The Return Of Office Linebacker Terry Tate
Terry Tate, the meanest, baddest, and downright prettiest Office Linebacker around, is back and reminds US citizens to vote. In a new series of short videos “Terry Votes“, “From Russia With Love” and “Reading is Fundamental“, the governor of Alaska and the Republican candidate for Vice-President, Sarah Palin, is tackled by Terry following famously controversial interviews.
Lester Speight, the actor who plays the brash, voluble character, achieved significant recognition for his portrayal of Terry Tate: Office Linebacker in a series of 60-second Reebok commercials that first debuted during the 2003 Super Bowl XXXVII.
“How’s that for Drill Baby Drill! You just subscribed to Terry’s Journal of Pain!! And the first issue is free, baby! Whoo!! … Hey Katie!”
Production company Hypnotic, in collaboration with the Arnell Group, developed 9 short films between August 2002 and January 2005, created a website to host the Quicktime and Windows Media films, and produced TV spots based on “Terry Tate, Office Linebacker”, a film written and directed by Rawson Thurber.
Hypnotic’s Terry Tate website saw 1.8 million visits the week following the Super Bowl broadcast, 300,000 registered users and facilitated more than 1.6 million commercial downloads and over 500,000 visits per week for the next two months.
During periods of peak traffic the Terry Tate site delivered over 650Mbps of data. Since then, those numbers have increased to more than 900,000 registered users and 15 million downloads.
The “Terry Tate Office Linebacker” 2003 campaign was an enormous success, and people from all continents today still recall Terry Tate!!
An overview of the Terry Tate episodes:
- Terry’s World (August 11, 2002); An introduction to Terry’s world.
- Draft Day (September 1, 2002); Felcher & Sons hire a new linebacker, Courtney Cate, to work alongside Terry in the office.
- Office Athlete Of The Century (September 14, 2002); Terry is awarded the prestigious Office Athlete Of The Century award from OSPN
- Vacation (October 15, 2002); After 1000 days at work without a single day off, state law requires that Terry must take a vacation.
- Super Bowl 2003 commercial (November 27, 2002); This is a remix of the incidents from the past episodes, depicting scenes from the past episodes.
- Streaker (December 4, 2002); In a direct spoof of a similar Nike ad, a naked man runs across the field during a soccer match.
- Sensitivity Training (February 1, 2004); Office worker Paul Merkin accuses Terry Tate of assault
- Late Lunch (January 22, 2005); A short episode showing how Terry tackles a worker, Roger, who returns back to his desk late for work.
- Pro Bowl; In this episode, Terry helps keep the players focused on the game and ready to give 110%.
An overview of Terry Tate Spoofs:
- Harry Hate – Campus Linebacker
- USS Stennis – Stennis Linebacker
- Vernon Valor – RA Linebacker
- Chris Wheeler – Dorm Linebacker
- CPT Wedly – The Disciplinator
- MIT Sloan Linebacker
- Evangelism Linebacker
Reebok’s Terry Tate 2003 Campaign Highlights
- Over 15 million film views (Total length equivalent to over 86 years)
- Over 900,000 registered users
- Over 6 million site visits
- Over 300,000 viral emails sent
- Winner of Gold Cannes Lion and AICP Awards in 2003
- Voted most popular Super Bowl ad in 2003 (Wall Street Journal consumer poll)
- Numerous national Terry Tate TV appearances including NBC’s ‘Today Show,’ CNBC, ESPN and E!
- Feature articles in USA Today, LA Times, AdWeek, Ad Age
- #2 Best Viral of 2003 chosen by Eatmail.tv
- Terry Tate rang the closing bell at the NY Stock Exchange (January 31, 2003)
- Terry Tate cut the ribbon to kick off the Boston Marathon (April 20, 2003)
- Terry Tate was the most watched commercial in TiVo households that tuned into the Super Bowl
Credits:
Creative Director: Peter Arnell
Executive Producer: Miriam Franklin
Production Company: Hypnotic
Director: Rawson Thurber
Director of Photography: Eric Haase
Editor: Jason Painter/Swietlik
Music: Larry Pecorella, David Hutten, Justin Hori/Comma
Audio Mixer: Loren Silber/POP Sound
Principal Talent: The Mighty Rasta, Michael Sean McGuinness
Source: Hypnotic, The Inspiration Room, Der Maffe, Wikipedia, Adweek