In 1992, as a build-up to the Barcelona Olympic Games, the athletic shoe company Reebok poured $30 million into an ad campaign featuring relatively unknown American decathletes Dan O'Brien and Dave Johnson. The humorous commercials asked the public a simple question: "Who was better, Dan or Dave?"

The ads showed the two as babies, as teenagers...they asked who was the better kisser (which Johnson's then-girlfriend responded "definitely Dave.") all to promote the competition in Spain. The two, great friends, were deemed rivals by the ads and wanted you, the viewer, to pick a side. Were you "Team Dan" or "Team Dave"? The scheme made household names out of O'Brien and Johnson.

But the campaign became one of the biggest debacles in sports advertising history when O'Brien failed to qualify for the games after not clearing a minimum height in the pole vault at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in New Orleans. Johnson made the team, but the damage had been done. The ads were altered to feature Johnson, who ended up winning the bronze medal in Barcelona despite a foot injury. O'Brien regrouped. He qualified for the 1996 Olympics and won the decathlon gold medal in Atlanta.

Both went on to receive endorsement contracts from various other companies. But Johnson described the Reebok experience perfectly after O'Brien's miscue. "We were supposed to be on Johnny Carson and we ended up on Arsenio Hall."

More Info: en.wikipedia.org