TY - JOUR
T1 - Coach Lasso and the embodiment of American exceptionalism:NBC Sports promotion of English Premier League football as the foreign sport
AU - Kassing, Jeffrey W.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - This study considers the campaign of American broadcast network NBC to cultivate a US-based audience for the English Premier League (EPL) after purchasing broadcast rights in 2013. This involved the creation and introduction of a fictional character, American football coach Ted Lasso, who initially came to England to manage a soccer team and later to provide broadcast commentary. A series of videos chronicling the coach’s antics, soccer and cultural illiteracy, immense inexperience, and limited perspective, which debuted shortly before the network’s inaugural coverage began, garnered considerable attention. A thematic analysis indicated that the campaign portrayed Ted Lasso as an unknowing fool and cavalier clown accompanied by a knowledgeable sidekick, anchored his perspective on American football exclusively, and projected soccer as a foreign, feminine and youth sport. NBC Sports’ promotional campaign effectively combined comedic elements like farce and parody to critique and confront American exceptionalism and US historical indifference to soccer.
AB - This study considers the campaign of American broadcast network NBC to cultivate a US-based audience for the English Premier League (EPL) after purchasing broadcast rights in 2013. This involved the creation and introduction of a fictional character, American football coach Ted Lasso, who initially came to England to manage a soccer team and later to provide broadcast commentary. A series of videos chronicling the coach’s antics, soccer and cultural illiteracy, immense inexperience, and limited perspective, which debuted shortly before the network’s inaugural coverage began, garnered considerable attention. A thematic analysis indicated that the campaign portrayed Ted Lasso as an unknowing fool and cavalier clown accompanied by a knowledgeable sidekick, anchored his perspective on American football exclusively, and projected soccer as a foreign, feminine and youth sport. NBC Sports’ promotional campaign effectively combined comedic elements like farce and parody to critique and confront American exceptionalism and US historical indifference to soccer.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85128239452&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85128239452&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/14660970.2022.2059866
DO - 10.1080/14660970.2022.2059866
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85128239452
SN - 1466-0970
JO - Soccer and Society
JF - Soccer and Society
ER -