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Michael Odinlo
Professor Jackie
English 115
13 October 2014
Word Count: 1,535
What does Madden Season Really Mean?
The commercial being analyzed is the Madden NFL 15: Madden Season
commercial. The commercial has reached an outstanding 10.6 million views since August
15, 2014. Many of the people that watched this video were already excited for the game
to be released already, but with the commercial EA Sports reached out to different types
of audiences to try to get them interested in trying out the new Madden NFL 15. The
commercial casted many stars and athletes for the shoot which were: Kevin Hart, Dave
Franco, Colin Kaepernick, Dez Bryant, Eddie Lacey, Lesean McCoy, Damian Lillard,
and Richard Sherman. The cast also included many talented singers from America and
Korea. The Madden NFL 15: Madden Season commercial is a well-done advertisement,
because, the commercial appeals to a wide range of people and uses the average persons
needs to its advantage.
The commercial begins with Kevin Hart going to Dave Francos house and
banging on his glass door. Franco answers the door with a smile on his face and asks Hart
what hes doing here. Hart replies to Francos question with a slap to Francos face.
Directly after the slap to the face the two stare at each other in the eyes, but Franco seems
a little confused. An omniscient narrator begins to explain that Madden season is a
competitive time and an emotional time that caused Hart to slap Franco in the face. Dave

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Francos wife approaches the door to come see what the commotion is about and
Franco tries to pretend that everything is fine by smiling. Franco and Hart continue back
to their stare down. The background music suddenly has trumpets playing and Hart starts
to get hype as beautiful ladies start to appear from behind him. Hart starts to rap and
basically explains why he slapped Franco. To briefly summarize the rap Hart said:
Madden season is the reason he slapped Franco, he keyed Francos car, poured sugar in
Francos car tank, waited outside Francos house, woke up Franco and his wife with a
blow horn. The scene then jumps to a singer wearing a grey glittery dress with neon
yellow make up singing, Its madden season, dont ask why, time to man up not to cry.
Franco and his wife begin to argue and in the next scene Francos wife leaves him for
Damian Lillard, point guard for the Portland Trail Blazers. Lillard and Francos wife
leave on a black and yellow ATV. In the next scene Hart shows up with Korean Pop
singers at Francos office while he is working. Hart basically comes in gloating saying
that he will destroy Franco if he played against him. The K-pop singers also join in
teasing Franco. Franco tries to tell Hart that he cant just randomly show up at his work
like that, but a digital Richard Sherman from the actual game appears from off screen and
tackles Franco. The scene then cuts back to the singer that was wearing all grey; you
could say that she is singing the hook. The singer finally reveals that she is standing on a
little EA sports island disk in the middle of a pool filled with dolphins and asks for help.
The scene then jumps back to Francos house where Colin Kaepernick, Dez Bryant,
Eddie Lacey, and Lesean McCoy are attending a party. The four NFL players all begin to
rap. The rap is basically a bunch of nonsense with them just saying, blah, blah, blah,
madden repeatedly. Hart then jumps into the rap saying its Madden season so he can do

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whatever he wants to his rival, even start a twitter war. Surprisingly Franco pops up from
off screen joining the rap. Franco takes shots at Hart and the party guests join in with him
finishing his lyrics like its a real rap song. Franco is very hyped up at the moment
judging by his red face. Hart and Franco then proceed to sit down to play Madden by the
humongous screen in Francos backyard. Out of the pool comes a person wearing all
white and a teddy bear headgear playing a white violin. Hart and Franco begin to play.
Hart immediately begins to apologize to Franco as Franco scores a touchdown in the
game. Francos house is set on fire, but he decides to let it burn in order to continue
playing Madden. Hart is hype that Franco doesnt care about the house and the end of the
advertisement shows clips of the game and the release date. The games rating is E, for
everyone, and this advertisement does almost make it seem like it is for everyone since it
reaches out to such a diverse audience.
The target audience of the commercial is athletes mostly basketball and football
players, because of the people starring in the commercial. The commercial had an NBA
player (Damian Lillard) and five NFL players (Dez Bryant, Lesean McCoy, Eddie Lacey,
and Colin Kaepernick). The commercial did a great job by casting these athletes. All the
athletes in the commercial are superstars in their sports having breakout seasons. Many
other athletes after seeing the commercial made responses on YouTube describing how
hype they are for the game. EA took full advantage of Madden being the NFLs official
video game to their advantage.
As far as gender the game did a fantastic job appealing to both male and female.
The commercial had that competitive edge and disrespectfulness that most males love in
sports. For evidence this competitiveness and disrespectfulness showed up when Hart

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walked over to Francos house and slapped Franco in the face, then keyed his car. The
commercial also had Dave Franco, a frequent man crush Monday for many females
around the world. There were also females in the advertisement and they also had a
competitive attitude. In the scene where Kevin Hart was stalking Dave Franco there were
several females assisting Hart in actions such as: keying Francos car, pouring sugar in
his tank, bothering Franco in his home, and at work. Even though most females arent
competitive like the ones in the commercial EA did a great job trying to capture that
minority audience.
Ethnicity wise the game is for everyone, but EA tried to specifically hook in a
Korean audience by adding K-pop stars into the video. After seeing this video there has
to be a couple of Koreans that want to try the game after seeing some Korean celebrities
in the commercial. American Football is still a new sport in America, but just like
basketball it is beginning to spread its influence overseas as well and EA Sports is trying
to take advantage of this spread. The commercial definitely targets Americans, because
its a commercial about American Football, but not only that the commercial has that
Super bowl vibe to it, a traditional American event. Its always important to know your
audience. If one doesnt know who his or her audience is, then the topic of the
commercial will most likely not connect to the audience. For example what if a
commercial for Football season was in an all pink room, with dolls, and a little tea part
going on. Typically the only people that care about that type of stuff are little girls, but
little girls dont watch football so it would be pointless to air that commercial. The
advertisement assumes that the people who watch football are males so the commercial
would need to exhibit manly qualities, like competitiveness, passion for the game, and

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dominance. Knowing your audience allows one to get their idea out smoothly, allows the
audience to stay focused, and makes grasping information much easier.
EA also uses sex appeal in the advertisement in order to attract an even larger
audience. Since the advertisement was made with the presumption that mostly males will
be watching it they casted a mostly female cast. In almost every scene of the
advertisement there is a female wearing tiny booty shorts almost to the point that the
females butts hang out. All the females have their stomachs exposed and they all posses
skinny waists. Every female in the commercial has a full face of makeup on with jewelry
on.
EA did a great job to subtly include the need for affiliation into the advertisement.
Proof of this need for affiliation can be seen in two events. At the beginning of the
advertisement Dave Francos wife left him because he disagreed to play Kevin Hart in
Madden. Towards the end of the commercial when Franco finally agrees to play the game
tons of people come over to his house to watch the match, everyone on the screen seemed
to be enjoying themselves and were socializing. These two scenes send the message that
Madden brings people together to have a good time. These scenes are targeted at those
who lack a social life and crave for it.
In conclusion, EA Sports created a fantastic advertisement that appealed to a wide
range of audiences. The commercial appealed all the way from American Football
players to fans of Korean pop stars. The advertisement also did a great job using the
emotional needs of people to its advantage such as the need for sex and affiliation.

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Work Cited
EA Sports. Madden NFL 15: Madden Season. Youtube. Youtube, 15 August 2014.
Web. 13 Oct. 2014.