Attention, football enthusiasts! BetMGM has just unveiled its latest Super Bowl ad, and it comes with a hilarious twist for fans of the legendary Tom Brady. In this one-minute spectacle, Vince Vaughn takes centre stage, delivering the unexpected news to the seven-time Super Bowl champion that he’s not welcome to wager on the sports betting app.
With deadpan humor, Vaughn declares, “BetMGM is for everyone that loves sports betting, everyone, but Tom Brady.” To which Brady responds, “Wait, what did I do?” prompting Vaughn to drop the bombshell: “The truth is, you’ve won too much, Tom, you let others have their turn.”
‘As long as you’re not Tom Brady, you’re in’
The ad unfolds with a montage featuring various hopeful gamblers, including a dedicated tailgater, a woman smitten by Brady’s charm, and even Brady’s former babysitter. Each of them seeks approval from Vaughn to use BetMGM, and he readily signs off on all of them. Vaughn delivers the punchline, “As long as you’re not Tom Brady, you’re in.”
Even as the former quarterback attempts a disguise, clad in an early 2000s denim ensemble and adopting the alias “Tim Birdie, seven-time pool champion,” Vince Vaughn remains unfazed.
When “Tim Birdie” inquires about using the sports betting app, Vaughn, seated with hockey icon Wayne Gretzky a G.O.A.T. in his own right, doesn’t fall for the ruse. “You already know the answer, why you puttin’ us through it,” Vaughn said. Interestingly, Gretzky is deemed eligible to use the site.
What was the idea behind the Super Bowl ad?
“Our core idea is centred around the fact that BetMGM is for everyone (as long as they are of legal age!),” shared Alex Zamiar, Group Creative Director at the ad agency Highdive, in a conversation with People. “When Tom Brady signed on, we wanted to tap into his legacy and personality and tell a story that had never been told before. Tom wins at everything he does, so we found the idea of him not being able to win really funny. Luckily, he was game for making fun of himself and it went from there.”
The ad’s creative team seized the chance to playfully reject Brady, enhancing the narrative with the inclusion of another legendary athlete, Wayne Gretzky. According to Highdive’s Johnathan Richman, “The Super Bowl is all about surprising people and subverting expectations. So, once we had the idea of excluding Tom Brady from betting with BetMGM, we loved the idea of turning the screws on Tom even more by allowing another living legend to participate with a cameo from Wayne Gretzky.”