Unfathomed Tension

Company: Avis Rent a Car
Aired: April, 2008
Channel: ESPN
Appeal: Humor


The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox own what is without question the most intense and fiercest rivalry in professional American sports history. The only other that could even hold a candle to this rivalry is MAYBE the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers epic duels dating back to the 1950s and 60s, but really intensified in the eighties when Magic Johnson and Larry Bird went toe to toe. The Yankees and Red Sox first squared off April 26th, 1901. One century and 2,064 games later, the legendary battles of both franchises will forever be etched in baseball history.

Back in 1916, Harry Frazee purchased the Boston Red Sox on credit for $500,000. After the 1919 season, Frazee was pressed for some cash to pay back his loans, so he decided to sell some players to the Yankees… one of those players happened to be Babe Ruth. Despite the Red Sox recent success (they had just won the World Series in 1918) Frazee felt he had no other options. This trade ultimately altered the path both franchises were on, completely reversing their success and led to a Yankees dynasty. This quite abrupt shift in luck became known as the, “Curse of the Bambino.”

The legend grew because between the years of 1920 to 2003 the Yankees won 26 World Series championships and 39 pennants, while the Red Sox won 0 World Series championships and only 4 pennants. Also during that 83-year stretch, the Yankees finished with a better record than Boston 66 times. The curse was finally broken (much to my dissatisfaction) in 2004 when the Red Sox came back from a 3-0 game deficit against my Yankees and won four straight games, making history as the only team in baseball history to accomplish that feat.

Here is an ad I first saw back in April of 2008 while watching ESPN. Enjoy!

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I thought this was a hilarious concept and the execution was flawless. The advertisers make it clear to the viewer the office is located New York quite early in the commercial by showing a quick shot of the man’s Yankees mug as he stirs his coffee. Even if you didn’t catch the Yankees emblem, the thick New Yorker accents are hard to miss, especially with the lines, “How ya doin” and “Forget about it.” They also color-code the furniture and wardrobe to better illustrate their point. The chairs in the break room are navy blue and the new guy’s tie is red. To illustrate he is from Boston, he uses the term, “Wicked,” which is directly associated with Bostonians. They also stress his heavy accent on the word “Caars.”

Anyone who can distinguish these accents and knows the history of both ball clubs can truly appreciate this ad. As a die-hard Yankees fan I understand the level of tension there is between not just the players, but probably even more so, between fans. You just know there is no way that guy would survive in that office if it happened in real life. I laughed at this ad when it first aired and still do to this day. Great commercial idea because it stuck with me for the past two years.