Russell Athletic is asking young football players to pledge their allegiance to their team. With the Together We R Campaign, they can send a message by completing a digital “declaration.”
Based out of Bowling Green, KY, Fruit of the Loom will continue to run “Plural” from last year. This relies on an off-camera narrator for the creative voice-over. Kelly Sheets Thompson, SVP/brand communications for Fruit of the Loom said, “But this year, we wanted to bring a face to the effort, so we now use an on-camera athlete to tell the story.
This differs from other athletic brands because Russell doesn’t focus on famous athletes. They pick the unknown player and have them wear jerseys that say, “Teammate” or “Declaration.”
Why do they do this? Because they understand that we are all created equal, but teams are not. In the video the athlete says “Teams venture into uncharted waters. Challenge the laws of physics. And pull off the impossible, together. I play for a team.”
Russell Athletic is unique because of their presence on the field the past 50 years, their focus on what it means to be a team, and their demonstration of longevity.
They will spend approximately $7 million on advertising. Ads are currently running on football programming on ABC, CBS, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU. These will run from now until December 28, when the Russell Athletic Bowl is scheduled in Orlando. The bowl was formerly known as the Champs Sports Bowl.
Over the next 14 weeks, they will be refreshing the stories every other week. They are asking people to contribute their stories that will tie into themes such as Rite of Passage, Promise, Sacrifice, Teammates, Brothers and Together We R.
Check out the campaigns on Tumblr and Facebook to see the videos, pictures and stories that athletes from all around are sharing. With this mindset, this could change a whole generation that is being raised to focus on themselves.
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