During the 2019 Super Bowl, the NFL ran an ad that celebrated its centennial season by featuring pigskin legends of yesterday and today engaging in an impromptu game of tackle football at a black-tie gala. The rollicking two-minute “100 Year Game” ad won widespread praise, including taking home the coveted top spot in the USA Today Ad Meter.
This year, the league is returning to that formula—with a twist that includes new production technology that blends puppetry and CGI. The NFL is using the same agency-director team that made the 2019 spot, 72andSunny and Peter Berg. But joining the team this year is the production studio Swaybox, a New Orleans-based startup that is attempting to take puppetry into new realms.
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The NFL does not plan to release the two-minute spot until it airs during the game, just before the halftime show. The production team is still adding finishing touches, and league officials as of late this week had still not seen the final product.
Like the 2019 ad, the spot will include a cast of current and former players—plus coaches, referees and announcers. But the setting is much different: It will begin with a brother and sister playing a football video game at their house with the scene then shifting to the players popping out of the screen and into the home.