GE’s MLB Opening Day campaign revisits league’s first night game

General Electric’s legacy of innovation and its current efforts are the focal points of a new campaign premiering today during MLB’s Opening Day. “GE’s Opening Day,” created by agency Giant Spoon, reimagines the 1935 moment GE technology made it possible for MLB games to be played at night. The spot also hints at GE’s own “Opening Day” on April 2, with the listing of two of the three companies it spun off, GE Aerospace and GE Vernova (which is focused on energy), on the New York Stock Exchange. (The other company, GE HealthCare, was listed in January 2023.) “We chose this Opening Day moment because GE’s played a part in American history for more than a century, and to have this indelible moment when our company helped turn the lights on, quite literally, for the American public to be able to see baseball at night in 1935 in Cincinnati, it was this wonderful fulcrum moment of change,” Chief Marketing Officer Linda Boff told Ad Age. “The game will never look the same again.” Now, as teams gear up to play today, the hope is people understand the company’s impact, she added. Baseball’s daytime history It wasn’t until May 24, 1935 that the first night game in MLB history was played at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field, where the home team defeated the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1. To mark the occasion, President Franklin D. Roosevelt “threw a ceremonial switch” at the White House as the lights courtesy of GE went on in Cincinnati, according to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Sign up for Ad Age newsletters From influencer marketing to agencies, get the latest news and analysis delivered to your inbox Click here Giant Spoon Co-Founder Trevor Guthrie said the creative team tried to capture the magnitude of that moment. To do so, the team included Easter eggs that nod to GE’s company history throughout the spot. Those include a voiceover from actress and filmmaker Elizabeth Banks, whose father worked at GE for 40 years; GE-inspired baseball jerseys that include the initials of GE Founder Thomas Edison, the name “Generals” and the No. 2 on the pitcher’s jersey, a reference to the two companies that will launch on the NYSE. The campaign was shot in Macon, Georgia in the same stadium where the movie “42” about Jackie Robison was shot. “[Baseball] is such an American pastime and has such an impact on our culture. But if you think about it, a lot of the games that we experience now are because of GE. We felt like we could talk about that and use it to point to where we were going,” Guthrie told Ad Age. “So when those players hit the field in Cincinnati in 1935, what did that [feel like] in history? The spot will run during every single Opening Day game. As part of the campaign, GE will host a 1,000-drone light show in New York on April 1. The mix-media performance will soar 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty and will include an accompanying soundtrack. On the listing day, April 2, GE will launch another drone show in Bangalore, India from the GE Research campus along with an installation of a 30-foot-long storybook to create the illusion of the drones taking off from its pages. At the NYSE in New York, a split banner will be featured on the facade while cups of GE Aerospace “Jet Fuel” coffee and GE Vernova “Electric Green” tea will be handed out. GE Aerospace will continue under the GE ticker (GE), while GE Vernova will trade under the ticker symbol GEV. GE will also run a global print campaign starting on April 2 across the U.S., U.K., France, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., China, Singapore and India, declaring “We Are Go” for GE Aerospace and “It’s On” for GE Vernova. “We really were intentional in wanting to create a moment with the film, the drone show and with this historic launch at the New York Stock Exchange,” Boff told Ad Age. “It is a moment to give both of those two companies—GE Aerospace and GE Vernova—a bit of a curtain riser. I'm an optimist by nature, but even if I weren't, I would say the future is so bright for both of them and they carry the DNA of innovation that has been true for GE for decades.” See all of Ad Age’s 2024 Agency A-List winners here

GE’s MLB Opening Day campaign revisits league’s first night game

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