Ted Lasso, the Apple TV+ production about AFC Richmond, a modest London soccer team that is relegated to the second division and then reaches the top of the Premier League under a coach who knows nothing about football, has generated a fever for greyhounds of great impact. The big brands in the sportswear or video game industry have seen the opportunity to do business by sticking to a team whose fans feel this fictitious team as if they have been supporting it all their lives.
The viewers and movie critics forums consider Ted Lasso concluded after its third season. We are not going to make any spoilers, just to say that the closed and fair ending with the series does sound like a definitive end to the script. If it ever returns, the only thing that could lift the plot would be a turn of events designed in an office of Apple TV+, its production company. Nor would it be strange, since the series has looked more for creating epic moments to generate belonging to a team than for the rigor of its chapters or narrative neatness. And it has convinced millions of viewers around the world! It’s soccer, no matter if it’s true or false.
This summer vacation, let’s not rule out crossing paths with a person wearing the AFC Richmond blue and just smile. Create that telepathic connection with a person we don’t know at all. Despite its spectacular numbers of reproductions, it is logical that the jersey of coach Lasso’s team is a niche joke in our freak circle. And if it has Sam Obisanya’s number twenty-four on top of it, you’re bound to be delirious.
Ted Lasso has managed to create a fan phenomenon that Tsubasa Ozora and Genzo Wakabayashi (Oliver Atom and Benji Price) achieved in their time. But, this time, the series has taken advantage of its time, the proliferation of social networks, the revolution in the world of advertising and marketing to create a transmedia product rarely seen. The Apple TV+ production has managed to sacrifice plot and narrative pact in exchange for creating a warm, viewer-friendly series and shaping the sports story that every long-suffering team fan dreams of living one day. All is good in the Richmond. The result of this feeling of belonging to a fictitious team -despite the obvious nods to Crystal Palace-, this carte blanche that we, the viewers, gave AFC Richmond from the very first episode to do with us what it wanted, is that brands have taken advantage of it to jump into the race to place their products in the series.
Product placement, or “I am like you”.
The delirium for Ted Lasso that started in the pandemic peaked when Lebron James wore an AFC Richmond sweatshirt to Game 6 of the Lakers-Grizzlies round robin. Sponsored by Nike, of course. The American firm has hung the sold out to the three products of the team that sells on its official website: the first jersey (89.90€), the sweatshirt (59,99€) and the second jersey (29,99€). All sold out.
The landing of brands that have decided to become part of the Richmond and tell their customers that, like them, they were jumping on the greyhounds bandwagon has been overwhelming. As of the third installment only Bantr, the fictional dating app that brings together president Rebecca Welton and striker Sam Obisanya, is spared. If we type in bantr.com, we find a picture of the Richmond squad. The rest are brands we can consume.
The examples of companies that have appeared in the series or have relied on Ted Lasso’s boys to sell their products are many. In the last season, Nike is sponsoring the shirts. But also the Premier League, which begins to appear with its official patch on the club’s kits when it had not done so until then. Also Apple or Ryanair – I won’t say where it appears, no spoilers – and clothing brands such as Obey, DSQUARED2 or Stone Island. Even the world of hospitality, as the peri-peri chicken chain Nando’s, which has almost five hundred restaurants in the UK, has launched a campaign in which the most recognizable Richmond players are a sauce that you can add to their meals.
In the video game industry, EA Sports did not hesitate to announce the inclusion of AFC Richmond in the latest FIFA 23 as a claim. The Electronic Arts subsidiary also went to great lengths to create a realistic fan experience and characterize the greyhounds’ stars with the faces of the actors. Just as when we were children we didn’t mind creating a player in the video game, tricked out his skills and created ourselves, even with the most predetermined and artificial features, the company knew well that the same could not happen with Jamie Tartt or Roy Kean. The team, with scores of the most generous, can be used both in friendly matches and in Career mode or FIFA Ultimate Team.
Success lies in commitment
Understanding the Lasso phenomenon requires an additional exercise to get to know the lore of the series. Richmond has an official Twitter profile -the ones with the golden sticker-, like the rest of the Premier League clubs, and behaves in networks like a real team: they create posters for the previews of the matches they supposedly play, post clips of players’ statements that did not appear in the episodes and provide additional content to their greyhounds. In addition, the other Premier clubs took them seriously and interacted with them. To give you a sense of the impact, the club’s account has almost half a million followers on Twitter.
Richmond is the people’s team, the team of those adult fans who continue to have childish dreams of their team of ball-breakers winning in the last breath of the game. The feeling of belonging to a club that gives few upsets and the world’s most bizarre and impossible joys is total when after a handful of chapters. Their legend is that of the characters of our childhood who, even if they are completely removed from reality, are still our idols. Brands have been able to capture that feeling that the Apple TV+ production was raising in viewers and wanted to jump on the commercial opportunities offered by the Lassoneta.
In addition, the wave of good acceptance generated by the series would allow its producers to sell all kinds of products related to the team. From a poster with the motto that the locker room clung to in difficult times, Believe, to the classic British pint glasses with the AFC Richmond crest. The same ones used by the trio of die-hard fans who didn’t even watch a game at the stadium, but waited in the team’s pub topped up with beers. How not to see the love for a mediocre team reflected in those visceral fans who insulted and kissed the shield in a matter of seconds.
