Coral have signed some soft looking, tough talking characters to be the face of their sponsorship idents for a new football show.

Partners Andrews Aldridge created six football shaped puppets, with the help of John Stephenson, a former Creative Director of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. The puppets will appear in sponsorship bumpers for Off the Ball, a new Thursday night show on ESPN. Each spot features one of the puppets in a post match interview, giving his opinion on everything from referees to the meaning of life.

The characters include ever optimistic cockney manager Charlie Chirp, spoilt foreign player Pedro Blingio and misanthropic northern manager Don Dour.Play Film

And P.S.
Ed Milliband has thrown down the gauntlet to David Cameron over the economy saying, Bring it On! We’re flattered that he’s using the Coral strapline as his call to arms, so we created this tactical ad in The Racing Post.