VOTD: Native Dancer in Gatorade Commercial

VOTD: Native Dancer in Gatorade Commercial

This video has been passed around for years now, but what exactly inspired Gatorade to make it?

According to a post by the Red Circle Agency out of Minnesota they were contacted by PepsiCo to help create a TV campaign to be show at the 2009 Gathering of Nations celebration in New Mexico.  The effort was the brain-child of Francella Giatrakis of PepsiCo who is director of an internal organization at PepsiCo commited to raising awareness for Native American issues at the corporate level.

Ms. Giatrakis's idea was to connect the heritage of athleticism for the Gatorade brand to pow wow dancing.  At the same time, PepsiCo was re-branding its line of Gatorade products with a visually stunning campaign created by Spike Lee and premiering on Super Bowl Sunday 2009.  Red Circle met with the Gatorade brand team and the agency TBWA/Chiat/Day Los Angeles and developed its own ‘Native American' flavored message for this great brand.  Red Circle asked championship pow wow dancer R.J. Smith of Wisconsin to be the spokesdancer, and received permission to use the track “Crow Hop” by Red Bull.

The campaign was a big hit at its debut of the Gathering of Nations and has had quite the afterlife on YouTube.



About Toyacoyah Brown

Toyacoyah Brown is an enrolled member of the Comanche Nation, currently living in Chicago. She received her B.A. in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma and an M.A. in Media Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. When she's not scouring the Internet for fun things to share with PowWows.com readers you can find her digging for vinyl in her local record store or curling up with a good book.


4 Comments on “VOTD: Native Dancer in Gatorade Commercial”

  • Avatar for Running Doe

    The Gathering of Nations is held in Albuquerque, New Mexico really enjoyed brings such joy for honoring the ancesters and the elders and brings healing to earth mother

  • Avatar for Karin

    Karin

    says:

    The Gathering of Nations is held in Albuquerque, New Mexico; not in Arizona.

    • Avatar for des

      des

      says:

      who said arizona?

  • Avatar for June

    June

    says:

    All information is such a fresh breath of air..

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