What does the All-Star voting campaign look like this year?

• Most famous food / drink
• Historical or pop culture homage
• Generic regional quirk The first one has been the frontrunner the last few years. We all saw everyone and their mother doing coffee/barista campaigns for Seattle in 2023. It was a little disappointing, but not surprising, to see everyone resort to Legally Distinct Waffle House / diner theming and photoshoots when we hosted last year. I guess peaches and peanuts weren’t inspiring stuff. Arlington’s cowboy hats and wild West stereotypes in ‘24 fall in the third bucket and thus were *everywhere* (but it doesn’t feel like it ever left Atlanta with the introduction of the “Braves Country” branding shortly thereafter). I could be entirely wrong, but it seemed like everything across the org kicked up a notch after winning it all in 2021, and the budget increase for marketing *showed.* For Los Angeles in 2022, the Braves rolled out their “send our stars to Hollywood” campaign giving each player a feature film title and brief trailers for each. These graphics became real posters that were given to fans, the trailers played at local movie theaters… this one was *fun* and the fans seemed to react enthusiastically in turn. Not only was this a successful test run / proof-of-concept for the marketing team (2022’s six All-Star selections are the most for the Braves since 2011, when they had five players in attendance), it’s yet another case of how human originality and creativity can resonate with people, be valuable, and build a brand. The Braves’ investment in creative concepting and campaign execution doesn’t go unnoticed and unappreciated by me! In the spirit of the list above, here are some ideas off the top of my head for 2026 in Philadelphia:

Weiss’s Water Ice

Pretty self-explanatory. Some examples:

• Rainbow Acuña Jr.
• Mango Matty O
• Baldwin Blue Raspberry
• Yaz-pricot
• Butterscozzie Albies *(woof, I know)*

The Boxin’ Braves

The Rocky statue is there, but that’s pretty one-note on its own. I’m envisioning something similar to the Hollywood and Western campaigns where they give players a ring name or persona and different boxing poses in their respective posters.

Convenience store (à la Wawa)

This seems comparable to the Waffle House of it all. It must be of some significance to the city’s denizens if they changed the r/phillies subreddit to it during their losing streak earlier this season. There’s a hoagie angle here but I’m not brave and/or paid enough to try. Honorable mention concepts I didn’t want to think through: American history, soft pretzels, being home of the First U.S. Mint for some coin-related imagery, perhaps. In all seriousness, my best guess for the creative vision will probably be around Philadelphia being the Mural Capital of the World. If not done by the Braves, then it’s a contender for the league in general. It’s a way that pays homage to the city that’s very safe / not controversial or too pander-y. There’s immense potential for distinctive, stylized, and vibrant photo treatments and backdrops. And it could have nice tie-ins and activations throughout the city engaging with the existing walls and murals in the lead up to the game itself. We’re a month out til all the All-Star festivities kick off in earnest. While you all brace yourselves, I’ll be waiting with bated breath to see what creative’s cooked up (and to see if I’m completely off the mark). Did I miss any extremely obvious ideas? Let us know in the comments.