Tag Archives: GATORADE

Gatorade Celebrates 50 Years of Highlights

Gatorade is celebrating its 50th anniversary classic sports highlights.

There is perhaps no brand more synonymous with sports than Gatorade. For the last half-century, Gatorade has been a staple of baseball dugouts and football sidelines around the world. It’s rather fitting that the brand chose to celebrate its 50th anniversary with a highlight reel of timeless moments in sports history.

The 60-second video ad counts up from one to 50, tying each number to a moment from the last five decades in sports history. From Derek Jeter’s No. 2 jersey to the San Francisco 49ers dumping Gatorade on Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Walsh, each moment resonates well with its chosen number.

The spot accomplishes something that Gatorade has always excelled at – emphasizing the beverage’s close relationship to athletic competition. Gatorade was invented in 1965, with the specific purpose of better hydrating athletes. The brand is smart to keep that narrative front and center.

I always appreciate when a campaign has a logical through-line from product to pitch. Superstar athletes promote all sorts of products, but it’s more impactful when the product is something they legitimately use on a daily basis.

My one gripe with this spot is that – from start to finish – Florida Gators football players count along with the series of highlights. By the time they got to 15, I was more than ready for that audio to fade out. By the time they reached 50, I was practically screaming, “Enough already!”

That one complaint aside, Gatorade’s 50th anniversary ad is unquestionably a success. I still won’t likely be drinking one anytime soon (I don’t need as much sugar as football players do…), but how many people really read the labels anyway? Not to mention that Gatorade has never passed my lips.

Howard Davidson Arlington MA

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Gatorade Employees Sweat Out It Out

On a quest for wellness, Gatorade is making employees sweat it out. Literally.

The Chicago-based sport drink brand is promoting workplace fitness by incentivizing employees to set personal fitness goals. Apparently company executives realized their sugary drinks needed extra exercise to burn off.

The PepsiCo-owned brand is providing a 6-month program for its 150 employees by providing subsidized program costs and access to trainers called G-Feat. The G-Feat plan includes a daily 60-second workout…at the office…with your officemates, making that mid-afternoon cup of coffee expendable.

So every afternoon all of the Gatorade coworkers have the opportunity to get up out of their chair for a minute of squats, planks, or jumping jacks. As if that wasn’t an opportunity for enough embarrassment, the G-Feat program encourages participants to make their goals public by posting them at the office so colleagues can keep each other motivated.

The G-Feat plan allows employees to be put in the consumer shoes. Gatorade executives are hoping training employees might notice a need to drink Gatorade at specific times or have a certain flavor. Either way, I doubt they want them even thinking about drinking a bottle of water. I bet if someone utters the words “Poland Springs”, they are ordered to do a pushups.

I’ll be staying far away from Gatorade HQ. I don’t shvitz with colleagues.

Howard Davidson Arlington MA

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