Best Ads Of The Last 50 Years: #2

The best tennis ball commercial ever. Period. From 1988.

Penn tennis balls: “You’ve Seen One. You’ve Seen Them All.” That was the tagline for this spot/campaign via Fallon McElligott.

It’s a perfect product demonstration. It’s also shockingly hilarious. The social media blowback of “killing a man” in an ad would probably be terminal for Penn and maybe the ad agency.

“Competitor dropped 40 stories”

Ideas that make one nervous, make one sick to one’s stomach. That used to be what good advertising creatives aimed for. Not today. Not by a fucking mile.

Credits: CW: Jarl Olsen; AD: Houman Pirdavari; Director: Jeff Gorman. Agency: Fallon McElligott, Minneapolis.

Read more about Tom McElligott in a VICE article I wrote eight years ago: The Greatest American Copywriter Wasn’t a 'Mad Man'.