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Earlier this week, Philadelphia Eagles’ QB Jaylen Hurts made history as the first NFL player to appear in a Sprite commercial, which was aptly named “Success Hurts.” The beverage brand has a long history of collabs with NBA and pop culture stars dating back to the 90s (including Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and LL Cool J, just to name-drop a few), but with their reboot of the classic “Obey Your Thirst” campaign, they’ve started branching out to include other stars, like U.S. sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson, too.
We love how the spot itself leans into Hurts’ authentic personality as a way to reach a younger audience. But there’s another play that could help build stronger Gen Z, and even Gen Alpha, connections, too.
Image source: The Coca-Cola Company
Like many superstar athletes, Jaylen Hurts has his own foundation, which is focused on providing kids with positive role models, community support, and safe spaces for education. He’s already got a merch line with all proceeds benefiting the foundation, so this latest commercial drop feels like a natural fit for Sprite to get in on the mission.
How, you ask?
🍓Low-hanging fruit: One of the easiest branded social impact plays is a “donation with purchase” partnership.
For every Sprite sold, or even every time the ad’s shared on social, Sprite would donate a certain amount of the profit to The Jaylen Hurts Foundation. It’s a turnkey feel-good component that virtually runs itself, but has a brand halo for everyone.
💬 Conversation-worthy: Hurts’ foundation does a lot with the school district of Philly, most recently donating $200,000 to help install A/Cs in older classrooms to make sure every student could have a safe and comfortable learning environment.
With kids being some of the main consumers of soda (let’s not get into the nutrition discussion here, K?), imagine Sprite creating some kind of school programming underneath the Jaylen Hurts Foundation umbrella.
Maybe it’s “Sprite Sprints,” a program that introduces kids to running as an entry point to more physical activity, especially since running is a huge part of football and other sports.
Maybe it’s “Obey Your Thirst…For Learning,” and it’s a pop-culture focused initiative that boosts kids’ reading and math skills through activities they’re already interested in.
There’s no time limit on these kinds of ideas, so even though the spot’s already dropped, Sprite could still pick-up on one of these opportunities and hit the ground running.
🎆 Go big or go home: Since Hurt’s foundation is focused on youth development, what if Sprite had figured out a way to get local Philly kids involved in the making of the commercial itself?
This kind of major collab would have required a foundation partnership right from the start, and it likely would have led to a different storyline for the spot. But we get super excited thinking about some of the ways this could have come to life.
Could they have worked with local high schools to bring-in students with an interest in film or TV to work on-set? Could they have have setup a few-week “film school” to teach kids about the craft, let them write their own scripts, and create their own spots for Sprite to share on social media?
We could come up with ideas to engage kids in the concept of this all day, and by extension, create an impact that’ll last way longer than anyone will be talking about the commercial itself.
With these kinds of partnerships and endorsements, there’s a shared responsibility between the athlete and the brand to make sure there’s a social impact component involved. If we can get just a few more folks on both sides to start thinking along these lines, there’s no telling how much goodness we can create. And that’s what we’re most thirsty for.
