From the Department of Redundancy Department’s office of Kicking Him When He’s Down, Priceline.com this week released some of the outtakes from its popular "Life Lessons" commercial featuring Latrell Sprewell.
I wrote about the ad a few months ago when it came out, so I felt obligated to check out the rejected bits. But really, we all could have done without this. The gist of the message – NBA good guy David Robinson is prudent and gives positive advice; Sprewell, the financially irresponsible Milwaukee native, gives negative advice – is the same, just with different-ish sports-cliché-sounding lines.
The original spot was fresh and sort of funny, especially in that Sprewell – who for years had been notoriously unapproachable about going broke after his basketball career because of his ego and lavish lifestyle – finally seemed to laugh at his own mistakes.
Honestly, though, these outtakes are kind of tough to watch.
Clearly, Spree was doing this for the paycheck – and he actually delivers pretty well, so maybe he can snag some sort of TV gig from it – but, man, this just seems unnecessary. He’s still arguably Milwaukee’s most accomplished professional athlete and Jo-Cats Pub’s best regular, so leave the dude alone.
I don’t know. Maybe it’s because The Admiral comes off as a patronizing do-gooder, maybe it’s because of the lame star-wipe and lightning-strike scene transitions. Or maybe I’m just a dark-hearted cynic who identifies with Spree’s jaded worldview and will defend Brew City to the end. But I think we got it the first time.
Born in Milwaukee but a product of Shorewood High School (go ‘Hounds!) and Northwestern University (go ‘Cats!), Jimmy never knew the schoolboy bliss of cheering for a winning football, basketball or baseball team. So he ditched being a fan in order to cover sports professionally - occasionally objectively, always passionately. He's lived in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but now resides again in his beloved Brew City and is an ardent attacker of the notorious Milwaukee Inferiority Complex.
After interning at print publications like Birds and Blooms (official motto: "America's #1 backyard birding and gardening magazine!"), Sports Illustrated (unofficial motto: "Subscribe and save up to 90% off the cover price!") and The Dallas Morning News (a newspaper!), Jimmy worked for web outlets like CBSSports.com, where he was a Packers beat reporter, and FOX Sports Wisconsin, where he managed digital content. He's a proponent and frequent user of em dashes, parenthetical asides, descriptive appositives and, really, anything that makes his sentences longer and more needlessly complex.
Jimmy appreciates references to late '90s Brewers and Bucks players and is the curator of the unofficial John Jaha Hall of Fame. He also enjoys running, biking and soccer, but isn't too annoying about them. He writes about sports - both mainstream and unconventional - and non-sports, including history, music, food, art and even golf (just kidding!), and welcomes reader suggestions for off-the-beaten-path story ideas.
