Sport Clips Gets Mighty Messy With the T-Shirt Cannon

It will hit you 'square in the nachos'

Pow! Sploosh! Ouch! Actor Michael Sudduth gets blasted in the face over and over with stadium snack-bar fare in Preacher’s “T-Shirt Cannon” spot for Sport Clips:

“We had to use a little movie magic,” agency ACD Elliot Eliash tells Muse. “Under his outfit were hoses connected to an air compressor that was precisely triggered to blow cheese chips, and popcorn all over the place at exactly the right time. Apologies to our lead actor and the nearby extras for all the takes.”

Ultimately, the campaign asks, “Is Sport Clips better than sports?” to position the chain as a relaxing place to enjoy games on TV while getting haircuts and shaves. Message received. Now, pass the damn napkins!

In this next ad, a crushed quarterback could use a break (that doesn’t involve his ribs):

“To ensure our QB wasn’t bearing the full weight of a dozen beefy football players, we had our stunt tacklers doing planks over him so they could carry the weight instead,” Eliash says. “Shout-out to them and their abs of steel.”

Finally, America’s pastime degenerates into a bit of a brawl:

“As you can imagine, hitting an actor at full speed with an actual baseball would be problematic,” Eliash says. “Instead, we used a foam baseball. It took a few tries. But with some added oomph in sound, it ended up feeling like we gave our batter some 95-mph chin music.”

Fatal Farm’s Zachary Johnson and Jeffery Max—well versed in comedy from Old Space, Manscaped and Pizza Hut—directed.

The work breaks this week on TV and digital platforms including Discovery, Adult Swim, TruTV, MLB Network, ESPN and Hulu.