Best Nike World Cup Ad ever?

The latest Nike World Cup ad was released last week, filmed by Alejandro G Inarritu, who directed ’21 Grams’ and ‘Babel.’ The success of previous World Cup spots are often  a creative rod in the back for Nike, who each time are expected to out-do themselves by millions of viewers.

This year’s entry has received more mixed responses than usual – it’s divisive for sure. There are a few things going on in, behind and around the ad worth discussing to explain why this might be.

On first viewing, it’s undeniably funny – across the vignettes we get ‘true’ evocations of the world’s top players. Following football, we get to know these people from a strange mix of their characteristics on the pitch and their representation in popular media – how we expect them to behave and react in scenarios is not only borne out in the potential ‘game-theory’ like outcomes of ‘Write the Future’, but is made hyperbolic and fantastical…in itself that’s a prescient comment on how the past 20 years has created public/private perceptions of footballers as both the adonises and the villains of the modern era.

Acknowledging such a public ‘celebrity culture’ discourse naturally divides people – but for everyone who dislikes the fame, money, lack of taste and the ‘demise of the game’ being so overtly played out – there’s an accessibility and strange humanisation which comes out from these caricatures most likely welcomed by those with a tangential and ‘World Cup only’ relationship with football – think how most women would respond to this ad in comparison to the blunt and unattractive nationalism of Carlsberg’s spot –  which appears so uncouth in comparison.

Not only does the ad comically deconstruct footballers egos and identities, it also plays with the Nike identity. There’s a cunning deceit in the players who represent a ‘Nike team’ – including great cameos from ‘serious’ Roger Federer and Kobe Bryant. To this end, even Ronaldinho’s appearance becomes more of a happy error than an embarrassing piece of marketing miscasting.

Self-parody and the ability to laugh at yourself cleverly works to shift Nike’s values of individualism, personal glory over teamwork, and arrogance into a new place – one which is less serious, one that entertains failure. Traditionally, these values (amongst other considerations) have arguably made Nike feel the less ‘authentic’ or ‘collective’ football brand compared to Adidas – this ad counters the ‘hero’ archetype with a tone that feels more true to football as a game and the World Cup as an emotional roller-coaster – the ‘Hero’ not only commingles with the ‘Outlaw’ – failure becomes the punch-line.

So, a wonderful ‘butterfly effect’ extravaganza that taps into fans emotions, simultaneously exalts and deflates superstars and manages to self-knowingly comment on Nike’s own brand with wry humour – great stuff.

On the other hand, despite the themes of randomness, possibility and chance running through the ad – paradoxically it’s also possible to read the ad as too contrived and too self-aware in it’s construction ‘behind the scenes.’

Is this a piece of communications which has been over-considered? It’s designed around an idea of diffusion, transmedia, social network spread and mass ‘virality’ (to cite ‘viral’ as a pejorative). The idea of the beautiful game being hinged on a collection of moments is merely a creative device or metaphor for a successful global advert of 2010 delivering on a set of required media touch points – there’s a scene featuring a Facebook like button going into overdrive, the requisite You Tube spoof video, and the cultural zenith of all ‘memes’ – a spot on the Simpsons.

To some, that kind of orchestration is too evident and falls the wrong side of the ‘pure magic’ apparent in previous favourite spots like ‘Airport.’ To others, that’s just great planning that taps into how this ad will be socially absorbed and spread. More to the point, the success of this strategy is testified in how spreadable the campaign has been across whatever platform you choose to follow – Facebook, Youku, YouTube, Twitter, Weibo.

For me, this is the best Nike World Cup ad ever made – so far…let’s hope they do better next time.

    This entry was posted on Thursday, June 10th, 2010 at 11:47 pm. It is filed under Advertising, Sports, Video and tagged with , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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