“No joking in the trophy room“
Contrary to the two previous installments of the FNV Ski Commercials theme, this week’s product is using the associating itself with an athlete, not the sport in general. Nancy Greene Raine was one of Canada’s most famous skier and female athlete.
Mars bar commercials and Nancy Greene.
“I’ve just heard a lot of people say ‘If I see Nancy Greene do one more Mars bars commercial, I’m gonna slam the television set right off,'” CBC host Peter Gzowski insists. In this unusual interview, the former media darling comes under serious scrutiny for selling out. Greene defends her decisions. “Everybody wants their amateur heroes to be Simon Pure and above all the crass commercialism,” she counters. “But I feel good about what happened and I really don’t regret any of the involvements that I’ve had.”
Great radio interview with Nancy Greene by radio icon Peter Gzowski.which asked many questions including, “Is Nancy Greene a sellout?” The 15 minutes one-on-one interview was for the radio show “This Country in the Morning”, broadcast on November 10, 1973.
The Nancy Greene’s crash featured in the commercial is from the 1966 World Championships in Portillo, Chile.
Here is a comment on that crash from anecdotage.com:
In July 1966, Canadian skier Nancy Greene took a nasty spill during the world championships in Portillo, Chile. “I was told later that I flipped through three cartwheels – at a speed of 40 mph. My helmet flew off, my skis and poles shattered against the hard snow, and I crashed into the retaining wall around the course. For a few seconds I saw stars and I had to fight not to pass out. Officials and spectators swarmed around me and everyone had a piece of medical advice for me. I concentrated on staying conscious and on checking for broken limbs. I seemed to be able to move my arms and legs, even if they did register a terrible numbness, and, slowly, gingerly, I stood up. I managed to climb off the course, over the retaining wall, and then I looked up. The finish line was barely fifty yards away – fifty more yards, such a short distance, and I would almost certainly have won a world championship. I couldn’t stand it. It seemed so unjust, and I broke out in big tears.”
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Previous FNV post on commercials
Ski Commercials – Wayne Wong and Pepsi
Ski Commercials 2 – Juicy Fruit
Ski Commercial 3 – Jean-Claude Killy
Ski Commercial 4 – Crazy Canucks
Ski Commercial 5 – Maria Walliser