February 14, 2025 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, it’s been multiple decades since a 9-year-old kid shared his Coca-Cola with Pittsburgh Steelers star “Mean” Joe Greene in one of the most famous commercials in history.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
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 Green and one
of the most famous commercials in American history. Here's Greg
Hengler with a story.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
The man known as Mean Joe Green 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 Green was a
ten time Pro bowler and a two time Defensive Player
of the Year. He became an NFL Icon and a
(00:57):
first ballot Hall of Famer. And then there's that name.
Here's teammates frank O Harris and Andy Russell.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Is there a better name then Mean Joe Green. I mean,
that name just flows. And I asked kids about that,
and I say mean, and they say Joe Green. He
asked me one time, he said, Yeady, Why do they
call me mean?
Speaker 4 (01:29):
And I said, because you're mean.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Here's Steelers chairman Dan Rooney.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
We're playing in Philadelphia, and Philadelphia has the ball, and
if they can make a first time, the game's over.
They made it. They made the first time, and he
went up, took the football and threw it in the stands.
And I said to my father, this guy's special. If
(01:55):
he's that intense and he's going to do something like that,
we got a guy that we want.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
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.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
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 guy. Here's Joe Green giving us a peep.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
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
(03:08):
I was shy and didn't want to have to talk
in front of the class or the student body.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
But in nineteen seventy nine, Green's rugged public persona in
life changed dramatically after being selected for a television commercial
by Madison Avenue creative wizard Penny Hockey.
Speaker 6 (03:31):
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 Swan,
Terry Bradshaw, Frank O'Haras Mean Joe Green. And I said, wait,
(03:53):
there's a guy called mean Joe Green. Is he mean?
And they said yeah, And I said, well that's perfec.
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
(04:16):
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.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
In the commercial, me and Joe would have a memorable
encounter with a trembling nine year old named Tommy Ocan.
Speaker 7 (04:43):
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 co 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
(05:03):
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 football around, and he said sure.
Speaker 6 (05:14):
He developed a sweet little relationship with Tommy and made
Tommy much more comfortable.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Okay, giving the line Joe, Okay.
Speaker 6 (05:26):
Got it.
Speaker 7 (05:29):
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 they were the guy was gonna
blow up after a while.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
He went through it.
Speaker 7 (05:37):
Awful lot of soda.
Speaker 6 (05:39):
He drank eighteen sixteen ounce bottles equivalent to to and
of course to gallons.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
I could needless to say, but I started to shoot.
First thing out of my mouth was a big bird.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
He could.
Speaker 6 (05:58):
All right talk about absolutely perfect timing.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Super Bowl programs, super Bowl souvenirs, super Bowl minutes.
Speaker 6 (06:09):
For the commercial ran on the Super Bowl, and then
they won and the rest is history. What could be better?
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Mister Green?
Speaker 8 (06:20):
Yeah, want my coke?
Speaker 4 (06:23):
It's okay, you can have it.
Speaker 6 (06:27):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
The sun.
Speaker 6 (06:33):
Makes me feel good, makes me feel nice.
Speaker 7 (06:39):
Ye round, I'd like to see.
Speaker 6 (06:50):
Thanks Green.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Joe.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
Joe Green was probably the first black maid 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.
Speaker 7 (07:16):
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 Green jersey that I
still have to this day.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
But Tommy was not the only child whose life would
be positively influenced by Joe Green. Here's Joe's wife, Agnes.
Speaker 8 (07:38):
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.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I haven't mean Joe, because wait, John Reed always sweet.
Speaker 6 (08:03):
He appeared with the Muppets and probably Elmo, and was
on children's TV shows.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Well, you know, I used to be afraid of my
own shadow, and then everybody told me that was silly.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
What are you afraid of? Well, lots of things like
the whole officeive line of the rams jumping on it.
Speaker 8 (08:25):
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.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
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.
Speaker 6 (08:46):
To this day, I'm still rather amazed. I mean, it's
the commercial that will not die.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Although he was known to the world as Me and Joe,
he is known to his grandkids as Papa.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Yeah. When we went to North Texas and you saw
me interacting with the people, and he was surprised.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
A little bit.
Speaker 8 (09:12):
I guess, just because we know you're as grandpa, and
then all these people are trying to talk to you
and coming back to you.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
So this 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 nineteen eighty one.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
My public life, my football life, has been kept alive
by the commercial. A few people might know me as
me and Joe, but a lot of them know me
as a Coca Cola.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Guy and a terrific job on the production, editing and
scripting by our own Greg Angler. And what a Story
Means Joe Green thirteen season 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
(10:08):
Mean Joe Green? 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
(10:31):
drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers, but having a Coke commercial
which well helped him reshape his life. The story of
Mean Joe Green and the Coca Cola commercial that launched
a legend here on our American Stories
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 Green and one
of the most famous commercials in American history. Here's Greg
Hengler with a story.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
The man known as Mean Joe Green 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 Green was a
ten time Pro bowler and a two time Defensive Player
of the Year. He became an NFL Icon and a
(00:57):
first ballot Hall of Famer. And then there's that name.
