Photo courtesy of Arcadia (California) High School band
The Arcadia (California) High School Marching Band appeared in a commercial during Super Bowl XLIX. The ad for the NFL titled “Together We Make Football” was 60 seconds and featured short clips of people watching, cheering for and celebrating football. Some of the clips included the Arcadia drumline.
Arcadia was chosen for this opportunity after winning the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association 6A marching band championship. This victory landed them on a nationally ranked list from which they were chosen to appear in the commercial.
The entire experience of being in a commercial was “awesome,” says band director Seth Murphy. “The kids had a really great experience,” he says. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing.”
Murphy adds that the experience was great for him as well. “For me, it was really cool because I didn’t have to be in charge,” he says. “I literally just showed up and hung around. I was there to be [the production company’s] liaison if they had questions about what the kids could do.”
While the drumline members were the only ones in the commercial featured in full uniform, other students in the marching band had the chance to appear in it as well. “There was another scene where there was a kid walking down [the aisle of] a school bus, and he’s slapping hands,” Murphy says. “Those kids were ours too. Those kids were all wind players.”
Murphy adds that Arcadia High School also filled its stadium stands with 250 cheering students and parents, but that scene did not make it into the final commercial. He also says that during the drumline’s scenes, the cheering soundtrack was actually the entire band cheering.
Overall, Murphy says that he is very proud of his students and of the commercial. “I thought it was really, really cool just to see those couple scenes,” he says. “It was like a proud papa moment.”
