Shortly after winning a national championship inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Will Howard’s agent came up to him with big news. Dr Pepper wanted to do an advertisement with him.
Even in the fog of cigar smoke and confetti, Howard had his answer ready: “Hell yeah, let’s do it.”
Howard wanted to do something with the ad-happy soda giant for years, dating back to enjoying a Dr Pepper with a cigar after winning the Big 12 Championship with Kansas State in 2022.
The result is one of the most fascinating NIL ads you’ll ever see. The Ohio State quarterback breaks out a look made famous by Tiktok star The Rizzler — Howard says he was mostly going for something out of “Zoolander,” the popular Ben Stiller movie — as he poses and drinks Dr Pepper. The video is fun, weird, unique — the perfect combination of a star willingly to go there and a brand fully embracing it. In the video Howard wears a custom-made Dr Pepper jacket designed by Nigel Xavier, an Atlanta-based designer who won the second season of Netflix’s “Next in Fashion.”
The reactions to the ad posted on his Instagram have been hilarious.
“Thank god this was done after we won the natty…” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said.
Ohio State offensive lineman Luke Montgomery added, “You better have gotten paid a lot for this.”
It hasn’t just been his teammates and coaches weighing in on it, either. His sister, Tori, posted “Not sure what to say.”
“My family, my siblings are all giving me such a hard time. Couple of friends, too,” Howard told CBS Sports. “If you know me, you know that is something I would 100 percent do. It’s right up my alley. I had a blast with it…I think it’s absolutely hilarious. I think it turned out perfectly.”
The Dr Pepper ad has quickly become very popular since Howard posted it on Friday. It’s the second viral video of the week that the Ohio State quarterback was involved in, the other also coming right after the national championship win over Notre Dame.
Howard was on what has since become an infamous cart ride intended to take him, Day, linebacker Cody Simon, athletic director Ross Bjork and others to a postgame interview room. Unfortunately for the Ohio State contingent, the driver quickly crashed the cart into a wall, got stuck and everyone had to get off and walk. The video clip, shared by AL.com’s Patrick Greenfield, has more than 15 million views on X alone.
Howard immediately starts laughing. Day, seated in the passenger seat upfront, doesn’t look nearly as amused. Howard, who says a “million people” have sent him the video, believes the contrasting reactions between head coach and quarterback stayed true to both of their personalities.
“I think that video perfectly summed our relationship and the dynamic is between us,” Howard said. “I’m the kind of guy who likes to takes things lightly and he’s very serious about just about everything. I’ve been giving him a hard time about that the last couple days. Every time I see him I ask him how his neck is feeling and what not. I think he got a little bit of whiplash.”
Beyond the viral videos, Howard is enjoying Ohio State’s dream national championship season before NFL Draft preparation really cranks up. He was slated to go to the Senior Bowl in Mobile this week but pulled out after the wear and tear of a 16-game season that ended last Monday night. Howard says his body felt beat up after playing Notre Dame’s talented defense and he didn’t want to go to Mobile if he couldn’t be his best. His play in the playoffs has made him one of the biggest risers out of the QBs in the draft, and earned him a powerful advocate in Pat McAfee who vociferously defended him on his show last week.
It was a dream final season for Howard who was the final piece to get the Buckeyes over the hump. He joined a talented core of players like Jack Sawyer and Emeka Egbuka who wanted to come back for another year to try to win it all after coming up short in 2023. That core plus Howard and other transfers like Caleb Downs and Quinshon Judkins combined to make the nation’s best team.
“It’s hard to replicate what we have because what we have is so special,” he said. “We have a perrfect mix of talent and character that i’ve never seen before. You look at our transfer class and I think about Seth (McLaughlin), Caleb, Quinshon, myself and Will Kacmarek, and everyone who came in. First of all, studs all across the board — Caleb is a stud, Seth’s an All-American, these guys are unbelievable.
“All six of us have become centerpieces to the culture of this team and we’ve all meshed really well with the guys already here. That’s a testament to what the culture was before we got here and the impact we had on it was all positive.”
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