Gary Oldman to front ITV football campaign

Dark Knight star Gary Oldman shows off his footballs skills in a new on air campaign to promote ITV’s three major football offerings across its three platforms – TV, online and mobile. The promo, entitled The Power of Three, is scheduled to break on Saturday night (August 16).

In the ad Oldman walks through a film set and poses the question: “Have you ever noticed that good things come in threes?” The piece is filmed in one dramatic camera move following him as he moves through the set before he picks up a football and shows off his skills.

Oldman closes the promo by saying: “The Champions League, the FA Cup and England Internationals on ITV. Now that’s some hat-trick.”

There are many subtle visual references to threes throughout the ad including three flying ducks on a wall, three cricket stumps and three lions on an England shirt. Oldman’s script also references various well known ‘threes’ including wise men, primary colours and wishes.

The campaign has been commissioned to highlight ITV’s three big football properties this season, as broadcaster of the UEFA Champions League, FA Cup and England internationals.

ITV recently gained the rights to the FA Cup and all home England competitive matches for the next four seasons.

Group Marketing Director David Pemsel commented: “Gary Oldman not only commands a massive screen presence, he’s also a talented footballer and huge football fan. ITV is the home of free to air football this season and this promo reflects how excited we are to be bringing such high quality football to viewers on all our platforms.”

60, 30 and 20 second versions of the promo will run across ITV1 and ITV4 and viewers will be able to watch versions online.