NBA Legend and three-time NBA Champion Dwyane Wade gathers a cast of former champions and famous NBA fans to celebrate the pinnacle of the NBA season with a toast “to the Finals” in the 2024 NBA Finals campaign “The Toast”.
Ray Allen, Mike Breen, Ken Jeong, Magic Johnson, Jimmy Kimmel, Isiah Thomas, Queen Latifah and the newest members of the Chicago Sky Kamilla Cardoso and Angel Reese appear in the spot that opens with Wade hyping himself up as he prepares to deliver a tribute to the “the season that was and the champion to be” to an audience of former NBA champions, fans and celebrities at a glamorous, Gatsbyesque affair.
Creatively bottling the emotion that the road to the Championship evokes for all, Wade’s “Toast” honors the best of the game with references to iconic NBA moments, from Johnson’s signature no-look pass and Breen’s famous “bang!”, to Allen’s corner three and the Championship hardware itself, the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
The road to the NBA Finals, presented by YouTube TV, continues today, May 22, when the Boston Celtics face the Indiana Pacers at 10 a.m. AEST on ESPN in the Easter Conference Finals and Thursday, May 23 when the Dallas Mavericks face the Minnesota Timberwolves at 10:30 a.m. AEST on TNT in the Western Conference Finals.
The spot was directed by Dave Laden and created in collaboration with the independent creative agency Translation.
“The Toast” will run in broadcast and will live across all NBA social and digital platforms. The campaign will also be extended through complementary creative in out-of-home, digital, audio and print assets, including a pop-up activation at the Governor’s Ball Music Festival in New York on June 7-9.
Beyond the creative, the Finals campaign will also be supported by the second Larry O’Brien Trophy
Tour as Larry visits famous places and faces on the road to crowning the next NBA Champion.
