The CLIO Awards in 1979 (and hence probably also in 1980) had a huge number of awards: "256 winners, 100 in the international division and 156 in the national one"; "60 subdivisions in the U.S. television category". So what categor(y/ies) did "Early Showers" win?[8]
The ad's art director, Roger Mosconi, wrote two books named Sex Sells :
one published in 2007 and described as a novel, starts with the story of "Early Showers": ad exec mad that creative used Greene when originally promised Roger Staubach;[9] ad exec mad at using Black player and had contract with Dallas Cowboys;[10] but Coca Cola like it;[11] ad execs tampered with initial test audience scores: needed 22 to pass, reported as 9,[12] actually 44;[13] rival's ad tanked so in desperation showed "Early Showers", which "thirty-two hundred bottlers and their wives brought the roof down".[14]
another published 2011 subtitled The True Tales Behind the Greatest Ads of the '80s.[15]
Greene in 1974 United Airlines ad for widebody plane "The idea was that the plane was so comfortable that a mean, tough guy like me almost liked it."[20]
Drank 18 16-oz bottles of on final day, wrapping after midnight[20]
"corny" approach distinctly American, did not play as well in international versions.[3] needed alteration to soccer "less universal than many thought".[3] Unlike "Hilltop", which was explicitly a global campaign and message.[3]
A John Fetterman ad parody from his 2016 Senate campaign resurfaced online during his 2022 campaign; some of opponent Mehmet Oz's campaign staff mocked the ad in a way that suggested they did not get the reference, causing Fetterman's campaign to retort that Pennsylvanians ought to remember a Pittsburgh icon.[21]
In 2016 reunited with costar at Apogee Stadium for CBS special on greatest Super Bowl ads.[22]
At 1980 Super Bowl Coke paid $700K to air the 60-second version in the first half and a 30-second version in the second half.[23]
The 1981 movie was aimed at children and broadcast at 7pm.[24]Henry Thomas played kid (Nick) as Okun had grown too much. The opening scene replicates the ad, but with unbranded cola as Coke did not pay for product placement.[24] The ensuing "flimsy plot" sees Nick trying to return the shirt to renew Greene's enthusiasm for football.[24] Of his performance, Greene said "to say I'm acting would be ludicrous".[25]
O'Barr, William M.; Moreira, Marcio M. (Fall 1989). "The Airbrushing of Culture: An Insider Looks At Global Advertising". Public Culture. 2 (1): 1–19. doi:10.1215/08992363-2-1-1.
republished as Moreira, Marcio; O'Barr, William M (2000). "The Airbrushing of Culture: An Insider Looks At Global Advertising". Advertising & Society Review. 1 (1). doi:10.1353/asr.2000.0024. Project MUSE2957.