In honor of the Pittsburgh Steelers making it back to the Super Bowl, we think it’s appropriate to revisit one of the most classic TV commercials of all time — Mean Joe Greene’s encounter with the generous little boy who’s willing to give up his Coke. Mean Joe is limping and obviously in physical pain after a rough game…
“You want my Coke? It’s okay, you can have it!”
This ad was beloved in its day (1979), inspiring numerous parodies. Hall of Famer Greene appeared as himself in a skit with comedian Tim Conway, who played the little boy. After offering his Coke, Conway is plunked on the head with a football as a thank you.
Amazingly, this TV commercial was later made into a movie, “The Steeler and The Pittsburgh Kid,” co-starring Greene and Henry Thomas, the boy who would soon befriend E.T.
Coke Zero later paid tribute to the ad by recasting it with Pittsburgh Steelers star Troy Polamalu:
What a great twist, with the angry Coke brand managers accusing Coke Zero of stealing both the taste of Coke and their classic commercial. Wonder if this content will ever come back in the form of mobile marketing videos for brand games? We’ll see…
Which version of the Coke ad do you like? What would you do with an NFL star’s sweat-saturated jersey?
Enjoy the Super Bowl tonight — especially the ads! If you’re brand enthusiast or a fan of Pongr’s image recognition and visual search technology, be sure to test out all of our wireless gaming options. It doesn’t matter if you are on AT&T, Verizon Wireless, or any other carrier network. As long as you can take pictures from your mobile phone, send them to us and connect with Facebook or Twitter, you’ll be well on your way to earning some Pongr Bucks in our mobile game.