Believe It Or Not: NFL Campaign Goes Off-Script In ‘You Can’t Make This Stuff Up’
Thursday, August 24, 2023 at 06:46PM By Barry Janoff
August 24, 2023: The NFL says its games are unpredictable.
Naysayers claim the league has scripted the outcome of games for its own advantage.
To tap into that conflict, the NFL has unveiled a humorous 2023 multi-media campaign, “You Can't Make This Stuff Up."
According to the NFL, “The brand campaign leans into meme and pop culture around the league being scripted while showcasing the NFL as the pinnacle of entertainment, the stage for unbelievable stories that are better than fiction.”
The effort is fronted by actor, comedian and “long-time Detroit Lions fan” Keegan-Michael Key, who directs a faux Hollywood-style script reading of the upcoming season — or, as it is repeatedly referred to, the “104th season of the NFL.”
He is joined at the script-reading table and via video conference call by players including Patrick Mahomes (Kansas City Chiefs), Travis Kelce (Kansas City Chiefs), Jason Kelce (Philadelphia Eagles), Justin Fields (Chicago Bears), Kirk Cousins (Minnesota Vikings), DK Metcalf (Seattle Seahawks), Dexter Lawrence (New York Giants), Ja’Marr Chase (Cincinnati Bengals) and Jalen Ramsey (Miami Dolphins).
Donna Kelce, mother of the Kelce brothers, also makes an appearance.
Key is seeking outlandish requests that can be worked into NFL games.
He's looking for even more unpredictable situations than actually occurred in 2022, such the Kelce brothers facing each other in Super Bowl LVII, Brock Purdy — aka Mr. Irrelevant as the last player picked in the 2022 NFL Draft — becoming the starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers and DE Chandler Jones intercepting a lateral by N
Donna Kelceew England Patriots WR Jakobi Meyers and returning it 48 yards for touchdown as time expired to give the Las Vegas Raiders a 30-24 victory.
Key gets plenty of preposterous suggestions — all of which he readily wants to incorporate into the NFL season — in the first two spots of the campaign: “The Table Read” and “The Last Page.”
Among the scenarios offered:
• “What if we write the Patrick Mahomes character out of the script?” To which everyone but Mahomes agrees.
• “Ja’Marr Chase makes a no-handed catch." He agrees, “I don’t need hands — I’ll catch it with my abs. We can call it the Absra-ca-grab-ra.”
• Quarterback Justin Fields wants to “ban sacking the quarterback.”
• Donna Kelce suggests, "What if we reveal that the Jimmy Garoppolo character fell in love with my character?” Key likes it. “Steamy. Forbidden love.”
• Kirk Cousins, not wearing a shirt, wants games to be played Shirts vs. Skins. He also wants a Super Bowl ring to go with all the bling he’s wearing.
Key replies, “Speaking of the Super Bowl, let’s skip to the last page of the script. I’ve taken the liberty of writing something spectacular.”
We are not told what it is, but it sends the room into a frenzy.
“Our goal was to make this campaign tongue-in-cheek, humorous and clever in the way we tapped into popular memes and cultural conversations about the league and its incredible real-life storylines that are better than anything you could make up," said Tim Ellis, NFL CMO, said via the league.
"We really wanted to have fun with this and not take ourselves too seriously. We hope fans get a kick out of the campaign and are sitting on the edge of their seats to see what spectacles unfold this season."
The NFL said the campaign would continue throughout the season on TV, digital and social. with a total of 16 pieces of content “timed to key moments throughout the year, such as Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas and international games.”
Full one minute spots will also air as 15- as 30- second spots.
Lead agency is 72andSunny.