How Mother LA Drafted Terry Crews to Turn Athletes into SONIC Stars

One thing about Terry Crews – much to the envy of most in the public eye – is that you’d have to travel quite far to find someone with something bad to say about him. The gentle giant of a polymath known best for his varied career in acting, playing football for the NFL and as a TV host is no stranger to the world of advertising.

His decade-long ambassadorship for Old Spice means he’s had plenty of practice on the sales screen – something he’s putting to use in his latest ad for American drive-in fast-food chain, SONIC.

Brought to us from the creative minds at Mother LA, the spot sees Terry Crews’ acting school welcome five unwitting athletes in training to be brand ambassadors.

Beginning with the question, “Who’s ready to emote?” Terry’s schooling takes students through a series of lessons that will help them perform seamlessly, maybe even suspending disbelief.

Creative Henry White says everything sparked from the truth that "athletes are not the best actors. And as NIL deals are about to become more prominent, we wanted to help athletes, for their sake and ours.”

The team began by putting together a playbook for the acting camp, says creative Maddie Graham. “Figuring out how to structure the class for Terry and the players, and then how to structure the content to create an enticing spot for SONIC. It was like working on an experiential project, half thinking through the actual run of the show, half thinking through what would make a good spot.”

The team knew Terry’s “acting chops and innate sense of humour” could carry the comedy. “We had to anticipate a reality where the players were reluctant to let their guard down and really participate, so having Terry’s big personality to bring the humour was incredibly helpful.” Luckily, the SEC players were more than game to participate, but Maddie and Henry say it was undoubtedly Terry’s encouragement that brought the best out of them.

For Maddie, the most challenging part of the idea was predicting the future. Measuring how many exercises would be needed to occupy the players meant that overcompensating was the safest bet. “This was not like a typical shoot, where each shot gets a carefully allotted period of time, so we had to do our best in figuring out how much each exercise would take,” Maddie explains.

The team say this was one of those projects that kept them on their toes, requiring “a lot of changes on the fly”. While filming the class with Terry, they had to think about the sorts of commentary they’d need to pick up with him immediately after to piece together the film. They knew each second with Terry was precious, so they were keen to make the most of every moment.

When I ask about a standout moment from the shoot, Maddie says it was seeing the SEC players truly engage with Terry on set, describing it as “the moment the idea really came to life.” She adds, “It was wonderful to see these guys who spend so much of their time trying to hone their skills on the field, genuinely trying to learn how to act and not just brush it off as something they were getting paid for, regardless.”

Maddie could tell the athletes really wanted to learn something, and that their respect for Terry created a “magical environment where everyone could be silly and try new things without fear of ridicule”. If comfort is the secret sauce to accompany vulnerability, then Terry has it in bucketloads.

True to professional form, Terry did his own research on each of the players – unbeknownst to the team at Mother – before the shoot, and found out that it was recently Marcel’s birthday. “So one of the final exercises he did with the players was having them all sing happy birthday to him,” says Henry.

Ideas like this one that deviate from the norm require less of a dash and more of an Olympic swimming pool of faith from the client side. That’s something the team at Mother are keen to credit. “They championed this idea from the beginning,” say Henry and Maddie.

It’s a reminder that a little bit of a belief can go a long way; this time, it came from Marion Campbell, VP of integrated marketing & communications at Inspire Brands . “There was even a point where our team had all but given up on it, but our client Marion pushed through the fog and got us back on track.”

And isn't that what it's all about?