ESPN recuts ad to include Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo after his comic rant

Chris “Mad Dog” Russo does not take it lightly when he’s left out. Super Bowl commercials Tracking the latest brand and agency plans Enter here While watching ESPN over the holidays, the sports analyst happened to catch agency Preacher’s latest promo for the network, which featured many of its on-air personalities—but not Russo. Upon his return on Jan. 3, Russo comically aired his grievances during an animated segment of “First Take,” the ESPN show where he’s a weekly guest on Wednesdays. “You embarrassed me!” he screamed, as fellow analyst Stephen A. Smith looked on blankly. Also read: ESPN makes a giant ring for college football’s national champions “Maybe if you put in more hours, and worked more than one day a week, you would have been on,” Smith shot back. Here’s the spot that got Russo so heated: After the segment aired, ESPN and Preacher saw an opportunity to make amends with Russo—and have a little fun doing so. They recut the spot, crudely adding Russo’s head atop various bodies and also incorporating bits of his rant. They surprised Russo with the revised version, below, on yesterday’s airing of “First Take.” “We love reacting to contextual real-world events in fun ways,” Seth Ader, VP of brand marketing at ESPN, told Ad Age. “Chris Russo is a unique personality who provided us with an ideal opportunity to infuse his fresh humor into our 'Watch This' campaign. You bet we pounced on that opportunity—it was too much fun to resist!” “We love working with ESPN because their passion and playfulness is downright contagious,” added Will Kelleher, associate creative director at Preacher. “When we saw Mad Dog’s response to being left out, we knew we had to take action. Shout-out to the whole team, who sprang into action to give Mad Dog his moment in the sun.”

ESPN recuts ad to include Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo after his comic rant

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