Bo Knows - Subsequent Ads

Subsequent Ads

Later "Bo Knows" ads saw Jackson trying his hand at cycling, soccer (featuring Ian Rush), cricket (featuring Ian Botham), surfing, weightlifting, auto racing, and horse racing as a jockey.

In one version of the commercial, after Jackson is shown trying several activities, a confused Sonny Bono walks into the shot and says (playing off the tag line), "I thought this was another Bono's commercial."

In another, Bo Jackson grew frustrated with an over-the-top musical number and walked off the set. George Foreman, sensing an opportunity to seize the spotlight, took his place in the musical number.

The ad campaign was very successful, making cross-trainers Nike's number-two line behind its famous basketball shoes. It was subsequently parodied by the ProStars cartoon, which featured likenesses of Jackson, Wayne Gretzky, and Michael Jordan. While the character based on Jackson spoke normally, he would say in the third person "Bo knows " when asked or prompted to do something in almost every episode.

There was also a Public Service Announcement variant encouraging students to stay in school which had multiple copies of Bo appearing simultaneously humorously discussing how Bo knows various academic subjects.