PENN ATHLETIC PRODUCTS | BOUNCE TEST | 1989
This Is a Ball Test / PENN ATHLETIC PRODUCTS "BOUNCE TEST"
In 1989, Minneapolis agency Fallon McElligott unleashed a 30-second spot on the world. To prove the "consistency of bounce" of a racquetball, it wasn't just balls getting dropped from a building.
The idea
PENN balls get dropped one after another from a 40-story building, each one bouncing perfectly evenly. Then the last thing to fall... isn't a competitor's ball, but a person. All under the tagline "You've seen one, you've seen them all."
What happened
There's a record of it winning GOLD.
Afterthought
The way this ad suddenly injects violent humor into what starts as a straightforward product test really captures the "go too far" spirit of American advertising from the late '80s into the early '90s. These days it might cause an uproar, but back then Fallon McElligott apparently believed in making ads that "make your palms sweat." What viewers thought after watching this commercial, or whether PENN balls actually sold better, isn't recorded anywhere. But the fact that people are still talking about it on YouTube more than 35 years later says something about how powerful it was as an ad.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 1989
Featured in
- The Egg Didn't Crack — 60 Years of Proof in ActionShowing, not telling. Why is this the one trick that never gets old?
