Be Like Nike (Cont)

At this rate, Gatorade can soon start putting G’s and bolts on hi-tops and compression shorts. They continue to successfully blur the lines between themselves and Nike with this ad featuring John Wooden and great college basketball stars of the past. It ran the night before the NCAA basketball championship.



It’s a terrific ad; John Wooden is an inspired choice. You’d be hard pressed to find a more credible and respected spokesperson. Out of a very small handful of coaching legends, he stands alone, having won 10 championships in 12 years (and seven in a row) at UCLA in the 60’s and ‘70’s.

He is the Yoda of basketball and coaching, having taught countless players and coaches, not just about basketball, but about life.

Which explains why he makes so much sense to be doing this ad.

And his delivery of the poem is breathtaking, especially considering that he’ll be turning 99 in a few months (that means he was only 17 years old when Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs). Coming out of the mouth of an eighth grader the poem might have sounded juvenile, but it seems like just another homespun lesson from the great coach when it comes from John Wooden.

The archival footage of Walton and Jordan mixed with more current film of Dwade and Candace Parker dunking shows great respect to the game and even more credibility to the brand.

And the music immediately made me think of Heritage, one of the original great Nike spots, with a solitary man running against the musical backdrop of a simple poignant piano track.

Add in those great Nike athletes like MJ and Kevin Durant and D Wade, and you have another fantastic Nike ad.

Except that it’s for Gatorade. It’s tied up by a G bottle and “Then. Now. Forever.” Which is a very cool sentiment and makes a ton of sense for the brand. Smart to put a stamp on their heritage and authenticity and try to ensure they stay current.

It’s the latest installment in Gatorade’s continued efforts to sell a brand, not a product. It's building buzz. Lots of people are talking about it, and liking it. It’s a valid way to go for brands that aspire to sell themselves as a lifestyle. Nike has done it, Adidas is working on it. Gatorade is dreaming of it.

They are clearly, consciously walking away from making hydration the reason to buy this product, which is the reason why people have aligned themselves with the brand in the past. They’re making a big bet that you’re going to want to join them because they’re cool. Are you?

Is that a shark Gatorade just jumped over?

I’m trying to find the right words here.

This new Nike spot—I mean, Gatorade spot—is one of those that makes you scratch your head so hard you find dried blood under your fingernails.



You can see the other spots in the campaign here.

The folks at Nike— sorry, I mean Gatorade, I got confused by all of the Nike logos and Nike imagery—have created a fun spot. I'm just not sure who it’s for. Or what it's selling. It’s about “dehydration for concentration.” So when and where am I supposed to use it? And what’s it called again?

To be sure, it’s a buzzworthy spot, and it’s received buzz. With cool celebrity voiceovers including Samuel L. Jackson, and an original track created by Funkmaster Bootsy Collins. And Tiger Woods, for heaven’s sake, animated or not. Plus, it arrives just in time for his hopeful recoronation at the Masters.

People will like it. They already do, especially 13-24 year olds. It has its detractors, too. So it's being talked about.

The question is, will a commercial that borrows from Pulp Fiction, the Jungle Book, classic Nike advertising, and the Keebler Elves help Gatorade sell an already confusing product and promote the overall brand?

Chiat Day has done a terrific job of making people sit up and take notice of a powerful brand that always could have been bigger and shinier in the public eye. Thing is, the business was always big and shiny.

Hopefully little Eldrick Woods will put on another green jacket this year and help the business be as shiny as the advertising.

The silver lining is, I learned something.

Hmmm...



A man is running. He seems to know where he’s going…but he seems lost. He’s disoriented. Confused. But wait.! Hark! What’s that he sees? There, above those 18-wheelers! It’s a metaphor!

Yes, it’s a place he might like, a place far above...making your way in the world these days, takes everything you got…taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot! Wouldn’t you like to get away…

Well of course, the guys who went to Cheers used beer as their getaway, and it makes sense that runners use…well…running. It feels like you escape to another world. A white, fluffy, goopy world where you run on marshmallows. Duh!

OK, I admit, I’m not a runner, and I don’t get running. I’ll run up and down a basketball court til my hammies almost rip, but as soon as I hit 8:00 on the treadmill, my shin splints freak out and remind me what it feels like to get strafed by machine gun fire.

