I would like to personally thank you for creating more television commercials for this Olympic Games, or at least varying the rotation a little more. The day after the Opening Ceremonies at the 2004 Athens Games, I saw the Michael Phelps Visa commercial where he swam from Greece to the U.S. and thought, “That was kind of a cool ad.”  By day three of the games I had seen the spot 36 … 72 … 108 times and wondered, “This is getting old, but maybe they’ll show a new ad soon.”  

The final weekend of the swimming competition I was in a sports bar when the person next to me, frustrated with seeing the ad for what seemed like the 800th time, jokingly rooted for Phelps to drown halfway between the Parthenon and the Statue of Liberty. 

During the Turin Games two years later, I wondered if that same guy went off the deep end and tried to steal the identity of Lindsey Jacobellis, whose fragile nerves could only be soothed by the reminder that Visa has zero fraud liability.

This year’s crop of ads use stunning sepia tone visuals and narrative that create emotional ties between the viewer, the athletes and the moments.  I’ve watched the vast majority of prime-time Olympic programming and I’m still not tired of the Phelps ads. The Nastia Liukin spot, which references her family heritage of Olympic Gold, was remarkable in its foresight or luck, considering she wasn’t expected to win the overall gold in gymnastics.  But the best part of the creative is Morgan Freeman’s narrative.  His voiceover has now accompanied two of the greatest swims of all time: Phelps, and Andy Dufresne’s escape from Shawshank.

So thank you Visa.  I finally stopped muting commercial breaks during the Olympics.  

Sincerely,

Jon Show
Staff Writer
SportsBusiness Journal