Rams players turn the tables in ad campaign

[RamWraith]

By Martin Van Der Werf
Of the Post-Dispatch
07/28/2005

After three straight days of 100-degree temperatures, and with the Cardinals kicking into playoff gear, you're thinking football, aren't you?

No!

Ready or not, the St. Louis Rams are about to roll out a clever advertising campaign that turns the tables on fans' adulation of athletes. In these ads, Rams portray groupies of teachers, ticket takers and other Average Joes.

In one TV spot, offensive lineman Adam Timmerman sleeps on the asphalt next to a school bus just to be there when "Mrs. Draper" arrives for her teaching job. He watches excitedly as she autographs his pencil box. In another spot, wide receiver Isaac Bruce praises ticket taker "Marge Dixon" as "the best there ever was," dismissively recalling an offer of $1,200 he got for a framed ticket taken by her. "As if," he sniffs.

"We thought why not put regular fans on the pedestal and have the Rams players saluting them," says Tom Hudder, executive creative director for Rodgers Townsend, the St. Louis agency that created the campaign.

The Timmerman ad was shot at Holy Infant School in Ballwin, the Bruce ad at a home about a block away that is owned by the parish. And, no, those are not real people in the ads, just actors.

The campaign also will have ads on radio, in print and at bus shelters. Look for them to bow on Monday

[RAMMAN68]

The Angles did something similar last year. The pitchers were being shown how to properly throw a bag of peanuts; two players were in the parking lot serving tailgaters; and the infielders were being shown how to rake the infield. It was pretty funny.

[evil disco man]

Sounds similar to the "cut that meat!" ads. Somebody out there had better record these!