is it in you?

I know it’s getting a bit old, but if anything about advertising were to be written on my tombstone someday, besides the fact that it probably killed me, it would be that I was one of the original creators of the “is it in you?” campaign for Gatorade. My creative partner and I thought the idea would be a simple, edgy way to challenge someone’s will to win as well as tell the complete story of Gatorade’s efficacy. The brand was deep into “Life Is A Sport, Drink It Up” at the time and the clients were strongly urging the agency to bring back “Demo Man.” (That really bad thermographic profile of a guy rehydrating while drinking Gatorade circa 1980-something.) The mere thought of using that thermo-guy gave us a stomach ache, so we argued that seeing real athletes competing at the very top of their game while bleeding, sweating and crying the actual Gatorade colors was a way to dramatize everyman as “demo-man.” Well, they weren’t buying it. And we subsequently presented the idea so many times that we started to piss them off. Then finally, finally, we talked them into shooting two test spots down in Argentina. After days and days of hand coloring every drop of sweat, the finished spots were put into focus groups where they became an immediate hit. Twelve years and hundreds of spots later, the campaign was finally put to rest.