On Friday, HBO released the trailer to its new series which will be followed by a 30-second ad in the Super Bowl, which is essentially a cut-down version of the trailer. The commercial uses the Super Bowl to bring the show to its target audience–sports fans.
The ad comes from the ad agency Motive. The spot features “the key people that turned this local L.A. team into a global phenomenon,” said Pia Chaozon Barlow, executive VP of originals marketing at HBO Max–including Johnson, played by Quincy Isaiah, and former Lakers owner Jerry Buss, played by a blonde-wigged and mustachioed John C. Reilly.
The trailer and 30-second ad are part of a broader campaign for the series that focuses on Los Angeles, where HBO is running out-of-home ads with 13 posters, along with an L.A. red carpet premiere and the renovation of a basketball court in California’s Inglewood in March, the community that houses The Forum arena where the Lakers once played. The court will be designed by California artist David Flores, in partnership with Project Backboard, a nonprofit that restores basketball courts.