It’s a posthumous birthday note for Wilt Chamberlain today, the would-be 76th celebration for the greatest statistical player in NBA history. His 100-point game, the 12 straight seasons averaging at least 21 rebounds per game and a 50.4 points per game average in 1961-62 are the kind of accomplishments that are still unfathomable, even if you’re not surprised for a 7-footer in that early era of pro basketball. His legacy goes beyond the stat lines and the infamous 20,000 women claim, though. When he died in 1999 he had seen the NBA-player-as-endorser role that he helped pioneer become the rule, not the exception. Michael Jordan entered the NBA five years after Wilt was inducted into the Hall of Fame and retired as a Bull a year before his death. That career took Wilt’s own blueprint and pumped a whole lot of Nike Air into it.
Jordan, however, was nowhere near as varied a salesman with only a handful of blue-chip endorsements to his name for most of his career on and off the court. Chamberlain, like his prolific stat lines, represented everything from underwear to cars to laxatives and light beer. Maybe that’s partly attributed to the fact having only a few endorsements in the 1960s and 1970s could not sustain a paycheck the likes of which Jordan’s deals could. Or maybe it was just Wilt’s personality, mirroring his varied interests such as film, track and field, beach volleyball and business. Either way, it’s left us with a wealth of ads he’s appeared in. On the Stilt’s birthday, here’s a look at his best ads.
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10. BVD UNDERWEAR
Wilt has a bit part in this ad for underwear, saying his underwear makes him more intimidating. OK, Wilt. It’s easy to see it as a funny ad for underwear, but Wilt was again ahead of the curve with the underwear endorsement. Would MJ have done Hanes if other celebrities hadn’t shilled for them first?
9. REEBOK
Shaquille O’Neal hadn’t yet entered the pantheon of great big men such as Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Bill Walton and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1993. Only by walking through a time warp front door, breaking a backboard and cleaning up the mess can Shaq join the greats in this Reebok spot. Wilt doesn’t have any lines, which limits any “cool” factor associated with the ad. Every big man gets some kind of screen time, whether Kareem and Russell’s lines or Walton’s mock indignation. Wilt gets the punchline by offering up a broom and pan for Shaq to clean with.
8. TWA
Get ready, it’s the first of three ads based around the concept of, “Isn’t it crazy how large this man is?” Still, credit is due for working in Wilt, always a guy who could stand out in a crowd, into the shot casually as he walks from the back, accompanied by a soft zoom from the front of the set. You almost forget he’s there, what with the intense scrutiny of the seating space, until you see his clean double-breasted suit at the end.
7. VOLKSWAGEN BUG
It may be another size matters ad, but it was the original. Not only that, it’s funny: Both the giant and the car company with the pint-sized vehicle get to play on their cliches. Famous for calling its cars lemons, Volkswagen wanted to show what it made wasn’t for everyone. And definitely not for a 7-1 human.
6. AMERICAN EXPRESS
It’s not a TV commercial but the print ad was more eye-catching than several of Wilt’s TV spots. What looks like a scene from “Fantasy Island” is actually the work of photographer Annie Leibovitz in Malibu, California, in the late 1980s with jockey Willie Shoemaker joining with Wilt. Together they showed this credit card fits all sizes and needs.
Photo via.
5. FOOT LOCKER
One of the final Chamberlain ads comes in the form of a spot with John Havlicek, where they take turns castigating the work ethic of a teenaged player. He always played larger than life well, but I like this because it shows he could poke fun at himself again — cue the “walking in the snow” line — even at an older age. It’s very similar to the Reebok spot, what with the young man meeting the legends in black and white, but at least Wilt gets some lines here.
4. VOLKSWAGEN RABBIT
Wilt was many things over his career, many of which I already brought up before. He wasn’t a polymath, but his talents met his appetite for trying something new. One thing that never changed, however, was his sheer size, so it’s easy to see why copywriters went back to the same well — “He’s huge! Let’s play off that.” — now three times. This Rabbit spot, however, works the best because it closes the circle the original VW commercial started with.
3. COLECO
Table-top football was such a hit, why not basketball? That’s the thinking behind Wilt’s own branded Coleco game. Unfortunately, unless you have magic powers like the chemist in this spot, the game just looks impossibly hard to play.
2. CASTORIA LAXATIVE
I think this one speaks for itself. Or, rather, Wilt’s mother speaks for it all. It leaves many questions, such as, did they expect him to agree? or how much did they possibly offer? or is this the last celebrity laxative endorsement? Wilt knows you’re asking that even in the commercial, but he just shrugs off any concerns of embarrassment like a second defender.
1. MILLER LITE
If you can disregard the calorie facts that show up on the screen halfway through, this ad holds up surprisingly well for being from 1976. Why? It’s got some humor that still works. It doesn’t ask you to remember he’s a basketball player because it knows the viewer is just as familiar with Wilt as a nightlife icon. There’s Wilt walking lazily through an all-too familiar club, lamenting it takes him a ton of beer to fill up — and then half-heartedly vouching for the light beer’s taste — before an even larger human appears behind the bar as a last-second surprise. Give it to Miller for its own bit of self-deprecating humor: The tag, “Everything you wanted in a light beer, and less” is a nice kicker at the end.
Which is the best?
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