Fans of Adam Sandler’s 1996 sports comedy film ‘Happy Gilmore’ will know that (fictional) golf legend Derick ‘Chubbs’ Peterson’s peak playing days are behind him thanks to an alligator biting off his hand, but the Carl Weathers character continues to offer his golfing expertise in a comic February campaign for PGA TOUR Superstore.
Created in harness with agency of record Tombras, the USA’s largest specialty golf retailer brought ‘Chubbs’ and his famous mahogany prosthetic hand out of retirement. As those who have seen the Universal Pictures movie know, ‘Chubbs’ is an expert at helping golfers of all abilities ‘find their happy place’ and this is reflected in the retailer’s new campaign tagline: ‘Golf’s Happy Place’.
The campaign spans 30- and 15-second spots and seeks to modernise the brand and thus attracting and engage golf’s emerging, younger generation of players whilst simultaneously still appealing to the retailer’s existing customer base.
The campaign launched across cable television and digital platforms during the PGA Tour’s ‘Waste Management Phoenix Open’ (which ran from 6 to 12 February) and then rolled out on broadcast rotation (led by a media plan focused on Golf Channel) linked to key golf tournaments up to the US Open (15 to 18 June).
“This campaign, like everything we have done with Tombras, positions PGA TOUR Superstore at the heart of the game as an experiential retailer serving as an extension of what people love about the sport,” said PGA TOUR Superstore CMO Jill Thomas. “PGA TOUR Superstore really is golf’s happy place. So, when Tombras came to us with the idea of using Chubbs Peterson from Happy Gilmore to introduce our new tagline, we knew we had to do it.”
“There’s an entire generation of golfers out there for whom Chubbs Peterson was the first example of a golf pro they’d ever been exposed to – thanks to Happy Gilmore,” added Tombras President Dooley Tombras. “For a category obsessed with using pro golfers, Chubbs is unexpected and welcome. Cultural icons who hit the nostalgia button are a potent combination, and PGA TOUR Superstore is smart to take advantage of the opportunity.”
The campaign was briefed in by PGA Tour Superstore CMO Jill Thomas and Brand Manager Phil Oliphant and created by a team at Tombras which included President Dooley Tombras, Chief Creative Officer Jeff Benjamin, Creative Director Maxx Delaney, Creative Director Nick Troop, Executive Producer Foz McDermott and Account Director Chris Randall.
Further input came from Born Licensing, while production was handled by Imposter with Director Carlyn Hudson and Producer Conor Bailey.
Comment
Tombras became the brand’s creative and media agency of record back in 2019 and since then its work has positioned PGA TOUR Superstore as the one-stop-shop for golfers and as offering everything a golfer needs: including clubs, balls, bags, clothing, footwear and technology.
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