Will Ferrell is a Marketing Pro

Semi-Pro, the latest installment of Will Ferrell comedies that have swept the nation, is doing something that few other films have done before: mixing real-life movie marketing with brand marketing. The film has Ferrell playing Jackie Moon, the owner/coach/player for the fictional 1970s  Flint, Michigan basketball team The Tropics. Marketers of the film have decided to promote the comedy through various commercial spots for brands such as Old Spice and Bud Light, where Ferrell, in his Jackie Moon get-up, endorses the products through the "cliched athlete-in-the-locker-room ad."

Karl Greenberg writes for Media Post Publications that "in one of the ads, in which [Ferrell] is clearly improvising, he talks about how Old Spice means the world to him. 'Not today's world,' he says. 'The world of yesterfar. When Columbus discovered the world was round. When wild berries grew on every street corner. And gentlemen wore monocles. When cavewomen hunted for food.'"

Many might remember that a similar commercial spot was shown during the Superbowl for Bud Light, in which Ferrell improvises his way through a commercial shoot for the product. 

The marketing team that decided to integrate brand marketing with movie marketing paved the way for future comedies. Not only do these spots increase the reach of Semi-Pro's marketing, they also help create added revenue, if not for the film, at least for the star, Ferrell. 

Although this technique might not work for every film (just imagine "No Country For Old Men" using Javier Bardem in Bud Light ads to promote the film), this is the perfect outlet for a light-hearted comedy who's target audience is exactly the same as that of Old Spice or Bud Light.