here at ESPN love sports. Now, I like sports, especially if I get to play, but the guys we have around here blow me out of the water. Spouting stats. Up to the minute news about who’s doing what and for whom. Opinions on any team in any sport and in any country. ESPN’s brand is “We are the world’s biggest sports fan,” and working here for almost 3 years, I can attest to the truthfulness of that statement.

In true fan-boy manner, the week after the Olympics, ESPN spent I-don’t-know-how-many dollars to run this full-page ad Sunday in the New York Times and Monday in the USA Today to congratulate U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps. I love how it honestly points out that not only did ESPN NOT carry the Olympics, but that when we got home at night, we also didn’t flip on SportsCenter, but instead we all flipped on NBC to watch live Phelps and the other athletes competing from around the world in Beijing. We’ve all heard that sports transcends culture and politics. Sports apparently transcends networks, too.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this ad as much as I do.

On a side note, has anybody else noticed themselves picturing those races as they’ve done laps in their local pool? I have. Did it again today, in fact while pretending I have a gut as flat as those 20-somethings.

Share This