Even if you weren’t alive or watching football in the fall of 1979, there’s a good chance that you’ve seen the Coca-Cola ad known as “Hey Kid, Catch!,” which debuted on October 1, 1979 during Monday Night Football.
“Hey Kid, Catch!” is considered to be a classic advertisement because it effectively softened the image of Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle “Mean” Joe Greene and made Coke look good at the same time. It was a simple set up: a nine-year kid played by Tommy Okon offered an injured and worn down Greene a Coke and a few words of encouragement, which Greene repaid by tossing him his jersey. It’s been widely shown and even more widely parodied in the nearly 40 years since it premiered.
If by some chance you’ve never seen it, here’s the original ad from YouTube.
Because “Hey Kid, Catch!” was also shown during the 1980 Super Bowl, it’s being honored in this year’s Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials 2016 special. CBS and People Magazine have released a clip from the special in which Greene meets a now grown up Okon, who jokes that Greene looks younger than he does now.
In the clip, Greene also gives Okon a large share of the credit for making the ad so successful.
For his part, Okon downplayed his role on the commercial. “I think the people that created it wrote a great commercial that really tells a story… that commercial’s kind of what Joe is: tough, football player, who’s a nice guy.”
The Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials 2016 special will air on CBS on Tuesday, February 2. During the special, Greene and Okon will recreate their famous ad one more time.
