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You can barely get through a commercial break without seeing Peyton Manning. He’s hawking anything moving. His endorsement deals have Manning signing off on cars, insurance, gatorade, cellphones, and hospitals. Peyton’s motto seems to be “You make it, I’ll promote it…For money.” I can’t knock him because it’s paying off.

He earned $13 million in endorsements in 2007, a 13 percent jump from $11.5 million last year and a figure good enough to place Manning 9th among U.S. sports celebrities and first in the National Football League.

Peyton Manning seems like a swell guy, and I’m glad he’s gettin money, but why is he the most marketable guy in the NFL? You would think that Tom Brady and LaDainian Tomlinson would be more Madison Avenue friendly.. As a matter of fact, on the surface you’d think anybody short of Michael Vick would be better at slangin product than Peyton Manning. You’d be wrong. I’m no fan of his pre-snap histrionics, but #18 is money when he’s in front of the camera for cash.

Manning endorsements now top $13M. Courtesy of the Indy Star

Tags: Peyton Manning, NFL, Indianapolis Colts, Endorsements

After checking out the commercials by the Minnesota Twins and the Toronto Blue Jays, the Texas Rangers decided to drop a few of their own. Let’s go to the video tape:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_XQnbxbpa0]

That was a commercial for a baseball team? Ok Texas, you’re off to a bad start. Let’s give it another try.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8f–v-f4Zw[/youtube]

The kid falling over was funny but what’s the point of the commercial? Let’s give the Rangers one last chance.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_tuhikoNzo[/youtube]

Better than the first two but still far from good. The biggest problem I have is the lack of star power. Where are the players? I would say that the commercials are killing attendance, but Seattle had better commercials and they’re barely pulling more people than Texas. The Twins and Blue Jays fall behind the Rangers in the attendance standings and they both had solid spots. The Rangers better enjoy the fans now because nobody’s coming out to the yard after the fire sale.

Part of being a big time athlete are the endorsements you get. There’s the shoes, sodas, and video games. Everybody can’t be “on the cover” so that leads to athletes teaming up businesses in the local community.

Brian Dawkins seems excited about his opportunity:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9-L5tLGYU8]

I’m an Eagles fan but that’s hard to watch. Here’s Bernie Kosar slangin add-on heat pumps.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IN_l43KM5w]

I guarantee Charlie Frye is trying to order an add-on heat pump as I type this. Bernie’s a pretty bad actor, but he nailed the “it’s pure comfort”/toss ball to self part of the commercial.

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If you only take one positive from the NBA playoffs this year it should be that advertising works. I don’t have the ratings from the latest airing of TBS’ “House of Payne”, but episode 1 did incredibly well and the 2nd episode was basic cable’s #1 sitcom telecast of all time. OF ALL TIME. In fairness, I have never seen the show, and I have nothing against anybody that has anything to do with the program BUT.. Are you serious? “House of Payne”?!? Did all of those spots during TNT’s NBA broadcast drive the nation to watch that show? Was there a drawing for $500 million bucks during the middle of the broadcast?

I won’t judge a book by it’s cover but I’ll judge a tv show by it’s commercials. To put it nicely, the commercials sucked. I thought they were supposed to highlight the good parts of a show with commercials. HOP ads made me cringe. The commercials made me set a tivo reminder not to watch TBS the entire day that the show airs… And I don’t care what the hell the rest of you are watching, I won’t be tuning in for “House of Payne”.. I’ll stop short of saying I’ll never watch because the show’s creator Tyler Perry got TBS to sign up for 100 episodes… There is a God. And he loves him some Tyler Perry.

If HOP is pulling numbers for TBS, what’s a show produced by Kenny Smith and Jamie Foxx gonna do? You can listen to Kenny talking about the new show here.

TBS and Tyler Perry Brings Major “Payne”. Courtesy of EUR Web

Kenny Smith Interview. Courtesy of Sports Interview

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