For decades, an unforgettable scene has played out on screens across America: a tough football player, a shy kid, and a shared Coca-Cola. It’s the “Hey, kid. Catch!” moment that famously softened the image of Pittsburgh Steelers’ defensive tackle “Mean” Joe Greene and became one of the most famous commercials in history. This legendary encounter not only brought smiles to millions but also showed us a different side of an NFL icon, proving that even the biggest heroes can have a gentle heart and make an unexpected connection.
But who was the man behind the “Mean” nickname, and what was the true story of how this powerful Coca-Cola commercial came to be? Join Our American Stories as we look back at the creation of a cultural phenomenon, exploring the unlikely bond between a formidable football player and a small boy. Discover how a simple act of kindness changed perceptions and cemented a place for Joe Greene and that special moment in the heart of American advertising history, inspiring generations with its hopeful message.
📖 Read the Episode Transcript
Speaker 1: And we continue with Our American Stories. It’s been multiple decades since a nine-year-old kid shared his Coca-Cola with Pittsburgh Steelers star Mean Joe Greene and one of the most famous commercials in American history. Here’s Greg Hengler with a story.
00:00:35
Speaker 2: The man known as Mean Joe Greene was one of the most feared defenders in NFL history. In thirteen seasons as defensive tackle with the Pittsburgh Steelers, the six-foot-four, two-hundred-and-seventy-five-pound Joe Greene was a ten-time Pro Bowler and a two-time Defensive Player of the Year. He became an NFL icon and a first-ballot Hall of Famer. And then there’s that name. Here are teammates Frank O’Harris and Andy Russell.
00:01:12
Speaker 3: Is there a better name than Mean Joe Greene? I mean, that name just flows. And I asked kids about that, and I say “Mean,” and they say “Joe Greene.” He asked me one time, he said, “Yeadie, why do they call me mean?”
00:01:29
Speaker 4: And I said, “Because you’re mean.”
00:01:32
Speaker 2: Here’s Steelers chairman Dan Rooney.
00:01:35
Speaker 5: We’re playing in Philadelphia, and Philadelphia has the ball, and if they can make a first down, the game’s over. They made it. They made the first down, and he went up, took the football and threw it in the stands. And I said to my father, “This guy’s special. If he’s that intense and he’s going to do something like that, we got a guy that we want.”
00:02:03
Speaker 3: Some people asked that question: “What was Joe really mean?” Yeah, that was the perfect name for him. He hated to lose. That was part of his demeanor. He’s here to win, he’s here to beat that guy across from him, and he’s not going to be nice about it.
00:02:27
Speaker 2: But inside the man who was the centerpiece of the Steel Curtain defense that led the Pittsburgh Steelers to four Super Bowl championships in six years was something unseen by the public eye. Here’s Joe Greene giving us a peep.
00:02:43
Speaker 4: When I was a senior in high school, my class voted me to be class president, and I declined. I think about that a lot, and it was basically because I was shy and didn’t want to have to talk in front of the class or the student body.
00:03:16
Speaker 2: But in 1979, Greene’s rugged public persona in life changed dramatically after being selected for a television commercial by Madison Avenue creative wizard Penny Hawkey.
00:03:31
Speaker 6: We were asked to do an exploratory, that is, to take the Coca-Cola brand and see where else it could go. In its communications, the guys were sitting there saying, “Okay, well, who could we get?” “Well, we could get Lynn Swann, Terry Bradshaw, Frank O’Harris, Mean Joe Greene.” And I said, “Wait, there’s a guy called Mean Joe Greene!”
00:03:56
Speaker 1: Is he mean?
00:03:57
Speaker 6: And they said, “Yeah.” And I said, “Well, that’s perfect! We want the most intimidating human being we can find, and boy, did we get it. We wrote about ten different storylines, and the very first one that we came up with was, ‘Let’s take kind of a pathetic little kid who was just awestruck over some kind of superstar football hero. The kid has nothing to offer except he has the Coca-Cola. He gives the superstar the Coca-Cola. The superstar drinks it, shazam! He’s a changed person.'”
00:04:35
Speaker 2: In the commercial, Mean Joe would have a memorable encounter with a trembling nine-year-old named Tommy Okon.
00:04:43
Speaker 7: My mom and my dad were both in television. As to our future weather, well, we expect the range. My mom was on-air talent. My dad was a director and a producer. I had started doing commercials probably when I was around five or so, so by the time we did the Coke commercial, I had probably done about thirty or forty commercials to that point. “Let’s go!” On the first day when we shot the commercial, there was a lot of downtime because they were doing a lot of work to the set, and because of that, there wasn’t a lot to do. So, of course, I had brought a football and went over to Joe and asked if he’d throw a football around, and he said, “Sure.”
