The Bundesliga, the German federal football league, is one of the most exciting in the world. In a season, you can look forward to a European high of 843 goals, with an average of 2·73 goals per game. Like rival leagues in other European and South American countries, battling for attention is a big deal, and the DFL, the German Football Association, has scored a coup by seeing its games broadcast live this 53rd season in 208 countries.
   The season kicked off earlier this month with FC Bayern München (the League-winning record-holder) playing Hamburger SV. The 2015–16 season will see all 18 teams battle it out well into May 2016.
   To celebrate the milestone, the Bundesliga has launched a series of humorous commercials, showing a New York ad agency brainstorm to introduce football to US audiences. For among the 208 countries this year is the US, where association football, or soccer, isn’t the biggest sport. How would the employees at this agency, in a working group with the name of the Bundesliga Promo Team, market football to the American public? Will it be as foreign to them as the metric system?
   The third entry—the full series is on a custom website built for the commercials—sees the Team figure out which mascot represents the Bundesliga, with the members winding up discussing the different teams’ ones. There’s no agreement, but there’s plenty of humour, both in revealing the uncertainty behind some of these long-running symbols, and the lack of familiarity the Team has with the League itself.
   The website has behind-the-scenes videos as well as outtakes.
   The spots, made by Markenfilm (which has a good record of some irreverent campaigns) star actor–writer–composer John Fulton (Must Love Cats, America’s Cutest) as the art director and Sean Solan (Dollhouse, Criminal Minds, Gratuitous Violence) as the boss.


Post sponsored by Bundesliga