On the eve of MLB Opening Day, Budweiser is making sure to highlight one of the most legendary players that baseball has ever seen with a short film directed by Spike Lee that will launch a full stadium-wide campaign in tribute to Jackie Robinson.
With 2019 marking what would’ve been the iconic athlete’s centennial year of life, this occasion couldn’t have happened at a more fitting time than now. The campaign is rooted around Robinson’s famous quote that you’ll find imprinted on his tombstone in Brooklyn’s Cypress Hills Cemetery, which reads, “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” Lee implemented those words into the driving theme of Impact, a three-minute short that takes us on a visual journey into the late ’40s/mid ’50s, where his influence was happening real-time within the Black community of the day, and also how his legacy still shapes the boundary-pushers of today. Rare footage of Robinson from that era is also shown, presented here in the Academy Award-winning director’s signature “slideshow style” technique of editing. Everything comes full-circle with the film’s narrator, who happens to be Jackie Robinson’s own daughter, Sharon Robinson.
The film airs nationally tomorrow (March 28) throughout ballparks and as TV commercial airings, and will be launched alongside Budweiser’s limited-edition Jackie Robinson “42” aluminum bottles. Money will be raised to support the Jackie Robinson Foundation as they prep to launch the Jackie Robinson Museum in NYC, with 42 cents from every bottle sold being donated to the foundation.
Get an early preview of Impact directed by Spike Lee above. Also, keep scrolling to see the Budweiser campaign posters featuring Jackie Robinson that you’ll see throughout the MLB season, in addition to a recap of the early screening that took place this week in NYC to honor three “Jackie Robinson’s of today”, including activist Amanda Nguyen, first U.S. women’s foil World Champion Nzingha Prescod and Friend Zone Podcast host/LGBTQ advocate Dustin Ross:
Images: Budweiser
