Tina Turner, who died overnight aged 83, was the high-heeled star of one of Australia’s most effective sport advertising campaigns.
The rugby league promotion, What You Get Is What You See, of the late 1980s was a work of its time.
It made beefcakes of the rugby league players and a pinup of Tina Turner.
Then Tina Turner’s Simply the Best became the anthem of the game.
“People forget the first ad was ‘What You Get Is What You See’,” footballer John Quayle, who became NSWRL general manager, told rugbyleaguehub.com.
“That went so well and her manager Roger Davies – who is Australian – said ‘she’s got a new album coming out and there might be an opportunity’.
“That song was ‘The Best’. We went over to America and secured the rights for the Southern Hemisphere for five years.”
And this was revised in a 2000 NRL campaign. Turner then said she was honoured her Rugby League advertisement had been revived.
“To this day I have very fond memories of the campaign and the Grand Final performance," she said.
"I can still remember climbing to the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge at dawn to film the commercial.”
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