The World Cup kicks off today (in case you hadn’t noticed). The advertising stakes are high, with Nestle courting controversy with Mars.
How did the sportswear brands do? Adidas bagged the official sponsorship, Nike is the outsider (again). So, who won the advertising penalty shoot-out?
First up is Nike:
The creative idea of sportsmen taking (or not taking) their chances may not be original (think Guinness, Believe) but that is a minor gripe. This 3-minute extravaganza took up the whole ad break and is breathless and highly re-watchable. It must have cost as much as its heroes' combined monthly salaries. So confident, such swagger, an amazing piece of film.
A shame that ITV managed to cut the ending the first time it aired. What a Nikemare.
Our verdict: spectacular goal. Back of the onion bag.
Then there's Adidas' effort:
It is contemporary, eye-grabbing, in a Sin City style. But as Rooney Carruthers writes in Campaign: "I've watched this ten times now and I still don't get it. Zinedine Zidane bombs about in a retro car. Lionel Messi and David Villa do some great foot tricks and that is it"
Verdict: Fluffed it. Stuttering run-up, tried to be too clever then bobbled it straight at the keeper.
So Nike is the clear winner and deserves to be - hang on a minute, a fan in an England shirt has just run on to the pitch and is about to take their own penalty...
It is not competing with Nike and Adidas in budget but we suspect it has every bit as much impact. As Jon Howard says, there's not an overpaid football star in sight. It's about us, not them. It uses the national anthem but it is not portentous or grandstanding. (It's possibly not as re-watchable, either.) It's a penalty taken in slow motion. We watch, spellbound. The ball trickles over the line.
Verdict: an ad for the Age of Austerity. The excessive creative brilliance and money-no-object arrogance of Nike is going the way of Britpop or Lehman Brothers. The trouble with creative excess is for every Nike hit there are seven adidas flops. Or worse still, you get something like those Olympic mascots.
This is toned down, scaled back, ever so Umbro.
And it gets our vote (some of us at least).
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