00:05:14
Speaker 6: He developed a sweet little relationship with Tommy and made Tommy much more comfortable.
00:05:18
Speaker 3: Okay, giving the line, Joe. Okay.
00:05:26
Speaker 6: Got it.
00:05:29
Speaker 7: They were trying to get him to drink the whole Coke, and they had him maybe do that a couple of times and just said he was going to blow up after a while. He went through an awful lot of soda.
00:05:39
Speaker 6: He drank eighteen sixteen-ounce bottles, equivalent to two and a quarter gallons.
00:05:48
Speaker 4: I could, needless to say, but I started to shoot. First thing out of my mouth was a big burp.
00:05:56
Speaker 3: He could.
00:05:58
Speaker 6: All right, talk about absolutely perfect timing!
00:06:03
Speaker 3: Super Bowl programs, Super Bowl souvenirs, Super Bowl minutes.
00:06:09
Speaker 6: For the commercial ran on the Super Bowl, and then they won, and the rest is history. What could be better?
00:06:19
Speaker 1: Mr. Greene?
00:06:20
Speaker 6: Yeah, I want my Coke.
00:06:23
Speaker 4: It’s okay, you can have it.
00:06:27
Speaker 6: Okay.
00:06:30
Speaker 1: The sun.
00:06:33
Speaker 4: Makes me feel good, makes me feel nice.
00:06:39
Speaker 7: Ye round, I’d like to see.
00:06:50
Speaker 6: Thanks, Greene. Joe. Joe Greene was probably the first Black man that was cast in for a national brand. It was the fact that he was Black and the little boy was White. It was a shock at that time, and people experienced it and really resonated to it.
00:07:16
Speaker 7: I don’t know where that jersey went. I don’t know if Joe took it back or who got it. I do know that that Christmas I got a package, and it was a signed Mean Joe Greene jersey that I still have to this day.
00:07:30
Speaker 2: But Tommy was not the only child whose life would be positively influenced by Joe Greene. Here’s Joe’s wife, Agnes.
00:07:38
Speaker 8: I think it changed our lives a lot. It changed Joe’s personality a lot. Because so many kids were looking up to him, he decided he really wanted to be a role model for the kids.
00:07:55
Speaker 1: I haven’t, Mean Joe, because, wait, John Reid as sweet.
00:08:03
Speaker 6: He appeared with the Muppets and probably Elmo and was on children’s TV shows.
00:08:10
Speaker 4: Well, you know, I used to be afraid of my own shadow, and then everybody told me that was silly. “What are you afraid of?” “Well, lots of things.”
00:08:20
Speaker 8: Like the whole offensive line of the Rams jumping on it. We’d be walking around, and little old ladies that I know didn’t know anything about football would come up to Joe and talk to him.
00:08:33
Speaker 4: They see, “You’re not mean; he’s just some big old teddy bear.” During the Coca-Cola spot did change the image. I enjoyed it. I liked it. It made me more approachable.
00:08:46
Speaker 6: To this day, I’m still rather amazed. I mean, it’s the commercial that will not die.
00:08:54
Speaker 2: Although he was known to the world as Mean Joe, he is known to his grandkids as Papa.
00:09:00
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:09:01
Speaker 4: When we went to North Texas and you saw me interacting with the people, and he was surprised.
00:09:09
Speaker 2: A little bit.
00:09:12
Speaker 8: I guess, just because we know you as Grandpa and then all these people are trying to talk to you and coming back to you… so, just.
00:09:18
Speaker 2: A little new. The father of three and grandfather of seven credits the Coke ad with keeping him in the spotlight since his retirement in 1981.
00:09:28
Speaker 4: My public life, my football life, has been kept alive by the commercial. A few people might know me as Mean Joe, but a lot of them know me as the Coca-Cola guy.
00:09:49
Speaker 1: And a terrific job on the production, editing, and scripting by our own Greg Hengler. And what a story! Mean Joe Greene: thirteen seasons in the NFL, ten-time Pro Bowler, first-ballot Hall of Famer. And as we heard in that piece, “Is there a better name than Mean Joe Greene?” In a mere minute, it changed his life. As he said, “The commercial made me more approachable.” Indeed it did, and it changed his personality because, as he put it, as his wife said, he wanted to be a role model to those kids. The best thing that ever happened to Mean Joe possibly was not only being drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers, but having a Coke commercial which, well, helped him reshape his life. The story of Mean Joe Greene and the Coca-Cola commercial that launched a legend, here on Our American Stories.
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