Back in June, a YouTube mini-doc of a bearded, bespectacled old fogey called "Uncle Drew" dominating pickup basketball players with ankle-breaking crossover dribbles and ferocious slam dunks went massively viral. But the decrepit old man was actually a disguised Kyrie (middle name Andrew) Irving, last season's NBA Rookie of the Year, and the five-minute movie was actually an ad for Pepsi Max.
The ad was so successful, in fact — gaining nearly 10 million views in its first three weeks online — that Pepsi decided to buy short primetime advertising spots during the NBA Finals after being surprised at just how popular it became. That's despite the fact that the concept was never intended for TV broadcast in the first place.
Now Uncle Drew is back. This time, he's got a friend — All-Star forward Kevin Love disguised as a geezer called "Wes" — and "Uncle Drew: Chapter 2? appears destined to equal its predecessor's success. NBA legend Bill Russell also makes a cameo as Drew's mentor and inspiration.
Like the original, the sequel features a simple premise: the two old buddies roll up to an unsuspecting pickup game, ask to join, get off to slow, airballing starts while other players look on disdainfully, then commence total domination.
Pepsi Max marketer Sam Duboff, who leads the ad campaign's development, believes both videos reflect the changing nature of advertising thanks to more and more eyeballs turning to the social web.
"I think there's always going to be a role for big budget Super Bowl ads," he told Mashable in June. "But when you start to see something like this resonate and perform well, it adds a whole new element to what you can do."
Duboff says both Russell and Love were such fans of the original spot that getting them on board for part two wasn't hard at all. The basketball scenes were filmed at Jim Gilliam Park in the Crenshaw neighborhood of Los Angeles. Some of the pickup players recognized Irving's Uncle Drew character, according to Duboff, but none were able to identify his new teammate as Love. Players and spectators not in the know were told the rolling cameras were filming a streetball documentary.
And here's one more fun fact about the ad: at the 3:49 mark, two older fellows exchange smiles after an Irving-to-Love alley-oop. They're actually Drederick Irving and Stan Love, the players' respective fathers. Drederick played pro ball in Australia, and Stan — the model for Kevin's Wes character — was an NBA player in the 1970s.
Watch "Uncle Drew: Chapter 2? above, then check out some behind-the-scenes photos below.
Image courtesy of PepsiCo
Image courtesy of PepsiCo
Image courtesy of PepsiCo
Image courtesy of PepsiCo
Image courtesy of PepsiCo
Image courtesy of PepsiCo
Image courtesy of PepsiCo
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