Advertisement

THE SIDELINES : Nike Toes the Ad Line for CBS

Share via

CBS, which is broadcasting the Super Bowl, asked Nike Inc. to remove rival announcers Marv Albert, Dick Enberg and Al Michaels from a commercial scheduled to run during the game, and the shoe company agreed.

Tom Clarke, Nike’s vice president and director of marketing, and Scott Bedbury, director of advertising, said that the shoe company would tape three more announcers and that the spot, titled “The Announcers,” would be re-edited.

“We are a major advertiser, and we don’t want to be in an adversarial relationship with a major network,” Clarke said.

Advertisement

The original commercial, the start of Nike’s new campaign that replaces “Bo Knows,” uses announcers Pat Summerall, Tom Heinsohn, Tony Trabert and Ben Wright of CBS; Enberg and Albert of NBC; Michaels of ABC; Dick Vitale of ABC and ESPN; Harry Caray of WGN in Chicago, and Don Cherry of CBC in Canada.

According to officials at CBS and NBC, who spoke on the condition that they not be identified, Enberg, Albert and Michaels are being removed because they are identified in the public mind as announcers who compete with CBS.

“They only wanted CBS announcers in it,” Albert said.

Advertisement