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The Dude Abides: Icon Returns for SB LIII Ad & Rams Fans Care the Most

The Dude Abides: Icon Returns for SB LIII Ad & Rams Fans Care the Most

by | Jan 30, 2019

For their Super Bowl commercial this year, Stella Artois has resuscitated a pair of fictional embodiments of two major cities’ ethos. One is The Dude, from the Coen Brothers beloved cult favorite, ‘The Big Lebowski.’ Fittingly, fans of this year’s NFC champion Los Angeles Rams count the largest number of Jeff Bridges enthusiasts among their ranks.


Super Bowl LIII is well and fully nigh about now. As usual, there is a quantity of hype surrounding the advertisements that will run during the game that rivals the excitement for the game itself. We’ve been having a blast celebrating our great sport of American-rules football (no one really calls it that), putting our StatSocial audience analysis tool to work, analyzing the audiences of every NFL team, to see where their affinities reside when it comes to everything from beer, to politics, to theme parks, and even to being friendly.

Feel free to head over to the StatSocial blog, and check them all out for yourself.

So What’s All This Then?


A little over 20 years ago, in 1998, two very different tales of two very different cities were first told. One was the ongoing saga(s) of a New York City sex and love columnist and her three best friends. The other spun the tale of a simple Angeleno slacker finding himself embroiled in an ever-increasingly convoluted series of events as he simply sought to get his soiled rug replaced.

Belgian beer, Stella Artois (manufactured by Anheuser–Busch InBev here in the states) have brought back to life the protagonists from each of these properties — both inspiring an almost fanatical devotion among their respective fans — for a one minute spot that is to air during the Big Game.

For many years now, we’ve lived in a world where many — if not even most — of the spots produced for the Super Bowl are posted online well in advance of the game. This one is no exception, so you can check it out by clicking through here.

The spot features Sarah Jessica Parker reprising her role as Carrie Bradshaw, from HBO’s ‘Sex and the City.’ Parker is contrasted by Oscar winner Jeff Bridges, playing her unlikely left coast counterpart, Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski. To the few unfamiliar, that would be the main character from the Coen Brothers’ beloved cult classic comedy, ‘The Big Lebowski.’

Keeping things simple this time out, we dove into the stats on the hundreds of thousands of NFL fans who also identify as fans of Jeff Bridges. From there — as you’ll see in the below graphic — we’ve broken out among which team’s fans the largest proportion of Bridges’ admirers are chilling, and went through all 32 NFL fan bases, until we reached the bunch least enamored of Lloyd Bridges’ celebrated son.


Right Where You’d Most Expect It

From both the standpoint of The Dude and Jeff Bridges himself, there is no city on Earth where you’d more expect to find affinity for either man than the City of Angels. Both Jeffs Lebowski and Bridges are distinctly and uniquely products of that oh-so uniquely American town.

Los Angeles, of course, is not a city with just one NFL team. Gather ‘round kids, and we’ll tell you a story. You may think of the Rams as a team who came to Los Angeles from St. Louis. This is technically not incorrect, but that Gateway City tenure was just a 20 year stopover. To the Jeff Lebowskis of this world, the Rams are Los Angeles’ NFL team, and the Chargers belong to San Diego.

Why New Orleans seems comparably distant in their affection for Mr. Bridges is not entirely knowable to us when observing these findings in isolation. As the great city did play host to the annual, and quite well attended, Lebowskifest, on at least one occasion, we’re left to ponder if their issues are non-The Dude related. Perhaps they took umbrage with elements of ‘Tron’ or ‘Tucker.’

Bookmark This Page

We’ll be visiting numerous subjects of this general nature — all highlighting the rich and varied affinities of each NFL team’s fans — in the days running up to Super Bowl LIII.

And check out the written matter in the footer, and reach out to us if you have any questions or would like to see much, much more.

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You can snoop around the greater StatSocial Insights blog by clicking here.

The Cowboys and Steelers Have the NFL’s Most Emotional fans. Where does your team rank?

The Cowboys and Steelers Have the NFL’s Most Emotional fans. Where does your team rank?

by | Jan 22, 2019

Football fever is ramping up as the teams going to Super Bowl LIII have now been determined.

Throughout the (post-) season, we’ve been diving into the various affinities, allegiances, habits, hobbies, beliefs, personalities, and demographics found among the individuals making up each NFL team’s fan base.

If You’re New Here

If you’ve already checked out our entry on the NFL’s friendliest fans, this next part may be redundant for you (but welcome back!).

If you’re wondering HOW we can measure an audience’s personality traits, such as friendliness or emotionality, allow us to explain.

Thanks to StatSocial’s partnership with IBM Watson™ and the integration of their Personality Insights™ service into our reporting, we can not only break down an audience by affinities and demographics, but also by personality traits. How does Watson do that, you ask?

