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Power Ranking Saquon Barkley’s TV Commercials (So Far)

From the moment Saquon Barkley was drafted by the New York Giants last year and was freed from the monetary prison that is the NCAA, corporations and advertising executives everywhere have been fighting tooth and nail to get our golden boy to represent their brands.

Barkley has wasted no time getting his endorsement bread, earning $4.5 million in endorsements after his first NFL season. He’s formed partnerships with Nike, Pepsi, and Dunkin’, and became the frontrunner for the next “Face of the NFL.”

With his second season underway, Barkley hasn’t slowed down, picking up an endorsement from Hulu and signing a deal (alongside a special teammate) with Campbell’s Soup.

Barkley is on his way to joining Peyton Manning and Shaquille O’Neal as all-time legendary athlete spokesmen. Here are his best TV spots, ranked*, so far.

*this is a completely unbiased list. The fact that Giants-centric commercials are ranked last is purely coincidental. Go Birds.

8. Circle K/Pepsi

This was Barkley’s first-ever TV spot as a rookie NFL player and spokesman, and he was apparently very nervous while on set, shyly declining PepsiCo’s first commercial idea of dancing in the endzone, according to PepsiCo’s director of sports marketing.

Instead, Barkley gave us a humorous visual of autographing fans’ hot dogs with mustard.

However, six months later, after a record-setting season in which Barkley won Rookie of the Year, the Pepsi staff couldn’t get him to stop dancing, even though the 15-second spot required no dancing:

7. Visa With Eli Manning

While the Circle K/Pepsi spot was Barkley’s first, the commercial was only shown in New York markets. These Visa ads with New York Giants (former, heh) starting QB Eli Manning were Barkley’s first national TV spots, airing quite frequently during NFL Sundays.

The ads display Visa’s nifty tap-to-pay function and humorously depict Eli taking part in a little rookie hazing by taking advantage of Barkley’s willingness to show off the tap-to-pay function.

6. Hulu Has Live Sports

Barkley is the most recent premier athlete to join the wave of letting the world know that, yes, Hulu does indeed have live sports.

The commercial features Barkley as the cover athlete for “Hulu Has Live Sports ’20,” which is NOT a football video game but a “watching football” video game (shouldn’t Eli be the cover athlete for that now? Too soon?).

5. Dunkin’ Donuts

Another twofer! Our first Quads-centric commercial of the list comes from Dunkin’, featuring Barkley exclaiming that Dunkin’s new Cappucino drinks are going to be huge…but not as huge as our boy’s quads.

The second commercial features Barkley talking about how hard he works at getting into opponent’s heads and then proceeds to get inside the head of us, the viewers, to tell us about Dunkin’s delicious lattes. He then proceeds to get trapped inside the viewer’s head, with no way of getting out.

4. Nike “Superhero” With Odell Beckham Jr. And Khalil Mack

This is one of two commercials on this list that isn’t entirely Saquon-centric, as it features his former teammate Odell Beckham Jr. along with the Chicago Bears’ Khalil Mack.

Nonetheless, it still ranks higher than the previous commercials on the list due to what I call the “Chill Factor.” Seeing our golden boy star in a Nike commercial for the first time, flying around NYC like Spider-Man before landing at the Meadowlands and painting the field blue and red was an exhilarating feeling.

Khalil Mack shape shifting from a bear into Khalil Mack was pretty cool too.

3. NFL 100 With NFL Legends

This video must be watched on YouTube’s actual website because NFL = No Fun League

When it comes to Chill Factor, this commercial takes the easily takes the cake. This entire commercial sent chills down my spine, with NFL legends past and present, including Penn State legend Franco Harris, in attendance at a banquet celebrating the NFL’s 100th year.

The banquet turns into a “kill the carrier”-style brawl, with NFL players old and new playing keep away, while ruining their fancy attire and the boujee dining hall.

The commercial ends, of course, with Barkley catching the ball and hurdling a defender — IN A TUXEDO!!!! – before running offscreen. They say he’s still running to this day.

2. Campbell’s Chunky With Momma Barkley

These last two commercials take the top slots because they have been recurring commercial series for around ~20~ years now and a rite of passage of sorts for the top athletes in their respective sports.

At No. 2 we have Barkley in a Campbell’s Chunky ad in which the lovely and caring Momma Barkley appears on the sidelines to ensure her son has a full stomach before embarking on an important drive.

This commercial series was made famous by Donovan McNabb and his (hired actress) mother, and a ton of NFL stars since then, so it’s endearing to see Barkley become the most recent NFL player to make a cute commercial with his momma.

1. ESPN “This Is SportsCenter”

The only true true sign of knowing you’ve “made it” as an athlete is appearing in a “This Is SportsCenter” commercial.

These classic ads depicting athletes working office jobs at ESPN in their sports uniforms are in the pantheon of all-time great commercial series. ESPN has fallen off hard within these past couple years, while on its quest for The Hottest Take, but its “This Is SportsCenter” commercials are still rock solid.

Barkley stars in — not one — but two commercials released this year, and of course, they are both quad-centric: The first depicts Barkley in a meeting watching anchor Stan Verrett give a presentation, while his co-anchor Neil Everett is blowing up his notifications with texts about Barkley’s thighs.

The second shows ESPN staff struggling to adjust to their new standing desks. Everyone but Barkley that is, who is making the most of his opportunity to do leg workouts while standing at his desk doing whatever the hell it is football players would do at an office job.

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About the Author

Matthew Ogden

Matthew Ogden is a senior double majoring in Marketing and Journalism. He resides in South Jersey and is the cohost of Onward State's podcast, Podward State. Email him your favorite Spotify playlists to [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @MattOgden98.

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