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Transcript

Country Roads · Letter to America

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Sometime in early 2006, I was sitting in Ten Green, the large conference room on the Gatorade floor of the Westloop building in Chicago, where I was working.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was a weekly leadership team meeting.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: The diverse agenda and revolving door of people coming in and out meant you never knew exactly what would be on the docket.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Next on the agenda that week?
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Should Gatorade do an ad for the 2006 World Cup in Germany?
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: The U.S.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: had dominated the qualifying and was arriving ranked fifth, the highest ever going into the tournament.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, while America had in fact qualified for every cup since 1990, the drought from 1950 to 1990 had left little in the way of fandom for the U.S.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: men's national team.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: With the limited advertising budget, would you waste the shot on a World Cup ad that potentially nobody would notice or care about?
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: The brief discussion led to a quick decision to hold and see how it played out.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe by 2010 the tide would have shifted.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: As I recall, it was unanimous.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: When I left the meeting and went back to my desk, a member of my team came in and closed the door behind him.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: He was livid.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: How could we ignore the largest sporting event in the world?
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: How could we ignore an American team that was potentially poised for a breakthrough?
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: How could we cater to fans' fashions when a key marketing tenant was always to take people beyond the fan's eye view?
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Behind the scenes, the training, the blood, sweat, and tears that are shed before you even get onto the field?
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: He asked if he and a couple of others could make their case to the leadership.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: The very next day, after a literal all-nighter, the three passionate young team members came back to give a simple, hard-hitting argument.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: If the country doesn't care, isn't it our job to show them why they should?
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Do we follow sports and sponsor it?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Or are we part of sports, fueling it on every sideline, in every game, on every field, from your kids' team to the World Cup?
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Are we there for the athletes?
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Or are we there for the fans?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Do we have the will to win that we espouse?
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Or is that just advertising?
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: They were incensed and made their case in a fast and furious manner.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: There was just the locker room lecture we needed to hear.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: They left the room, and without further discussion we put it to a vote.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Every hand was raised.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Then came the hard part.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: How do you accomplish the Herculean task of demonstrating to the American audience why the rest of the world is watching?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: A cumulative TV audience of billions, riveted to their seats over the month of the cup.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: How does a group of Americans in an ad agency in Chicago capture lightning in a Gatorade bottle and bring it back to America?
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you put a creative team on a plane with the men's team to a nominally friendly match in the run up to the World Cup.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: You bear witness to them carrying their own bags through the airport, no fans to send them off.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: You watch them suit up in visiting team dressing rooms barely fit for use.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: You help them carry their own coolers of Gatorade with them onto the sidelines, and you hear the thunderous applause of the home fans welcoming their local legends onto the pitch, and the volume rise to a deafening roar of booze as our men enter the field.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: The commercial was named The Road, and it captured what they saw as clearly and honestly as they could.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: They ironically accompanied the sobering imagery with the national anthem of American sports, Take Me Out to the Ball Game, borrowing the soundtrack of the World Series and juxtaposing it with the World Cup, closing on a super that read, It's a whole new ballgame.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: The ad was received enthusiastically, and fortunately, that didn't hinge on how our team actually performed in the Cup.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because unfortunately, it turned out that our fears were founded.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: The team ended up in the aptly named group of death, Czech Republic, Ghana, and Italy.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: We crashed out, coming dead last in the group with only four shots across the group stage.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: The best showing?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: We tied with Italy.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: So here I am, twenty years later, it's early morning here, on Friday, June 26th, and I'm sitting alone watching my two home teams go head to head.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Team USA, who didn't have to qualify this time, entered automatically as a host nation, and have already proven we belong at this level.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Winning group D with a match to spare.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Turkey, on the other hand, struggled to qualify the hard way, through the European playoffs, and has already been eliminated from the same group.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: As USA and Turkey face off at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, the stakes couldn't be lower.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing really on the line.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's what they call a dead rubber.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: To illustrate the point, in 2002 I happened to be visiting Turkey from New York.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: I sat on this very couch with my young kids watching Turkey play host country Korea for the symbolic third place consolation prize at the World Cup.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Haakon Shakir's goal straight from the kickoff at 10.8 seconds, still the fastest in cup history.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Turkey eventually won 3-2 and got their highest finish, third place, in their first appearance since 1954.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not what's remembered.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: The Korean home crowd was ecstatic to have made it so far, having not even had to qualify as a co-host of the cup with Japan.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: They were genuinely happy for Turkey.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: The teams traded jerseys, winners and losers circling the pitch together in front of a euphoric crowd.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Many Koreans waving Turkish flags and wearing Turkish jerseys.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: I went out and bought one myself for the first time, and wore it proudly back home in the States.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Today's final score was also 3-2 to Turkey, and began with an early goal, this time by Team USA's trustee, the third-minute strike, the second fastest in U.S.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: team history.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: The score tied seven minutes later and stayed that way until another fast goal only minutes into the second half by Sebastian Berthalter.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: His dad, Greg, had been a U.S.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: men's team member back in 2006, and now he watched his son score from the stands.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: All told, the game at SoFi Stadium that meant nothing was level for 70 of 98 minutes.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: And yet the meaningless, skippable game that should have been dead on arrival was full to the rafters.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: A straight up street party outside despite the late kickoff.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: The stars were out too, in numbers rare for even LA Lakers' postseason games.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Pitt and Norton having a fight club reunion, and Leo hiding behind his hat and a beer.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: U.S.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: TV audiences exploded this World Cup too, with 27.5 million tuning in for the USA Paraguay match earlier in the group stage.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: As the game drew to a close and minutes turned into seconds, a team that had infamously taken 62 shots without scoring in their first two group matches had one last chance, with the final touch of the match.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: A beautifully orchestrated cross delivered to the feet of Khan Iham, sliding home and finding the net.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Turkey's third goal on only four shots on target.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like many team USA games this year, after the whistle, John Denver's unofficial anthem filled the air in the stadium.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Take me home, country roads.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Which brings me back to that 2006 World Cup, when Italy ended up in the finals.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: The fact that the U.S.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: had tied with them in the group stage suddenly felt like redemption.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: It felt like America was up and coming.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: We were visiting Turkey during that World Cup, watching the finals between Italy and France as a family from a hotel lobby in Bodrum.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: We were loving watching Zidane in probably his last match.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Light up the field, his audacious chipped penalty shot off to the underside of the bar, into the goal, and spinning back out, one zero in the seventh minute.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: We gasped when Italy tied twelve minutes later, the score even.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: It ground on, until the hundred and tenth minute.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: We were heavily favoring France, but really Zidane.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: He was everything you'd want from an aging national hero in a World Cup final.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: During halftime, I promised my boys Zidane jerseys no matter who won.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: The grace under the pressure, the building tension, and then snap.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Zidane and Matarazzi have words walking up the pitch.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Zidane turns, walks back toward him, headbutts him, flattening him.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Red card, and a long walk into history, the shot hung in the air.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: France finished overtime down a player, but managed to hold it to a tie.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Then it went to penalties.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Italy didn't miss a shot, and won five to three.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: We leapt to our feet, applauding, screaming, and hugging each other that Italy were World Cup champions for the fourth time.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Their first in twenty four years.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody ever followed up to ask about the jerseys.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is Hamdelin from Istanbul.