Here's teammates frank O Harris and Andy Russell.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Is there a better name then Mean Joe Green. I mean,
that name just flows. And I asked kids about that,
and I say mean, and they say Joe Green. He
asked me one time, he said, Yeady, Why do they
call me mean?
Speaker 4 (01:29):
And I said, because you're mean.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Here's Steelers chairman Dan Rooney.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
We're playing in Philadelphia, and Philadelphia has the ball, and
if they can make a first time, the game's over.
They made it. They made the first time, and he
went up, took the football and threw it in the stands.
And I said to my father, this guy's special. If
(01:55):
he's that intense and he's going to do something like that,
we got a guy that we want.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
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.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
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 guy. Here's Joe Green giving us a peep.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
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
(03:08):
I was shy and didn't want to have to talk
in front of the class or the student body.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
But in nineteen seventy nine, Green's rugged public persona in
life changed dramatically after being selected for a television commercial
by Madison Avenue creative wizard Penny Hockey.
Speaker 6 (03:31):
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 Swan,
Terry Bradshaw, Frank O'Haras Mean Joe Green. And I said, wait,
(03:53):
there's a guy called mean Joe Green. Is he mean?
And they said yeah, And I said, well that's perfec.
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
(04:16):
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.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
In the commercial, me and Joe would have a memorable
encounter with a trembling nine year old named Tommy Ocan.
Speaker 7 (04:43):
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 co 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
(05:03):
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 football around, and he said sure.
Speaker 6 (05:14):
He developed a sweet little relationship with Tommy and made
Tommy much more comfortable.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Okay, giving the line Joe, Okay.
Speaker 6 (05:26):
Got it.
Speaker 7 (05:29):
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 they were the guy was gonna
blow up after a while.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
He went through it.
Speaker 7 (05:37):
Awful lot of soda.
Speaker 6 (05:39):
He drank eighteen sixteen ounce bottles equivalent to to and
of course to gallons.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
I could needless to say, but I started to shoot.
First thing out of my mouth was a big bird.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
He could.
Speaker 6 (05:58):
All right talk about absolutely perfect timing.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Super Bowl programs, super Bowl souvenirs, super Bowl minutes.
Speaker 6 (06:09):
For the commercial ran on the Super Bowl, and then
they won and the rest is history. What could be better?
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Mister Green?
Speaker 8 (06:20):
Yeah, want my coke?
Speaker 4 (06:23):
It's okay, you can have it.
Speaker 6 (06:27):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
The sun.
Speaker 6 (06:33):
Makes me feel good, makes me feel nice.
Speaker 7 (06:39):
Ye round, I'd like to see.
Speaker 6 (06:50):
Thanks Green.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Joe.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
Joe Green was probably the first black maid 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.
Speaker 7 (07:16):
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 Green jersey that I
still have to this day.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
But Tommy was not the only child whose life would
be positively influenced by Joe Green. Here's Joe's wife, Agnes.
Speaker 8 (07:38):
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.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I haven't mean Joe, because wait, John Reed always sweet.
Speaker 6 (08:03):
He appeared with the Muppets and probably Elmo, and was
on children's TV shows.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Well, you know, I used to be afraid of my
own shadow, and then everybody told me that was silly.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
What are you afraid of? Well, lots of things like
the whole officeive line of the rams jumping on it.
Speaker 8 (08:25):
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.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
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.
Speaker 6 (08:46):
To this day, I'm still rather amazed. I mean, it's
the commercial that will not die.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Although he was known to the world as Me and Joe,
he is known to his grandkids as Papa.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Yeah. When we went to North Texas and you saw
me interacting with the people, and he was surprised.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
A little bit.
Speaker 8 (09:12):
I guess, just because we know you're as grandpa, and
then all these people are trying to talk to you
and coming back to you.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
So this 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 nineteen eighty one.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
My public life, my football life, has been kept alive
by the commercial. A few people might know me as
me and Joe, but a lot of them know me
as a Coca Cola.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Guy and a terrific job on the production, editing and
scripting by our own Greg Angler. And what a Story
Means Joe Green thirteen season 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
(10:08):
Mean Joe Green? 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
(10:31):
drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers, but having a Coke commercial
which well helped him reshape his life. The story of
Mean Joe Green and the Coca Cola commercial that launched
a legend here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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