Lawn care brand pressures NFL on artificial turf dangers in new ad starring Von Miller

Pennington, the lawn and garden care company, has recruited pro linebacker Von Miller as a spokesman as it doubles down on efforts to get NFL teams that play on artificial turf to switch to real grass.

Miller, a two-time Super Bowl champion currently with the Buffalo Bills, stars in a new spot timed to this week’s NFL Draft. The ad echoes themes Pennington introduced last year in a campaign around the Super Bowl—that artificial turf poses greater injury risk to players than grass and is also more harmful to the environment.

Miller has some experience with the former. His 2022 season ended on Thanksgiving Day, when he tore his ACL on the artificial turf of Detroit’s Ford Field in a game against the Lions.

The spot rolled out Thursday morning on Pennington’s online channels and in paid social and digital, and carries the existing campaign hashtag #FlipTheTurf. It was made by creative agency David Miami.

The opening frames of the spot feature onscreen text that reads: “They rejected this ad from airing during the draft.” 

Mike McGoohan, chief marketing officer at Pennington, told Ad Age, “We did submit this ad to run during the draft and it was rejected,” but declined to elaborate, saying he was subject to a nondisclosure agreement. He wouldn’t identify which network rejected it, or give any other details. The draft will be airing on ESPN, ABC and NFL Network.

McGoohan said phase one of #FlipTheTurf last year (with advertising from Droga5) was a success in driving brand awareness and growing market share. He said the cause-based initiative as a whole hits a sweet spot, where it’s product-centric but also addresses issues its target market cares about—both the environmental and injury impact of turf.

“We’re a sustainable grass seed manufacturer, so advocating for grass is central to our mission,” he said. “But secondly, our core consumer is talking about this issue in their own communities. More sports are being played on turf fields than ever, and they have concerns about the environmental impact. And they also talk about this issue as it relates to their favorite professional athletes and the rising injury rates.” 

NFL pros, with their star power and their risk of injury, were a natural way in. George Kittle was involved in last year’s campaign. Miller was the perfect spokesman for this next evolution, McGoohan said, not just because of his recent injury but because he prefers grass even though he happens to be allergic to it.

“He usually takes a shot before every game to reduce the allergic impact of grass, yet still feels so strongly about it being a safer surface,” McGoohan said. “We felt like he had just a lot of authenticity on this issue.”

The NFL disputes the idea that turf is more dangerous than grass, saying last fall that there wasn't a meaningful statistical difference between the surfaces. In fact, the Tennessee Titans are currently switching from grass to turf, based on NFL research that said more lower-body injuries were happening on the Nissan Stadium grass than on the league's monofilament playing surfaces in recent seasons.

But last week, JC Tretter, president of the NFL Players Association—the union that represents the league's players—took issue with the NFL analysis in an article suggesting the league’s data was misleading and incomplete.

A player roundtable and podcast reads

In addition to the Miller spot, Pennington is extending the campaign in other ways, including a partnership with The Players Tribune that features a roundtable discussion about the dangers of artificial turf.

Kittle appears in the roundtable film, along with David Bakhtiari of the Green Bay Packers, draftees Bryan Bresee (a former Clemson defensive tackle) and Will Levis (a former Kentucky quarterback), as well as trainer Jeremy Holt.

Pennington also has a partnership with iHeart Radio to run custom host reads on football-oriented podcasts and broadcasts during draft week. The call to action for viewers and listeners is to sign a petition to put pressure on the league—and the 16 teams who use artificial turf—to fully embrace grass. The petition, launched last year, already has close to 30,000 signatures.

The timing of the new work is useful in a few ways, said McGoohan. First, there’s a lot of conversation around drafted players this week, and that includes their injury risk. And second, it’s spring grass-growing season—a key time of year for the brand’s visibility and sales.

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In terms of metrics, McGoohan said Pennington will be tracking the same measures it did last year with brand awareness and engagement. The ultimate test of success, he said, will be whether more teams actually change from turf to grass.

“Tennessee, you may have seen, is actually flipping from a grass field to a turf field—that's amplified a lot of the conversation here,” he said. “This is something that is really, really important to the players. I think many of them are questioning, if the NFL was really serious about player safety, why do they continue to increase the number of fields that are being played on turf?”

In addition to the Miller spot, David Miami is handling social duties on the campaign. Spark Foundry handled media. Spark’s content practice developed the Players Tribune and iHeart Radio partnerships.