Getty Former Sixers teammates Tobias Harris and Boban Marjanovic have reunited in a new ad campaign for Goldfish crackers.
If the NBA thing doesn’t work out, there’s always acting for Tobias Harris and Boban Marjanovic. The two former Sixers teammates turned Goldfish pitchmen are pure snack-food gold, something that genuinely came across from the first day on set.
Their new ad campaign for Goldfish has been a viral hit, igniting a ton of funny memes and positive chatter on Twitter. The breakout star in the series has been a video where the 7-foot-4 Marjanovic dumps 301 crackers — roughly one-fifth of the entire Goldfish package — into his oversized left hand.
“Nobody beats Boban,” Marjanovic says. “No stress for Boban.”
The video is part of a social media campaign called #GoForTheHandful, which asks fans to post a “duet” alongside Marjanovic on TikTok. The 25 best videos will receive a special edition autographed “Boban Size” bag of Goldfish crackers. And one lucky winner will be named “Spokeshand” and receive a year’s supply of snacks.
Marjanovic pokes fun at Harris in one ad when the center tosses him a smaller bag of Goldfish crackers and refers to it as “Tobi Bag.” Their friendship was cultivated in 2017 when they were teammates for the Los Angeles Clippers and grew stronger after they were traded to the Sixers. The two NBA players even had a short-lived YouTube series called “Bobi and Tobi.”
“Most people see us and they think it’s an odd friendship,” Harris told Kaelen Jones in 2018. “But those are the people that don’t really know Boban as a person. They may not know myself as a person. I think that’s why we really have a good friendship, because we care for others, sometimes more than we care for ourselves.”
The Goldfish partnership was born out of a Reddit thread dedicated to Marjanovic holding things, per a spokesperson for Campbell’s Snacks. They believed their bond represented the “fun and friendliness” of the brand.
One funny story from filming involved Marjanovic shoving his boulder-sized hand into the bag and literally busting through the package. They shot the scene at least a dozen times because Harris couldn’t stop laughing.
“Their friendship is so genuine and entertaining,” said Janda Lukin, Campbell Snacks Chief Marketing Officer. “They certainly have a friendly competition aspect to their relationship, plus Boban has acted before so that just put the bar higher for Tobias.”
The #GoForTheHandful contest began on April 6 and runs through April 25. Television commercials are set to air in the coming weeks, plus keep an eye on social media for teasers.
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Harris Dishes on Filming Commercials
Marjanovic is a professional. Well, kind of. The Dallas Mavericks big man played an assassin and tried to kill Keanu Reeves in the movie “John Wick: Chapter 3 —Parabellum.” Harris admitted it was stressful being on set with such a seasoned actor, but he stuck with it — take after take after take.
“I had to tell the director, ‘My man, Bobi’s been in one movie. I’m not a real actor. So, you are going to talk to us with positive criticism,'” Harris told All 76ers. “We started doing the commercial, and it was like take one, take two … take 15. Me and Bobi look at each other, and Bobi’s like, ‘I don’t even know if we’re doing good.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, me neither.’”
The first Goldfish ad aired on March 30 during the Sixers-Nuggets game and instantly grabbed the attention of NBA fans everywhere. Harris teased that more commercials were planned, but the sting of a 104-95 loss that night hindered him from getting too excited.
“It’s a commercial that me and Boban [did],” Harris told reporters. “A Goldfish commercial that we ended up shooting, and you know, it’s out there now. So, it was a lot of fun to do, and it’s one of many in the future for us.”
All About Boban’s ‘Big Hands’
The funniest commercial to date pitted the freakishly large “Boban Bag” versus the ridiculously small “Tobi Bag.” Harris talked about his co-star’s enormous hands while expressing shock at how many Goldfish crackers Marjanovic could fit into one hand.
“Being on set, I always knew Boban had big hands, but when I went into the bag and was able to pull out 73, I felt like there was no way he was beating me,” Harris said. “Then when he went into the bag and pulled out like 301, that was when I was like, ‘Alright, that’s ridiculous.'”
The response to the ad campaign has been amazing, per Lukin. She cited one tweet in particular as a way to best sum up the project. There have been 1.2 million views on their TikTok challenge so far.
“The reception from consumers, basketball fans, and media has been amazing,” Lukin said. “There’s been lots of positive conversation.”
Me on my way to buy goldfish after seeing the @tobias31 and @BobanMarjanovic commercial:
Well played @GoldfishSmiles, well played.