So as a non-runner, I apologize to Asics when I say, you nailed the metaphor, but I fear that your runner may not be as lost as the brand that made the ad. Interesting to look at, yes, and I got the metaphor, but I just wasn’t sure how you got to “Sound mind, sound body.”

But then I Googled your tagline and I actually learned something!

The first letters from your tagline, “Anima Sana in Corpore Sana,” come together to form the word “Asics,” which of course, in Latin, stands for...you guessed it…”Sound mind, sound body.”

So if you’ve ever wondered what Asics means—and I really did, being a human being and possessing the curiosity that goes with it—you now know. They can hang with Nike (victory), Reebok (antelope), and Adidas (Mr. Adi Das).

Hey Saucony, you got some ‘splainin to do…

Two Reasons Why I Hate This Ad

One: it’s silly. You’d have to be Usain Bolt on the greatest steroids on earth to be able to steal two bases on one pitch. Maybe “Dash” from The Incredibles was the stand-in. Whoever it was, I clocked him at about 63 MPH.

Two: Even though it’s one of the most authentically inaccurate ads I’ve seen in a long time, it will still work. It follows the Under Armour formula: dark, grainy, super slo-mo film, ominous music, tough-as-nails athlete, which combined make for the heart pounding intensity of which UA devotees can’t get enough.

There’s nothing wrong with a formula. For Under Armour, there’s everything right about a formula. They don’t have the cash that Big Boys like Nike have for marketing, so the more consistent their communications looks, the better their branding and brand meaning.

And make no mistake, they’re up against the Big Boys. They’re selling shoes here. Nike’s turf. It’s a huge step for them and if they’re going to kick Nike’s butts the way they did with clothes, they may need to stretch themselves beyond their formula. The same UA just may not be enough.

Imitation is the sincerest form of copying

Last year’s Adidas House Party film turned a lot of heads, including those of us at Sportscentric. We thought it was pretty smart. And very cool. So did lots of lots of hipsters.

The folks at Sky One in London did as well. So much so that they almost frame-by-frame (respectfuly) ripped it off. The original:



The homage:



You can also go to Adidas Originals’ page on Facebook and check out the comparisons. It’s a nice simple page and 1.5 million fans agree (PS, about 150,000 more fans than Nike).

It makes sense that one of the most original shows in the history of television, which got that way by hilariously lampooning just about every film, music and tv genre known to man, would faithfully copy an instantly classic film that touts originality. There’s a hornets nest of logic there, but it all makes sense because the Simpsons is at the heart of it.

And the biggest beneficiary is Adidas, whose coolness level gets a boost without spending a dime.

That is, until Nike makes “Bart Knows.”

Rock the boat, just don’t capsize

“There are over 400,000 NCAA athletes. And just about all of us will be going pro in something other than sports.”

How many years have ads for the NCAA been using these words in their ads? The same words, mind you, but always with different stories wrapping themselves around that interesting thought.

In contrast to the many many brands that come up with a smart idea and move away from it way too soon because a fiesty young creative gets bored with it, the NCAA is sticking to this very smart platform and keeps coming up with interesting ways to craft stories around it. Like this.



This new work is some of the most surprising they’ve done, a tribute to whoever’s the guardian of the brand at the NCAA, and to Y&R in San Francisco, who produced these ads. Same copy they’ve been using for years, and in this case, a strikingly arresting (and different) visual story.



Stick with it, all of you guys doing these ads. You’re proving that you can keep your hand on the tiller, not make any sharp turns, and still stay in uncharted waters that deliver surprising adventures. Well done.

The Blue States Prevail Again

Red or blue, if you’re a sports fan, you’ve gotta love the Prez. Especially if you’re a basketball fan. Not only is he still hooping at the age of 46, he picked tall advisers and a cabinet full of tall guys so he can have a game nearby whenever he gets a little downtime.

And he appeared on ESPN last week to do his Barack-etology, filling out his brackets for the NCAA tourney. He gives some expert commentary while staying diplomatic, picks a few minor upsets, and mostly goes with the favorites. He shows off his basketball knowledge in general by calling out certain players like DeJuan Blair and Ty Lawson. And he injects a little sports guy humor into it as well, warning Carolina “Not to embarrass me again” since he picked them last year too. No surprise there. It's a blue state.



Nothing against W, but I'm not sure he could remember any school except for the Aggies of Texas and the Missouri Sooners.