Big Lead Sports Bar

7/29/2008

PITTSBURGH FAN THE FACE OF ESPN

Know this young fella? If not, you will soon. His name is Steve Braband, he's 25, and he's the face of ESPN's new live advertising campaign.

The campaign, which promotes the revamped, live Sportscenter (debuting August 11), kicked off this past Sunday and features Braband in 25 30-second live ads over 15 days - at least 375 ads in all.
According to the official website, Steve is "all about Pittsburgh - Steelers, Penguins, and, no matter how much they try to hurt me, the Pirates."
And according to a few emails I've received, Steve is a big Mondesi's House fan, which immediately scores points with yours truly.
Steve lived in Pittsburgh for 15 years, and recently filmed a spot with Kordell Stewart. Nice timing! I hope he had time to vote in this morning's tightly-contested poll.
Steve, who once worked for the Pirates, beat out 160 staffers who showed up for an open casting call. He'll be required to film spots whenever ESPN feels like it, which means waking him up and catching him coming out of the shower is fair game.
For his trouble, Steve will receive...no extra money in addition to his normal salary.
But the greater payoff could be down the road, as told to the USA Today by ESPN senior vice president Katie Lacey: "He'll go back to his regular life. Or get his own show. We'll see what happens."
So congratulations and best of luck to one of our own hitting the big time. We'll be watching for those Pittsburgh shout-outs!
Steveislive.com [Steve is Live]

2 comments:

HotDog_Zanzabar said...

This kid is as dopey of a yinzer as there is and there isn't anything more beautiful than someone's love for all things black and gold. Here's to ESPN for not picking some chowder slurping Bostonian, or some douche noodle from Brooklyn like they normally do.

gh432 said...

I went to college with Steve and 1 of my buddies is his best friend and also works at espn with him. he really is a die hard Pittsburgh fan and a good guy. Congrats and good luck