ALEXANDRIA, Va. - An Alexandria-based plumbing company made a big splash during the broadcast of the Super Bowl. Michael and Son Services serves the DMV area and they ran a television ad Sunday night starring former boxing champion Mike Tyson.
Three years is how long it took Michael and Son Services to get Tyson on board and that is with some help. Tyson's ex-wife is a Michael and Son's customer who lives in Bethesda, Maryland. Their 18-year-old son, Amir, is also featured in the ad.
Tyson's singing of the company's famous musical jingle was TV gold, but even better was the behind-the-scenes magic.
But Michael and Son chief financial officer Howard Kohos said the best part about Tyson "was interacting with him as a dad."
"After the end of the shoot, Amir is like, 'Okay, I'm off with my buddies,' and both Mike Tyson and Amir's mother were like, 'Well, where are you going to go? You have school, you have class tomorrow.' And it was just the whole reaction with him as a dad, which is really good," said Kohos. "Amir leaned through the ropes to give him a fist bump and Mike Tyson is like, when nobody is looking, next time you stand up when you're thanking somebody. And it was kind of nice that he was being a father and giving him real values that you can only get from a father."
Kohos played a boxing coach in the Super Bowl spot. Tyson's son plays a boxer about to get knocked out until his dad steps in to knock out his opponent.
"I connected around the fact that I'm a dad with grown children and he is a dad with grown children, and he was there with Amir's mother," Kohos told us. "And I got a lot of time to talk to Amir and he said, 'You know, my mom and dad are divorced, but they are like best friends.'"
The television ad aired in several states across the region.
"We just wanted to see the lighter side of Mike," said Michael and Son general manager Elias Moussa. "We know the history. We don't condone what he has done in the past, but he is someone who has paid his dues. Like I said, he has worked very hard, he has been used in a lot of movies, he has got a lot of followers and we just wanted to create a buzz."
Michael and Son said they spent more than $100,000, but less than $250,000 on the Super Bowl ad. And next year, they said they may turn to the help of another star athlete named Michael.