Topps uses Kevin Costner to sell baseball’s next chapter
Sports marketing loves a milestone. As Topps celebrates 75 years of Topps Baseball, it uses the anniversary to spotlight this year’s Series 1 set as the next chapter in the game’s ongoing story. The 60-second film ‘Every card tells a story,’ narrated by Kevin Costner, treats the release as the collectible juggernaut it is.In the spot, Costner guides viewers through a stylized, diamond-shaped gallery of iconic Topps cards spanning three quarters of a century before arriving at Series 1. In his words, these are “the next stories to be written… new faces… new dreams… preserved as a single frame in time… where the next chapter begins.” From a marketing standpoint, that line does important work. It combines the brand’s heritage with a product that collectors can buy now
Casting a baseball heavyweightFor nearly four decades, Costner has been associated with baseball through films such as Field of Dreams, Bull Durham and For the Love of the Game. His voice carries weight with fans who see the sport as more than a set of statistics. He also collected cards as a kid, including two players featured in the film, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, and has appeared in Topps sets himself.That layered connection helps the film feel rooted in the ideal it is celebrating. It aligns the brand with baseball’s cinematic history while reinforcing the idea that today’s rookies could become tomorrow’s legends.Cards as modern sports mediaUnder parent company Fanatics, Topps operates in a collectibles market that now overlaps with content, e-commerce and live digital experiences. Card breaks draw large online audiences. Resale markets turn rookie cards into headline-grabbing assets. In that environment, a card is part of the sports media ecosystem.By building its 75-year campaign around Series 1, Topps reinforces the idea that each new set extends a continuous narrative that began in 1951. The strategy is to connect generations of fans through shared stories while giving them a tangible entry point in the present.
