Roo-diculous: Is Nike's World Cup ad a celebration or sadly misjudged?
Sportswear giant Nike unveiled their latest glitzy ad during the Champions League final and it features the biggest names in football and no doubt one of the biggest budgets in advertising history. Not everyone is a fan of the brand’s take on football though, and the ad has divided opinion in the STV Sport office. Grant Russell is a fan but Andrew Coyle thinks they’re missing the point. Both were happy let the argument spill over onto the web.
Watch the new Nike World Cup ad
Nike’s latest effort fails to find the back of the net, writes Andrew Coyle.
It’s slick, it’s entertaining and yes, it’s quite funny. Strip away the veneer though and Nike’s latest offering displays a message that isn’t too admirable.
Previous ads from the sportswear giant have seen them boil the beautiful game down to fast and furious three-a-side matches that run up basketball scores or depicted the greats of the game playing teams of CGI demons in films that owe more to Hollywood than football. The new World Cup ad buys into celebrity culture and shows football as just another part of the fame factory.
Fabio Cannavaro is feted in song, Wayne Rooney is knighted and Cristiano Ronaldo is immortalised in yellow with an appearance in The Simpsons. Fame, money and adulation are the trophies here, with football just a vehicle for real success, a ticket to a world we are all supposed to aspire to live in.
For the millions worldwide who dream about winning the World Cup, the trophy was important before it came with a ticket to a Hollywood lifestyle attached.
The ad also portrays an image of failure that is a little bit disturbing. Rooney is shown an alternative future after a chipped through ball is intercepted by Franck Ribery. We see him living a bleak existence, living alone in a caravan, dishevelled and sporting a Karl Marx beard that obviously covers a regretful expression.
It’s absurd enough to suggest that Rooney ever faces ruin, having become a millionaire while still in his teens. More absurd is the idea that the price of failure is too high, the suggestion that attempting the audacious can be a bad idea somehow.
More than anything else though, one thing is missing from all of Nike’s visions of the future. None of the stars have their team-mates around them around them as they go on to fame of failure.
There are countries in the World Cup finals who don’t have global icons in their starting XI. The likes of Honduras, North Korea and Slovenia got to South Africa through teamwork. They succeed together and they may fail together. Regardless, they know they can’t “Just Do It” alone.
Until Nike realise that Rooney, Ronaldo and Ribery can’t do it by themselves they just won’t understand football.
Another gem from Nike helps build the excitement, writes Grant Russell.
Nike’s previous attempts at making adverts for the big occasions prove one thing: they know football. And so they should, having been associated with the best in the game for countless years.
They have been persistently on the ball in capturing the mood of a tournament with switches between joviality and drama, see the contrast between Brazil’s airport kickabout and Eric Cantona slaying a demon with a blazing spot kick.
In their latest offering, they are on the money again. The subtext may not be in the spirit of the team game but the realities of football in this day and age are highlighted cleverly.
Football as we know it, at least at the top level, is very finely balanced. For the most part there is nothing between two teams in a match, with managers’ emphasis on tactics and shape more in vogue than ever. To win matches, teams rely upon that one moment of genius from their star man.
And so we have it in this advert. From Didier Drogba’s delicate finish sparking premature celebrations in Yamoussoukro, right through to Cristiano Ronaldo’s moment of truth as Lisbon expects, the weight of expectation on those relied upon to deliver glory is brilliantly captured.
Yes, it is laden with absurdities such as Wayne Rooney making a dive for the Queen and that Ronaldinho would be given a ticket for South Africa. And no, I don’t see the point of Kobe Bryant or Roger Federer in it either.
But the moments of ecstasy and despair are by and large as entertaining as they are accurate. There is a large dollop of irony in all the eventualities but it wouldn’t be as captivating if there wasn’t.
Football is a team game and without everyone pulling in the same direction, winning isn’t possible. But the headlines forever immortalise the individual who wins it or blows it with their telling contribution. That’s just the way the game is – and don’t Nike know it.
