I admit it: It’s a little hypocritical for a blog about raising adventurous, outdoor kids to be reviewing TV commercials, but I can’t resist reposting this ad, “The Next Ones,” which aired on the sly during the Super Bowl post-game show yesterday. The commercial, for NBC Sports Network, pays tribute to up-and-coming backyard athletes, aka “the scrappers,” who are busy doing the real work of childhood: playing hard outside. It’s a goosebumpy, 60-second ride through kid land as it used to be, and should be still: pushing go-carts up ridiculously steep hills, running fast through the neighborhood, and playing pick-up pond hockey on perfect black ice.
So here’s to “the unknown phenoms, the enforcers, the feared, the ones you didn’t see coming”—role models, we hope, for an increasingly sedentary, screen-bound generation of kids. Gotta love their spirit.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=XSgrL0ZPE_Q%C2%A0%C2%A0
—Katie Arnold