The Other Reason to Watch Super Bowl 50 - The Commercial Edition

While I may be significantly invested in watching the teams play tonight, I have always enjoyed Super Bowl commercials! So, for those of you who couldn't care less about the Broncos or Panthers, I've put together a little cardboard related commercial compilation(wow, how's that for alliteration?). I will admit, not all of these commercial cards depict characters from Super Bowl commercials, they are all from fairly well known ads. Let me apologize for the length of this post in advance, but it'll be a fun filled trip down memory lane if you want to take it with me!

We begin way back in 1989/90...

Bo Jackson was the MAN! Somewhere along the lines. I snagged this unlicensed card based upon his 'Bo Knows' Nike campaign. I remember loving this as a kid. In fact, I'm not sure I knew anyone my age that didn't love it(and quote it endlessly). Check out part one here.

Here's part two of the 'Bo' campaign.

Now, let's keep the nostalgia train-a-rolling.

Next up, we have two cards featuring NBA superstar Michael Jordan(or someone that looks and plays a lot like him). The first is from his 1991 Nike campaign with Spike Lee(as Mars Blackmon). This ad was responsible for the ubiquitous 'it's gotta be the shoes' line that stayed around playground pickup games for far too long. The second came in 1994 and features one of two actual Super Bowl ads that I can highlight in the theme of this post. Shortly after MJ retired, this 'new' NBA player named Johnny Kilroy emerged. He had a style very similar to that of His Airness and looked an awful lot like him too. I remember being thrilled to pull this from a pack of UD Special Edition(I think that's what the product was called). Sorry, for the sake of trying to keep this post a bit shorter I won't post video of either of these ads.

Moving right along, we come to Larry Johnson and his memorable Converse campaign from the early '90's. 

I played a lot of playground, pickup basketball when I was a kid and everyone wanted to be 'Grandmama'!

This isn't the original Grandmama commercial, but it was my favorite.

Moving along. In the mid-nineties, one of my favorite players was Anfernee 'Penny' Hardaway, and he had a great series of commercials where he starred alongside an action figure of himself called Lil Penny. These were hilarious and Lil Penny was voiced by Chris Rock! Sad to say that I've never been able to find any trading cards related to these ads.

Fast forward to 2011, LeBron James was one of the best and most popular players in the NBA. He was probably one of the most marketable players too. Thus, The LeBrons were born.

I won't say too much about this campaign because the card sums it up pretty clearly. Sorry, once again, no video.

Thanks for hanging in with me this far, if you've made it. The last card features one of my favorite players and the second two sport star of he post.

In 2013, another mysterious player came out of nowhere to take the NFL Draft Combine by storm. Leon Sandcastle ended up being drafted by the Chiefs with the number one pick. This provided some great entertainment for me during the Super Bowl that year. I love Deion!

So there you have my commercials on cardboard tribute post. Thanks for sticking with me through this twisting, turning journey down memory lane. Here's hoping that in between some great game footage tonight that there are some new cardboard commercial memories to be made.