Ranking The Large Fenway Park Advertisements of The 21st Century

With the new MassMutual sign in center field for the 2023 season, I thought I’d take a look at the massive signage and advertisements that have called Fenway Park home the last two decades. How about it?

10. Cumberland Farms

Coming in last here is the Cumberland Farms sign that lived down the first baseline. From my estimates this sign had the second shortest life of any of the ones listed here. It occupied sort of a nothing area of the park and thus, was not very memorable. Due to its location, the sign was essentially never shown on TV. You had to actually be at the park to even know it existed. The screen that replaced this sign was a definite upgrade as well, finally giving fans sitting in the bleachers a place to get some info.

9. New Balance

This ad has called the right field bleachers home for around a decade now. Listen, I love a good New Balance sneaker. I have several of them! Unfortunately, the Fenway New Balance sign does nothing for me. I don’t know if it’s the font, the color of the red lights, or what. But it’s just too bland.

8. Bank of America

A very similar ad to New Balance, this sign has been in center-left field for about that same amount of time. That pop of red in the logo does wonders for this one, and slots it right above New Balance for me.

7. Budweiser

Another good sign here. Nothing crazy but I always thought it looked handsome up there. They even named the whole deck after it! That artist formerly known as the Budweiser deck is now...

6. Samuel Adams

...The Sam Adams deck! A clear upgrade here for me. The blue stands out much more from all the red at Fenway. The fact that it’s now a Boston-based company is the cherry on top.

5. MassMutual

The newest sign at Fenway Park, MassMutual replaced our beloved John Hancock this spring. Now, if this were March and I had not attended a game with this ad yet, it would be dead last in the rankings. BUT!!!!! The fact that the MassMutual logo denotes balls and strikes (pictured above) is a marketing masterclass that, frankly, rocks. The wordmark is still unremarkable, so 5 is as high is this will get. But man, those balls and strikes kick a lot of ass.

4. Coca-Cola

Boston Red Sox

This is a good ad. It looks beautiful in the night, it flows well, and it fits nicely in the park. You usually can’t do much better than this. But, at Fenway Park, you can. And we’ll get to that, believe me.

3. Dunkin’ Donuts/Ford

I’m going to classify this as one ad because I kind of always saw it as such. They were only separated by a teeny little screen and before that no screen at all. Something about the Dunkin’ Donuts pink and orange with the Ford blue was special. These two had a beautiful relationship. They made each other better. Like hot chocolate and marshmallows, like peanut butter and jelly. I miss them dearly. (Rest easy to the Dunkin’ Dugout)

2. John Hancock

The Boston Globe - The Boston Gl

A Fenway institution, the John Hancock sign’s swan song was the 2022 season. Replaced this year by the aforementioned MassMutual sign, this beauty called center field home for more than thirty years. Even though these are all ads for massive corporations, this one felt a little more personal. That golden signature up there... It was special.

1. The Coke Bottles

Could it be anything else?

Take us home, Manny.