Trailer Park #003: The One with the 10 Greatest Madden Commercials Ever
Subnation | Scott Bernberg | September 10, 2020
The NFL is back! So is Madden! With Kaepernick! That means it’s time for a special Football Edition of Trailer Park!
You know, all those exclamation points got us thinking about a few truths:
- It would be hard to imagine autumn Sundays without the NFL or EA Sports’ Madden NFL, the video game franchise it has so proudly represented for decades.
- With the hours spent playing Madden NFL over the years, we could have written a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, and raised a child who also wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.
- The Madden NFL franchise is responsible for some of the greatest video game commercials of our time.
And with that, Trailer Park is proud to present the best of the best Madden ads.
10. Madden 17 | Start Me
Von Miller has popped up in a few Madden ads over the years, but this is his tour de force. Cloned repeatedly and channeling Justin Bieber, the All Pro Broncos linebacker somehow seems quite at home in the Bieber-verse. And nobody wears pastels better.
9. Madden 12 | Replay
Adding instant replay to Madden was a horrible idea. The game is composed of pixels and code — and the code determines the rules that govern those pixels. There is no human error on the calls! Sorry. Still a sore spot. But Madden marketing has always been at its best when tapping into the lifestyle surrounding the game and the people who play it. Throw in some wicked awesome Boston accents and you’ve got yahself classic pisser of a Madden ad right here pal.
8. Madden 13 | Paul Rudd and Ray Lewis (Part I & II)
An epic tale of friendship that proves what wise people have known for years: everything is better with Paul Rudd in it.
7. Madden 12 | Vince
A solid ad. But the burning question remains: is that the dad from The Wonder Years playing legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi? No, seriously. We went down a 6-hour internet rabbit hole trying to find out and still don’t know. Help!
6. Madden 99 | Cyber Barry
Hadn’t seen this ad for a while, but digitzed Barry Sanders juking defenders out of their shoes to the sweet sounds of K.C. and the Sunshine Band still brings a smile to this old gamer’s grill. Just look at him go! That lovable pixelated scamp.
5. Madden 10 | Push
Dramatic and cinematic. Almost a little too much so for a Madden commercial. “Push” is a great set piece, but one that feels like it was originally intended for a FIFA 10 ad campaign. Very Euro. But also quite moving…in the bro-iest way possible.
4. Madden 2001 | Kickimus Maximus
At first, it seems like pretty standard early century Madden fare. That is until you come to the closing moments and are introduced to the three greatest words ever spoken in an EA ad. Kickimus Maximus Butticus is as funny now as it was back in 2000. Although to be fair we might have been high at the time.
3. Madden 93 | Gimme That
True story: there was a period during the 1990’s when every ad on TV, no matter what it was selling, sounded exactly like this. But nobody did it better than this Madden 93 spot. It struck the perfect balance between the monotone and the Shakespearean. A laundry list of a love letter to football. The ad also gave us the debut performance of the narrator who would become synonymous with the game in the years that followed. Perfection.
2. Madden 16 | Madden: The Movie
The battle between the first and second slot on our list danced on a razor’s edge. But we call ‘em like we see ’em. Madden: The Movie is absurdist advertising at its absolute best. It poses more questions than it provides answers. Does this have anything whatsoever to do with the video game itself? Why is McLovin in here? Who cast Colin Kaepernick as Al Pacino from Scent of a Woman? We may never have the answers, but as long we have YouTube, we’ll have the glory that is Madden: The Movie.
- Madden 15 | Madden Season
Even if you don’t live in the Hollywood Hills, hang out with Kevin Hart, or have your girlfriend stolen by Damian Lillard, you can still relate to that special mixture of anticipation and angst when the excitement over a new edition of Madden NFL turns into the lingering pain of losing to your most bitter frenemy on the digital gridiron. It’s a game about friendship and competition and results that matter. And that’s what makes this ad our favorite. That and the dolphins in the pool.
That’s all for Subnation Trailer Park this week. We’ll see you again next time when we return to our regularly scheduled programming of great trailers from the latest games, upcoming movies and more.
