Stock footage figures heavily in a documentary-like Gatorade spot called "Origins," which relates the story of how the sports drink came into existence. Conceived by Element 79 Partners, Chicago, and directed by Mark Pellington of Crossroads Films, bicoastal and Chicago, the spot uses old photos and archival footage in various formats, which are effortlessly blended with new film to show how Gatorade was invented by a team of University of Florida at Gainesville physicians, who were trying to help the school’s football team, the Gators, remain competitive.
The entertaining :60 opens with sportscaster Keith Jackson—"the voice of college football," notes Element 79 producer Rob Jaeger—standing in the putative birthplace of Gatorade: the Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, home to the Gators (the stadium is also known as "The Swamp" because only the Gators come out alive). Over an extreme wide shot of Jackson, dwarfed in the center of the stadium, text relates, "A true story." As we hear the strains of the Lovin’ Spoonfuls classic "Summer in the City," the camera cuts to a close-up of Jackson who, in his distinctive, authoritative voice, begins to tell the tale: "The legend was born in 1965, in the storied swamps of Florida. And as befits a legend, it began with a searing question."
Cut to a man in a football jersey, identified via text as Chip Hinton, Gators linebacker, 1965-’68. Standing in front of a bank of urinals, Hinton relates: "Coach asked us why we didn’t … go during the game." Dr. Dana Shires, one of the Gatorade inventors, comments, "The players weren’t adequately hydrated and their performance suffered." Here, as throughout the spot, present-day footage of the interviewees is complemented with archival footage showing ’60s-era Gators’ football games.
Jackson’s voice continues, "As the players marched through the season, they drank a carbohydrate electrolyte beverage created by University of Florida doctors."
Another Gatorade inventor, Dr. Robert Cade, notes, "Naturally, we called our stuff Gatorade." The music then shifts to Steve Winwood’s rendition of "Gimme Some Lovin" as Jackson proceeds, "In conditions that would make a salamander sweat, the Gators thrived." This sequence is intercut with archival footage of the Gators, as well as footage from the very first Gatorade commercial—circa ’67—that shows a football player enthusiastically swilling the beverage. Cut to Jack Hairston, the former sports editor of the Jacksonville Journal from ’57-’71, who recalls, "Those boys [the Gators] drank that stuff and they became a second-half team. I saw it with my own eyes."
Jackson observes, "In 1967, when the Gators won their first Orange Bowl, Gatorade had arrived," as we see archival footage showing Gators and fans celebrating that victory. Returning to the present, we get a sound byte from Dr. Robert Murray of the Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI), who says, "Today, Gatorade is the most researched sports drink in the world." (Headquartered in the Chicago suburb of Barrington, Ill., GSSI is a research and educational facility founded in ’88 that focuses on sports nutrition and exercise physiology.)
Jackson comments, "And it continues to fuel champions wherever they’re found," which launches a montage of action shots showing some contemporary athletes who have appeared in Gatorade ads, including New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, soccer star Mia Hamm, and Dave Patten and Antowain Smith, who both play for the New England Patriots. The spot cuts back to Jackson one last time, as he concludes, "Humbly born of the hard-scrabble gridirons of Florida, proven by generations of athletes, and just as the games never end, so the legend continues."
History lesson
The agency creative team for "Origins" included Danny Schuman, senior VP/group creative director/ copywriter, Joe Burke, senior VP/ group creative director/art director, Jeff Felter, senior VP/executive producer, and Jaeger. Although Element 79 was launched last year, Schuman and Burke have long worked on the Gatorade account, having been at FCB Chicago, Gatorade’s former agency.
The idea for the branding spot was prompted by the desire to educate those who were unaware of Gatorade’s origins. "Working on Gatorade for as long as we have," says Burke, "we were making the assumption that people knew where this product came from. But with this up-and-coming generation of youngsters, we were increasingly finding that people didn’t know where it came from. Kids around six, eight, ten years old were thinking, ‘Oh Gatorade—that came along around the time Powerade did.’ It was our duty to spread the word and teach the next generation; give them the religion."
According to Jaeger, the project presented a unique opportunity for him as a producer in that it involved a great deal of research. "The footage [we wanted] was so content-specific, and it was embedded in the University of Florida," says Jaeger. "The Gators team had four or five guinea pigs, including Hinton, who tested the [Gatorade] product for half a season back in the 1960s. The story came from those guys."
The archival footage was almost entirely supplied by the University of Florida. Jaeger relates, "From the footage itself, we had to find the people that played on the field, and sought out footage of them in action," relates Jaeger, who notes the gridiron footage was shot by Gators coaches, who used the 16mm film to critique player performance. "I went through photos in yearbooks trying to find out ‘Who is that guy?’ ‘Who is that [football jersey] number?’"
Even the footage from the Gators’ Orange Bowl win was culled from 30 minutes of 16mm footage since, at that time, NBC, which aired that game, didn’t record on videotape. Ultimately, Jaeger estimates he sorted through two to three hours of archival footage. The client, he adds, was very open to the creative possibilities. "They let us go with whatever footage told the story."
The agency worked on the job during February and March of this year, and it was in the midst of researching and compiling the archival footage that Pellington was tapped to direct the live action. He was the first choice to direct, says Jaeger, noting that Pellington was ideally qualified for the project. "We knew we’d be working in different formats: 8mm, 16mm, 35mm and possibly Beta," says Jaeger, "and all sixty seconds had to meld together in a virtually seamless way. Mark has experience working in different formats."
Among that experience is a 30-minute documentary Pellington directed in ’93 for PBS titled Father’s Daze that proved relevant to this project, notes Jaeger. Father’s Daze is a moving documentary portrait of the filmmaker’s father, former Baltimore Colts linebacker Bill Pellington, as he descends into Alzheimer’s disease. "And, as a filmmaker, Mark had knowledge of the sport," Jaeger adds.
Burke observes that the team was also particularly attracted to Pellington for his work on The United States of Poetry, a five-part, in-depth series for PBS filmed over a year and a half. The program took viewers on a cross-country journey through end-of-century America, guided by 72 poets and spoken word artists, a diverse array ranging from school children to cowboys, Beat poets to poet laureates, housewives to the homeless.
"Looking at Mark’s body of work," says Burke, "I can’t imagine a better choice. The United States of Poetry was a big part of why we selected him. You look at all the people and places he visited and they have a real charm. We were looking to do that with our spot."
Hank Corwin, of bicoastal Lost Planet, cut "Origins" along with editor Charlie Johnston, also of Los Planet. Jaeger says Corwin was tapped for the edit because he also has experience working with all different formats. While Corwin’s busy schedule didn’t allow him to get involved at the very beginning stage of the project, his contributions have clearly helped give the spot its sense of flow and smoothness—not an easy task when working with such disparate elements. Moreover, Corwin assembled "Origins" from a voluminous amount of footage. As Burke notes, with the archival and new footage, "We could have made five sixty-second spots."
Burke says that they are considering the possibility of doing other Gatorade spots in a similar historical vein. "To us, the most interesting story is the genesis of this product," Burke comments. "But as Keith Jackson says, ‘The legend continues’ with other athletes’ stories. In deciding to do any sort of a follow-up, we have to consider if they make for compelling TV commercials."h
