Hey Kid, Catch Commercial

If I had to name my favorite commercials, it would be a really short list. This Mean Joe Greene and Kid commercial would top the shortlist, though. People talk about famous Super Bowl commercials. This one is probably remembered the most. I loved it as a kid…watching Mean Joe Greene, who just by name alone would scare you…but to see him as a kind person giving a kid a jersey? It made me root for the Steelers at the time…although I pulled for the Rams in the Super Bowl…that didn’t help. 

This ad debuted on October 1, 1979. It showed an injured Mean Joe headed for the locker room to encounter a star-struck kid (Tommy Okon) who offered Mean Joe a coke. Greene eventually took the coke and while limping away pitched his jersey to the kid.

The commercial spot aired repeatedly through Superbowl XIV where the Steelers beat the Rams 31-19. It took 3 days to film the commercial and Joe ended up drinking around 18 cokes to finish it.

When Greene found out Tommy Okon didn’t get to keep the jersey from the commercial, he mailed him an autographed jersey for Christmas. This says a lot about Greene’s character. Why didn’t the commercial people let the kid keep the jersey? 

Coke looked at Roger Staubach, Tony Dorsett, Ed “Too Tall” Jones, and teammate Jack Lambert but Joe Greene won out. The right man got the job. The commercial helped to soften Joe Greene’s reputation. Before it aired, Greene said people were intimidated by him. This is a quote from Greene. “I was suddenly approachable, little kids were no longer afraid of me, and older people – both women and men – would come up and offer me a Coke.”

It was directed by Roger Mosconi, and produced by McCann Erickson for Coca-Cola. Tommy Okon was a nine-year-old child actor at the time. It was later remade multiple times, including versions featuring soccer star Zico in Brazil and other athletes worldwide.

Greene was injured at the time of filming. His limping in the commercial wasn’t entirely an act…he had been dealing with real knee pain. Between that and all the soda he drank, he later joked that it was one of the toughest things he had done in his career.

It also should be said how popular the Steelers were in the 1970s. They were the first team to win 4 Super Bowls and were without a defeat. They had one of the best defenses ever, and their offense was run by Terry Bradshaw. By this time, the team was aging, and they would win their 3rd Super Bowl against the Rams a few months after the commercial was filmed. They are considered one of the greatest teams in the NFL ever. Greene was nearing the end of his career. He was drafted in 1969 and would retire in 1981. 

Reunion 36 years later. 

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

17 thoughts on “Hey Kid, Catch Commercial”

  1. Oh ya’, as a Bengals fan growing up in the 70’s it pains me but that was the greatest team for that time. Winning 4 Supers Bowls in 6 years & repeating twice. Hasn’t been done since. More Hall of Famers than any other team of the Super Bowl area. That commercial was the only way that we kids of that era got to see ‘Mean Joe’ in any other way besides him beating on our favorite quarterbacks on that classic ‘Steel Curtain’ defense (the greatest defense of all-time).

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    1. Carl! Thanks so much! Why in the hell did I say 3? I corrected it. Minnesota, Cowboys twice, and then the Rams…how in the hell could I forget that?
      Yea it showed a different side to him that people didn’t know. He earned that name though in his first few years lol…he was tough. They were the team of the 70s and perhaps forever.

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      1. Ya’…lol, I can’t wait to get through this patch in my life & hopefully be able to take care of my business & get to that place that I’m working with now in a few months. One of the 1st things that I’ll do is buy a new X-Box & buy the latest Madden (I have an old X-Box with the classic ’05 Madden saved on a memory card with classic teams that I made) & start playing games vs those classic teams there…unless I have to earn them 1st like it used to be. I look forward to sticking the current teams with those great teams like the ’76 Steelers (their greatest team that was going for their ‘3-Peat’ that lost in the AFC Title Game) vs the ’84 Niners & ’85 Bears & ’72 Dolphins & ’93 Cowboys & pick whatever Pats team of this century. I’ll find out who’s the greatest then…lol.

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      2. Oh yea the 76 playoffs…I’m so happy Oakland won that year…they deserved a SB victory. They came so close years before.
        Cool….yea I still have a playstation 3…. all I use it for is to stream movies from my computer. It works well though.

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      3. I found out early that those things were only made to last a few years back when they originally came out. I had the original ‘Playstation’ & my ex & I went with X-Box because we liked the graphics better. She played other games that I did, I was just a Madden & other sports player (NBA 2K, NHL etc.)

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      4. Bailey has an X-Box…it is really cool…but since I only use mine to stream… I’ve never upgraded. The only game I really played a lot was Grand Theft Auto Vice City

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      6. I share that with her…I still love it. It takes me back to the 1980s. I was hoping so much they would write one for the 1970s.

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