Everyone loves underdogs.
Some of my favorite underdog stories are in sports. There's a certain magic watching a plucky underdog who somehow, someway, reaches the pinnacle of their sport. Upstart teams that knock off champions really get my adrenaline going.
Here's 3 Sport examples
** When the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the New York Yankees in the 1960 World Series oddsmakers moaned. The mighty Yankees had won 10 of the last 12 pennants and were huge favorites. Just to add a little more salt to the defeat the Pirates Bill Mazeroski hit one of the most famous home runs in baseball history with his bottom of the ninth, game-winning homer to take the championship.
** Remember Iron Mike Tyson? I bet you don't remember the name of the 42-1 underdog that beat him in 1990. Buster Douglas pulled off one of the biggest upsets in boxing history by knocking out Terrible Mike.
** Who can forget the first football championship to be billed as a "Super Bowl" where a decided underdog won? The powerful NFL Baltimore Colts were 18-point favorites over the lowly AFL New York Jets who famously "guaranteed" they'd win. They did and the rest is history.
Miscellaneous Underdogs
** How about David and Goliath? A great example of a victorious little guy.
** One of my favorite underdogs is Susan Boyle who suffered from Asperger Syndrome. She looked frumpy and eccentric when she first appeared on the TV show "Britain's Got Talent" in April 2009.
And then she began to sing.
Wow! She got a standing ovation and never looked back while she went on to a successful singing career, selling nearly 20 million records worldwide.
** A divorced mom with three kids, Erin Brockovich, became a household name when she took on the Pacific Gas & Electric and held them accountable for deliberately contaminating the drinking water in Hinkley, California.
PG&E settled the case for a record $333 million in 1996. Four years later Julie Roberts played Brockovich in the Oscar-winning movie that bears her name.
What is it About Underdogs That Attracts Us?
For starters, the more we identify and internalize the gravity of a story, the more we root for it.
Marketers learned a long time ago that by tying their brand to an underdog story will increase the consumers desire to purchase a product and influence brand loyalty.
The thing about underdog stories is they have a universal appeal, reliably driving feelings of empathy. They tap into the qualities we like best about ourselves and find admirable in others.
The underdog story is deeply rooted in the American dream. Economically or socially "moving up" in the world is paramount in the context of American culture. It's not just where you wind up, but how far you've climbed to get there.
As it stands, hooray for the underdog!
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