IBM Watson Personality Insights™ allows StatSocial to understand the personality types, traits, intrinsic needs, and values of individuals based on the way people write — i.e. the different types of language people choose to express themselves. Analyzing the language used — and a number of other factors including frequency of communication, interaction with others, etc. (you can read much more at the IBM blog entry here) — IBM Watson can score personality traits across a number of interesting dimensions.

StatSocial applies this insight to all of our analyses.

Whatever team you are rooting for, you’d probably like to get to the topic at hand. Here you go.

“It’s just emotion that’s taken me over”

While a presumption of impartiality should be made when reading the insights shared in every entry of the StatSocial blog — “statistics” basically being right there in our name, and all — you should especially infer no reporting of virtue and/or faults here.

Emotions are complicated things, but they’re not inherently bad. Didn’t you see Pixar’s ‘Inside Out’?

The team whose fans we found to be the friendliest in the NFL are also the most emotional. Even feelings are big in Texas, it seems.

The once heated rivalry between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cowboys is brought to mind by this list’s upper reaches. Three times the two NFL teams with the most emotional fans faced off in the Super Bowl, and only once did the Cowboys emerge victorious. So many feels.

The most emotional and least emotional fan bases showed up to home games this past season, with the teams on either end of the list having more or less sold out every game. Clearly, this is not a measure of dedication.

To further illustrate: Watch as our company’s CEO — a one time Maine native, and accordingly a Patriots fanatic — displays his dedication with only the coolest of heads.

(If you have “Do Not Track” enabled on your browser, you can see the below by clicking-through here.)

(Edited to Add, 2/4/2019: On the evening of February 1, 2019, Michael Hussey — StatSocial’s CEO — again attempted the above feat, and again emerged victorious. The difference? This year his gutsy bacchanal inspired his beloved Patriots to victory.)

A moving tribute, no doubt. The outcome of the game in question is of no consequence here, it’s the combination of dedication and stoicism to which we draw attention.

As of this writing, the Patriots emerged from Sunday’s AFC Championship Game victorious. While in the 48.9th percentile for emotionality (so, a bit below average), in the grand scheme of the 32 NFL fan bases, Pats fans are the 9th most emotional.

It remains to be known whether our CEO will be attempting his show of dedication once more, or if perhaps this year he has something else planned. Whatever the case may be, do not let his levelheaded demeanor deceive you. He cares to a degree that can not adequately be measured in Filet-O-Fish (Filet-o-Fishes?).

Bookmark This Page

We’ll be visiting numerous subjects of this general nature — all highlighting the rich and varied affinities of each NFL team’s fans — in the days running up to Super Bowl LIII.

And check out the written matter in the footer, and reach out to us if you have any questions or would like to see much, much more.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

You can snoop around the greater StatSocial Insights blog by clicking here.

To learn more or request a demo, click here.

Which NFL team’s fans will be “Going to Disney World”?

Which NFL team’s fans will be “Going to Disney World”?

by | Jan 17, 2019

Super Bowl LIII is right around the corner. Until that winter holiday arrives, our series of entries looking at the social media audiences of each NFL team will continue.

The StatSocial audience analysis tool provides extraordinarily detailed explorations of the affinities, hobbies, habits, demographics, and even personality types of every social media audience imaginable.

“I’m going to Disney World!”

On January, 26 1987, the Monday morning after the New York Giants’ first ever Super Bowl victory, the below commercial aired. Just like that, an ad campaign as legendary and enduring as any ever devised was launched.

(If you have “Do Not Track” enabled on your browser, you can see the below by clicking-through here.)

Michael Eisner, then Disney CEO, had come up with the idea only two days prior to the big game.

Super Bowl XXI found the Giants facing off against the Denver Broncos. Both team’s quarterbacks were contracted for the spot. To the victor went the slogan. Neither Phil Simms nor the Broncos’ John Elway could possibly have known that “I’m going to Disney World” (or, alternately, “Disneyland”) would immediately and for decades thereafter become synonymous with glory, achievement, and excellence.

A few years back, ‘Sports Illustrated’ ran a piece detailing the iconic campaign’s history, which you can check out here.

Diving into the statistics on every NFL team’s audience, we determined what proportion of each is made up of those demonstrably devoted to Orlando, Florida’s mammoth and breathtaking Walt Disney World.

As synonymous with American popular culture and industry as both Walt and the theme parks and resorts that bear his name are, convenience seems to be something of a factor here. The top three teams on the list share a Sunshine State home with Disney World.

While there’s a sharp proportional drop-off once the list hits the fourth place slot, things geographically shoot 1,200 miles north to the brisk climes of Buffalo, New York. Hey Omnicom OMD (Disney’s agency of record) — perhaps you should give the team at Pegula Sports and Entertainment a call.

Bookmark This Page,

We’ll be visiting numerous subjects of this general nature — all highlighting the rich and varied affinities of each NFL team’s fans — in the days running up to Super Bowl LIII.

And check out the written matter in the footer, and reach out to us if you have any questions or would like to see much, much more.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

You can snoop around the greater StatSocial Insights blog by clicking here.

To learn more or request a demo, click here.