PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. – There's one day of the year most Americans spend huddled around the television for hours. People aren't just watching for the main sporting event, they're also watching for the commercials. Now imagine seeing your face in one of them.
That's exactly what happened to Port St. Lucie 8th grader James Diaz. "I filmed it when I was 10," James said about his close up in an ad for Jeep. "It wasn't recent and they just kind of called my mom and they said that they wanted to use it in the film."
The video was originally shot for a Boy Scouts of America commercial.
"They didn't tell us it was going to be in the Super Bowl," James explained. His mom Karen Diaz believes there was a higher power behind James being featured in the ad.
"We said it had to maybe be his dad looking down making sure that it was the 50th anniversary," Karen said with a smile. "Because he was a big, big, big football fan."
James lost his dad Jose Diaz to cancer in 2010. It was losing his dad that pushed James further into scouting.
"We went in and he just really took a liking to it," Karen recalled about a scouting social event.
Through the Boy Scouts of America James learned archery, which of course led to James' new found fame.
"It's difficult at the beginning," James said about learning to shoot a bow and arrow. "Because you think that you're going to end up banging, hitting your arm on the bow whatever, but then once you do it once or twice it's really easy."
The Jeep ad featuring has been viewed on YouTube over 1.5 million times. A full length version of the catchy song playing in the commercial is in the works. James is hoping he gets another call about a role in the music video.
