Namaste, Coach!

In a post at the AdHole blog, Jason Fox tells about a terrific series of ads. Produced for Dunkin' Donuts, they feature former football coach Barry Switzer as he attempts to whip non-football players into shape.

The first spot finds Coach Switzer—cup of Dunkin' Donuts coffee in hand—amid a group of young women who are stretching on yoga mats. "Alright, strong tree position, strong trees, into the trees," he commands enthusiastically—and to their bewilderment—before changing the order a second later: "Downward doggies, now, downward doggies."

One of the women protests. "Barry," she says, "we come here to relax. Maybe you could, too."

Oblivious to her logic, he takes a sip of coffee and crouches down, "Cannonball, everybody do the cannonball. Everybody in the cannonball. You can do it! You can do it! I'm doing it."

Fox concedes that the ads take a nontraditional approach to branding. "But they're hilarious (if you're into that sort of 'Arrested Development' or 'Rushmore' aesthetic)," he writes. "Which makes me love Dunkin Donuts all the more. Which is kind of the point of advertising. Chew on that, literalists."

We laughed out loud more than once while watching the five spots—and found similar Marketing Inspiration in their off-kilter perspective on branding.

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