This ad with Beau Allen is just him hitting a tire with a sledgehammer

Carson Wentz made the rounds during Super Bowl week hawking Bose, and if and when his star rises you’ll see him in national ads. Brands love quarterbacks, Peyton Manning is still selling us pizza and satellite TV, and Cam Newton and Aaron Rodgers have themselves some funny ones in recent years. Donovan McNabb and his mom were dishing out soup to people all over the nation. He was even on billboards for Wegman’s to “McNabb a sub!” in western NY after he joined the Eagles from Syracuse.

But ads with role players are something different. Usually they’re forgettable, but sometimes you get a weird one that sticks out for all the wrong reasons. Anyone remember that weird commercial for a car dealership with Chris McAllister and Ruslan Fedotenko? (Probably not.)

Then I saw this ad with Beau Allen (who is carving out a role as a pitchman) for Eastbay, and it caught the eye.

The connection here is pretty direct: Eastbay is based out of Wisconsin, where Allen went to college.

Allen telling you that they have good stuff for big guys (and gals, presumably) is a good angle, that’s a good market to tap for Eastbay. But what’s the point of him attacking a tire with a sledgehammer? You don’t need to be big to do that, and come to think of it you could do that in a suit if you wanted to. I’m not sure how this sells athletic wear, but I’m also not sure how it doesn’t.

At least it doesn’t have the awkward stiffness of an uncharismatic player trying to sell you a Toyota or Hunter Pence pitching bread.