Norman City Council approved an agreement Tuesday night with Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc. to paint the water tower on Lindsey Street with the Fansville logo, putting a public landmark into one of college football’s most recognizable ad campaigns.
Brian Bosworth was the reason the news landed with more force. The former Sooners star, who has played the sheriff of Fansville in Dr Pepper’s TV ads since 2018, said on The Plank Show on KREF Sports that he got chills and felt a little melancholy when he learned Dr Pepper wanted a Fansville water tower. He said it was cool that Dr Pepper chose Norman, and he called the city the crimson and cream of the crop of the college football world.
Fansville is the fictional town at the center of Dr Pepper’s ads, a place built around college football obsession, and the Norman project extends that idea onto a real skyline feature. The water tower is expected to become a popular photo op for visiting fan bases, turning a city landmark into a branded stop for people who already come to Norman for game days and for the University of Oklahoma atmosphere around them.
That is where Bosworth’s comments carry more weight than a standard endorsement. He said it would not be coincidental if Norman was chosen, but the approval itself does not spell out any reason beyond the agreement to paint the tower. The city has said yes; the question left open is how quickly the work moves from approval to paint on steel.
For Bosworth, who got into acting after his football career and still says game days in Norman are the best, the project ties a long-running ad character back to the place that helped make the image work. For Norman, it creates a new kind of football-season marker before anyone even knows the paint schedule.
