Gretzky Signs With A-B's Bubble Boys - Brief Article

Brandweek, Sept 20, 1999 by Terry Lefton, Gerry Khermouch

Wayne Gretzky will be named commissioner of the Bubble Boys Hockey League as part of a campaign for Bud Light slated to break early next year.

Anheuser-Busch, which this summer signed the hockey icon to a two-year endorsement deal (Brandweek, July 5), will use Gretzky in a new iteration of the "Bubble Boys" campaign, from DDB, Chicago. Unveiled last year, the campaign depicts the misadventures of anthropomorphic, wisecracking table-top hockey players, figures that wholesalers said will be far more heavily exploited promotionally in the coming season.

A-B switched its NHL sponsorship from supporting the waning Bud Ice to the torrid Bud Light last season, but because of standard contract restrictions could not use active players to support Bud Light. Now that he's retired, A-B is betting Gretzky's name is enough to merit anchoring its biggest hockey push ever. A-B will back the campaign with considerable air time outside of NHL game telecasts, agency sources said. The January timeframe of the promo would be in keeping with A-B's strategy of not further cluttering the promo calendar during fall football and basketball efforts.

Details were relatively sketchy, but sources said the campaign has been shot. There will be a series of ads and possibly a consumer promotion asking who would be the perfect commissioner of the Bubble Boys Hockey League. Eventually, Gretzky will emerge as the perfect choice. Neither NHL officials nor A-B would comment.