Best Athlete Drink Endorsement Ads Slideshow

What happens when you cross a big, tough football player with his tiniest and most eager-to-please young fan? ("I just want you to know... I think.... I think... you're the best ever," the kid says to the player before offering him a drink.) Marketing gold, as the Coca-Cola Company discovered with this instant classic that first aired in 1979. Filmed in a high school stadium in Pelham, N.Y., over three days, the spot is possibly about as heartwarming as a soda endorsement will ever get.

Watch it here.

This spot takes considerable advantage of Tebow's controversial and very outspoken religious opinions by depicting the brooding athlete mid-training session (doing push-ups with long, heavy chains around his neck, for example), as he lists all of the things that his detractors said he couldn't do. "They said I couldn't be a high school quarterback... they said I couldn't win a Heisman..." and so forth. The genius of the ad is that it works equally well for the folks who love Tebow without irony (especially at the end, when he says "appreciate that" to the naysayers) and the people who deride him as sanctimonious (Tebow loves Jesus, but Tebow as Jesus? Now that's a good one.) It's either hauntingly inspiring or hauntingly hilarious, depending on your pew seat.

Watch it here.

You have to admire a company that's able to poke fun at themselves. Back in 2009, when the Kobe vs. LeBron hype leading up to the Finals was at an all-time high, Vitamin Water ran a spot featuring fans making the case for their respective player's superiority. The move turned out to be a little preemptive, as Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic defeated LeBron and the Cavaliers in the playoffs. Instead of sweeping the "mistake" under the rug, Vitamin Water showed their good sense of humor with a follow-up ad featuring Dwight Howard spoofing the spot. In the ad, called "Dwight vs. Dwight," he comically impersonates two sets of fans, both rooting for him.

Watch it here.

Classics of the sports-star commercial genre are the "tastes great/less filling" Miller Lite spots featuring endorsements from everyone from Bubba Smith to Red Auerbach. The very best of the lot is this gem from 1986 featuring an all-star sportsmen cast including Dick Butkus, Bob Uecker, and a relatively young John Madden. The "plot" involves a seriously goofy golf tournament, dubbed "The First Lite Beer Open," featuring underwater golfing, Rodney Dangerfield, and trees being ripped from the ground by quarterbacks — everything you ever wanted in an endorsement. And less.

Watch it here.

"Jackie Moon" is actually a character played by Will Farrell, the "owner/player/coach" of a 1976-era semi-pro basketball team called the Flint Tropics. Moon is the star of Semi Pro, Farrell's 2008 comedy, and this cross-promotional ad features the afro-headed, short-short wearing, utterly cheesy Moon attempting to endorse Bud Light in a series of outtakes. Moon tries out any tagline he can think of, including, "Take it from a man who places electrical tape over his nipples," and "Bud Light: I'm horny." Meanwhile, he's also flirting with the "makeup honey" and attempting to sell beer via pelvic thrust. This is easily the best endorsement a fake athlete can provide.

Watch it here.

In one of the most involved and original endorsements ever made, this Gatorade commercial, the final eight-plus minute cut of which is available for viewing on YouTube, features Kevin Garnett starring in a parody of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. There's no telling how much they had to pay the guy to don knightware atop his Celtics uniform, but he's somehow wearing it. Cameos are made by Derek Jeter, Usain Bolt, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, gymnast Alicia Sacramone, and volleyball players Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, as Garnett and his gang travel on faux horseback across the medieval terrain. To describe the shenanigans is to ruin the surprise, but just after the five-minute mark is a flash-mob style dance routine you don't want to miss.

Watch it here.