The Milwaukee Brewers are my team.
And your team, too. And your neighbors and their kids. And John McGivern’s and Tammy Baldwin’s and Mike McCarthy’s, as well, I think. The Brewers belong to all of us in Wisconsin – at least that’s the message in the club’s 2017 commercial, "This is Our Team."
The advertisement, which was published in early February, follows last year’s emotive "Born a Brewer" ad that highlighted hometown hero Craig Counsell’s journey from Whitefish Bay kid to longtime big-leaguer and current Milwaukee manager. Similar to the Bucks’ recent push for statewide exposure and enthusiasm, the Brewers’ new commercial makes the claim, "This is Wisconsin’s team."
With dramatically building strings music, beautiful panoramic shots of Milwaukee and local spots around the city, and members of the team declaring it isn't their team, as well as a diverse array of ostensibly ordinary people saying some variation of "This is our team," the ad is stirring – affecting and effective in both its emotional appeal and visual presentation.
Who pops up in the commercial? Well, right off the bat, there’s (still-not-traded) superstar Ryan Braun, followed by pitcher Jimmy Nelson and Counsell stating it isn’t their club. Then, COO Rick Schlesinger, general manager David Stearns and owner Mark Attanasio declare it doesn’t belong to them, either (Ed. note: it belongs to Attanasio).
Robin Yount makes an appearance, as well as Scooter Gennett and Jonathan Villar ("este es el equipo de Wisconsin"), plus coaches and members of the franchise's front office. And then there are bartenders, hairdressers, farmers, little leaguers and regular folks asserting the Brewers are their team, followed by rousing frames of fans cheering and ending with a shot of the Milwaukee skyline and lakefront.
It’s a cool ad, similar in "bigger-than-sports" grand style to the ones the Bucks have produced under their new ownership's brand-engrossed staff, theatrically emphasizing collective togetherness, which – let’s be honest – is a warm and welcome sentiment these days, regardless of how many Brewers 10 Packs it’s intended to help sell.
Milwaukee, which last year finished 16th out of 30 MLB teams in average attendance and 22nd in TV ratings, according to Forbes, is in the midst of a large-scale organizational rebuild. The Brewers seem to be using the fresh opportunity to attract broadly positive PR, engender good feelings unconnected with potential losing and bring in on the ground floor new fans from across the state for the club's next chapter.
So anyway, it's my (your; our) team, Wisconsin. What's the first move?
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.
