Remember this classic commercial, featuring Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, with Mark McGwire and Heather Locklear in key supporting roles?
I'd actually forgotten it almost completely. But that tag -- Chicks dig the long ball. -- remains well-remembered and oft-quoted. And upon his induction into the Hall of Fame, Maddux took credit for the line: "He goes, 'Well, we want you to say something like: Girls really like home runs.' And we're like, that's not how we talk. We wouldn't say that."
Maddux's version was reported in various places as fact -- by the way, this was 16 years ago -- because ... well, who's going to say anything? The guy's in the Hall of Fame, and anyway it was a long time ago.
Well, somebody said something.
The commercial was made by Portland's Wieden+Kennedy, the firm responsible for many of Nike's well-known spots (and also for ESPN's brilliant "This is SportsCenter" spots). And the director and writer of Maddux's commercial remember things quite differently ...
"I know for a fact it was created in that building," Neary said, referring to W+K's former headquarters in the Dekum Building in downtown Portland.
"Canice Neary and myself worked on this ad campaign for months before this (chicks dig) script, along with many others, were even presented to Nike," Labbe said in an email. "From Day One the tagline 'chicks dig the long ball' was the hinge of the campaign."
--snip--
"It was fun," Neary said.
Then a friend emailed one of th stories where Maddux takes credit for "chicks dig."
"Kind of bummed me out," Neary said.
"Honest to God, I'm not trying to puff out my chest and say, 'That's my line,'" Neary said. "But it was."
Even so, he said, "I feel kind of weird contradicting a Hall of Fame dude."
Dude, I would feel weird too. But when Maddux takes credit for inventing Kodak's slide carousel, you might want to talk to Jon Hamm.
