Woodward had a courtside seat for the taping of the basic McDonald’s advert that includes Larry Bird and Michael Jordan enjoying H-O-R-S-E.YouTube
If you’re old sufficient to recollect the Nineteen Nineties, then you definitely most likely keep in mind the Super Bowl advert that includes an epic H-O-R-S-E matchup between Michael Jordan and Larry Bird with a Big Mac on the road.
Jackie Woodward remembers it higher than most of us: She was on the shoot in December 1992, when director Joe Pytka and the artistic group of Jim Ferguson and Bob Shallcross from advert company Leo Burnett teamed up for the McDonald’s spot.
At the time, Woodward was a senior director on the fast-food big, overseeing sports activities and celeb advertising. Her boss, McDonald’s CMO Paul Schrage, permitted the advert; Woodward was despatched to the shoot to verify all the pieces went as deliberate.
The advert — “The Showdown” — went on to win USA Today’s Super Bowl Ad Meter, the ultimate signal of mass approval in an period earlier than social media and smartphones.
Woodward remembers the complications of filming on the Rosemont Horizon (rechristened as Allstate Arena in 1999) in Rosemont, Ill. The area sits only a few miles from O’Hare International Airport. “We were in the flight path that day, which meant the shoot took a lot longer than it should have,” she stated. “And I do recall it being frustrating for everyone.”
Both Jordan and Bird “were talkative with people — these guys know their job and they show up and do it,” Woodward stated. Jordan’s daughter, Jasmine, had simply been born and Woodward remembers Jordan proudly exhibiting off photos of his new child to the manufacturing crew.
The advert begins with Bird taking pictures baskets in an empty area as Jordan sits down along with his lunch: a McDonald’s bag with a Big Mac and fries. Bird appears to be like at Jordan and after difficult him to play for it, provides, “First one to miss watches the winner eat.” Moments later, he provides a caveat: “No dunking.”
With that, Jordan and Bird match each other in a sequence of more and more ridiculous photographs, bouncing balls off the scoreboard and over the rafters. It ends with Bird and Jordan plotting photographs from the highest of Chicago’s 100-story John Hancock Center. Woodward stated the results and sequences that make the advert so efficient have been added in post-production.
“The fact that it’s still memorable 30 years later speaks for itself,” she stated, crediting Pytka and the Leo Burnett company group for making the advert magical.
“The Showdown” was so common, it spawned a sequel including in Charles Barkley that debuted in the course of the 1994 Super Bowl. Woodward attended that shoot, too, in December 1993 in Carefree, Ariz., close to Scottsdale.
