BrandDunk

Advertising Age posted a great article on the exponential growth of comparative ads in the advertising world.  AdAge says these “attack ads” are becoming a common tactic for the underdog in a given sector.  The success of Apple’s Mac vs PC ads have inspired a new wave of attack ads from companies in a variety of industries.

* Dunkin Donuts is going after Starbucks on coffee.
* Time Warner and Verizon are attacking each other on broadband service.
* Direct TV is attacking Time Warner on the dish being better than cable.
* Progresso is going after Campbell’s on healthy soup.
* Microsoft (aka: PC) is counterpunching Apple (aka: Mac) with their “I’m a PC ad”.

So the question is which sports brands are going to start directly attacking each other in these combative style ads?  There are many companies who spend a lot of marketing dollars in the sports world, who already have a history of attacking each other, including: Coke versus Pepsi, Burger King versus McDonald’s and Miller Lite versus Bud Light.  But what sports brands are going to form the next wave of attack ads:

Under Armour vs Nike vs Reebok/Adidas
* There has already been a history of some attack ads in this space, but look for upstart Under Armour to try to gain market share by tearing down their bigger, richer rivals.  Attacks on Nike are going to be coming from all directions, as Reebok/Adidas will continue to battle Nike for supremacy in different sports categories.  The last few years Nike and Adidas have exchanged a lot of blows as Nike tries to grow their foothold in the soccer world, a previous stronghold of Adidas.

Gatorade vs Powerade evolves to Vitaminwater vs SoBe Lifewater
Again these are two companies that are not strangers to attack ads.  They and their parent companies, Coca-Cola and Pepsi, have battled back and forth for years.  The new battleground will be the flavored water, where Coke brand Vitaminwater will fight against attacks from Pepsi’s SoBe Lifewater.

UFC vs Elite XC
Wait, this battle between rival MMA organizations looks to be already over with the news that Elite XC is going out of business.  Score it a TKO for the UFC and Dana White.

NBA vs NHL
It’s doubtful these two leagues ever take off the gloves and really start bashing each other, but there might be a few jabs thrown.  The two major professional sports leagues compete for dollars, fans, corporate sponsorships and television air time every year.  Both are hurting for revenue, so rather than try to build their own brand they may choose to attack the other brand to try to grab some market share.

These are just a few, surely there will be more big name sports brands that throw down the gauntlet to go after their competitors.  It’ll be interesting to see which of these “attacks” prove effective, and which turn out to be just more noise in the marketplace.