In a bizarro world concocted by the minds at San Francisco shop Heat, Baltimore Ravens defensive powerhouse Ray Lewis and Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers star Paul Rudd have known each other all their lives. So tis the premise for the latest TV/campaign dubbed “Madden Forever,” which as you can probably gather, is promoting EA Sports’ latest Madden installment, Madden NFL 13.

As you’ll see above, Lewis & Rudd (makes for a decent band name) not only love the lucrative Madden franchise, but grew up as “young thespians” and it was Rudd in fact who taught Lewis how to do his famous “squirrel dance.” The “Interview” web video is just one of several clips from the campaign along with the “Old Rivals” TV spot below (the full series can be viewed here).

While Heat has tried the rivalry concept out for other EA Sports franchises before (remember Steve Nash vs. Hope Solo?),  we have to say the agency has honed the humor angle quite a bit. Thus, the winning streak for EA campaigns continues. Credits after the jump.

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It’s rare we ever come across work from SF-based Heat that isn’t for some new game from Electronic Arts. But, considering Heat’s high level of consistency on these projects, especially for the EA Sports imprint, we really can’t imagine the agency working for any other brand, despite the fact that Heat counts AOL and the Huffington Post among its clients.

Sure, you can note the obvious similarities between this work and the decades-old “This is SportsCenter” campaign for ESPN. But, if you can take a formula that’s proven to capture the attention of sports fans and apply it to video games, why wouldn’t you?

A TV campaign for EA Sports’ newest game, NCAA Football 13, asks the question, “If you could put any Heisman Trophy winner in history on your favorite team, would you do it knowing that it would betray historic rivalries?” The dad in the above spot admits that, yes, having 1991 Heisman Trophy winner Desmond Howard returning kicks for Ohio State would be nice. But, Howard played for Michigan, Ohio State’s biggest rival. Therefore, this makes his son an awful traitor, and destroying his TV is just the beginning in this father eventually exiling his son to Ann Arbor for all eternity.

View credits, and watch what happens when Tim Tebow plays for Georgia and Robert Griffin III suits up for LSU after the jump.

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