Loyola Greyhound

Issue date: 12/5/06 Section: Sports

Peyton Manning may never win a Super Bowl, but he gets a thumbs up fo his unri-valed advertising prowess.

It begins with a honeydew. That's Peyton: P-E-Y.

You may have noticed that Peyton Manning is in every single commercial. And I love it.

With the fourth quarter winding down, am I concerned about the Colts playing the Titans? No way, I'm waiting for Peyton to tell me that it's OK to switch over to his brother Eli on one of the 527 channels of NFL Sunday Ticket on DirecTV. I'm literally on the edge of my seat, anticipating the next time Peyton decides to invoke his wisdom on football watching America.

The Southern boy from west of the Mississippi has taken over the advertising industry. He gets more face time than Tom Cruise post-Oprah-couch-incident. (Although whatever company makes Oprah's couch may be on to something if they decide to make Peyton a promoter.)

If you're the NFL, who would you want promoting your sport? Heck, if you're anyone, who better than Peyton to hype your product? OK, so, when all else fails, the NFL usually throws Don Cheadle and his no-nonsense Crash gig at the problem. (The NFL made light of their overuse of Cheadle in a recent advertisement, so, yea, they're getting sick of him, too.) Tell me again how far one yard is, Don?

The playoffs are fast approaching, which means the NFL has to strategize, and they need a new hook. When commercials get old, go back to your meat and potatoes -- go back to you bread and butter man -- give me more Manning.

Ford and Chevy, take notice. People are TiVo-ing right through your overplayed, mind-numbing country song ad-vertisements. Jump on the Peyton bandwagon if you ever want to sell a truck anywhere north of Nashville.

In fact, Peyton doesn't even have to do anything; have him stand there with a fake mustache and the audience will crack up. That is, if you like 6-foot-5, 230 pound quarterbacks with a laser, rocket arm.

Sprint, MasterCard, DirecTv, Sony, Reebok, and Gatorade started the trend. And now Peyton mania is everywhere, growing faster than William Shatner's new game show.

ESPN finally caught on to Peyton-mania. Sure, Stewart Scott and Lebron James make a great team in the office cubicle, but they are no match for the Peyton-Eli-Archie trio.

Brotherly love and parenting at its finest: there's Peyton, kicking his brother in the butt while Archie glares, and puts a quick end to the antics.

Continued...

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