The Chronic Curmudgeon

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March 01, 2005

SWOOSH

I hate giving Nike credit for anything... I don't like them. I don't like how they began the reprehensible trend of turning jerseys into portable billboards and athletes into shills. I hate how they helped create the culture of image overriding substance that pervades sports.

But damn if I don't have to hand it to them for having great advertising. And at the top of the heap is the current TV campaign Nike is running for their line of athletic clothing. Their "For Warriors" commercial is, quite simply, the best commercial on television right now.

You know the one: it features Albert Pujols, LaDamian Tomlinson, Mariano Rivera, Brian Urlacher, Torii Hunter, Ben Rothlisberger, and those kick-ass masks... all set to that slasher movie/martial arts fight scene music. The commercial just bleeds adrenalin; it gets even my fat ass ready to go hit the gym hard. The direction, fast edits, the use of zooms, quick pans and frame speed changes, the CGI masks, the atmosphere the music projects... if this doesn't get your competitive juices going, you don't have any. Pure adrenalin, man.

Not only that, but if you look at the collection of athletes in the ad, you see a virtual Hall of Fame... Pujols and Rivera will end their careers in Cooperstown, Urlacher will be the latest generation of Bears linebackers in Canton... Tomlinson is the most exciting back in the game today and with a few more years like his first few, he could be Hall-bound. Hunter's the most acrobatic, daring, and exciting defensive outfielder of this generation... the jury's still way out on Rothlisberger, but he did have one hell of a rookie season. Picture a commercial a dozen or 15 years ago that featured Mark McGwire, Barry Sanders, Dennis Eckersley, Mike Singletary, Rickey Henderson, and Jim Kelly... that's what this commercial is like.

Best commercial on TV. See it here.

Comments

Posted by: CuriousMatt at November 18, 2005 01:58 PM