Hall of famers highlight popular new Seahawks commercial

If you wanted to capture the true spirit of the Seahawks in one commercial, you’d of course have to have a massive 12th Man flag, Taima the hawk, a Hawks helmet car, a house painted entirely in team colors, and at least three Hall of Famers.

Check.

A commercial for Washington’s Lottery featuring all of the above and more has been delighting the 12’s since the season started.

The spot was the brainchild of the creative minds at Seattle-based Cole and Weber. The company has been doing commercials with the Seahawks and Lottery for years, said Joe Gerlitz, senior copywriter.

“Just like with our normal creative process, we just started coming up with ideas sitting in that room together throwing stuff up on the wall,” Gerlitz said.

What they came up with was the idea of two hardcore Hawks’ fans trying to one-up each other with their displays of affection for the team.

One guy paints his house, the other gets the old helmet car, then it escalates to one bringing in hall of famer Walter Jones to help paint his car, to the other playing catch with Steve Largent. One neighbor ultimately wins with Cortez Kennedy shooting a flaming football into the sky, triggering 12th Man fireworks.

“Largent, as you would expect, was very polished and just so likeable and just willing to do whatever,” Gerlitz said.

“Walter Jones, I think if we had told him kind of midway through the day we were going to need him for like three or four more days, I don’t think he would have objected at all because he was just having a blast and just cracking up with the other guys,” Gerlitz said.

It didn’t take much to convince Largent to jump in – just a call from the agency and the Lottery asking if he was interested.

“I said yeah, that would be great, I’d love to do it. They do such a great job on the commercials anyway. They’re always fun and light-hearted and I like that, that’s kind of my personality,” Largent said.

The shoot was like a big party for Largent, Kennedy and Jones. And even though the agency asked the neighbors at the homes they rented in Snoqualmie Ridge to keep it a secret, it turned into a big tailgate party.

“There were literally chairs on this little grassy knoll across the street and people were starting to make a day of it,” Gerlitz said. “They brought their lunches out and just kind of hung out and watched the spectacle because it really was ridiculous to watch, in a good way.”

The response from fans has been overwhelming, according to Randy Warick, the assistant director of marketing for Washington’s Lottery.

“Everybody has somebody that fits into that commercial, and that’s the best part,” Warick said of the fans portrayed in the commercial.

Luckily, no one got hurt shooting the spot. Gerlitz admits he had his fears when they had Taima the hawk fly in and land on the arm of one of the actors.

“Actually, the actor was really brave with Taima because he was kind of giving Taima kisses and stuff, which we were just waiting for the hawk to fly away with his lower lip, but that never happened. So that’s good,” Gerlitz said.