For many years, Paul Harvey closed his program with "and now you know the rest of the story." Like most folks, I love to hear what happened behind the scenes.
By providing a tiny little fact, Doug Bratman's post about Mean Joe Greene prompted me to punch the "Follow" button on LinkedIn. Bratman's post tells the story of "Mean Joe Greene and the Greatest Commercial of All Time."
You've probably seen the commercial. It shows a huge football player dragging himself to the locker room after a hard fought game. As he passes by a young boy offers the giant a bottle of Coca Cola. (Note: I'd normally just say Coke but in Abilene, Texas the term "Coke" can mean any soft drink – from Dr. Pepper to those citrusy things – and I want to make it clear that we aren't talking about cocaine). Mean Joe Greene accepts the bottle and drinks it down in one gulp. Just before disappearing, Greene utters his line "Hey kid, catch" then tosses his jersey as a gift.
The folks at Coca Cola produce commercials to sell their products. But that particular commercial made Mean Joe Greene more marketable. As he describes it:
"I was suddenly approachable,” Greene recalled during a presentation at Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta. “Little kids were no longer afraid of me, and older people – both women and men – would come up and offer me a Coke.” [from Bratman's post]
In the midst of this post I was captured by a tiny fact. The tiny fact was "2.25 gallons of Coke." That's how much Coca Cola Joe had to drink in the dozens of takes before wrapping up the shoot. When telling any story it is often some tidbit that makes a tale believable. The details sell it. And now you know the rest of the story.
By providing a tiny little fact, Doug Bratman's post about Mean Joe Greene prompted me to punch the "Follow" button on LinkedIn. Bratman's post tells the story of "Mean Joe Greene and the Greatest Commercial of All Time."
You've probably seen the commercial. It shows a huge football player dragging himself to the locker room after a hard fought game. As he passes by a young boy offers the giant a bottle of Coca Cola. (Note: I'd normally just say Coke but in Abilene, Texas the term "Coke" can mean any soft drink – from Dr. Pepper to those citrusy things – and I want to make it clear that we aren't talking about cocaine). Mean Joe Greene accepts the bottle and drinks it down in one gulp. Just before disappearing, Greene utters his line "Hey kid, catch" then tosses his jersey as a gift.
The folks at Coca Cola produce commercials to sell their products. But that particular commercial made Mean Joe Greene more marketable. As he describes it:
"I was suddenly approachable,” Greene recalled during a presentation at Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta. “Little kids were no longer afraid of me, and older people – both women and men – would come up and offer me a Coke.” [from Bratman's post]
In the midst of this post I was captured by a tiny fact. The tiny fact was "2.25 gallons of Coke." That's how much Coca Cola Joe had to drink in the dozens of takes before wrapping up the shoot. When telling any story it is often some tidbit that makes a tale believable. The details sell it. And now you know the rest of the story.
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