Hasta La Creative!

Back in April, we covered “Winner Stays,” part of W+K’s “Risk Everything” campaign for Nike, which feature some of the world’s best soccer talent and clocked in at over four minutes long. Now, with only three days to go until the 2014 World Cup kicks off, W+K is back with an even lengthier effort for Nike.

Like “Winner Stays,” the new spot, entitled “The Last Game,” features some of the best players in the world — only this time they’re animated and voiced by voice actors. The over five-minute long “short film” tells the story of a scientist who creates clones of the great players which remove risk-taking in favor of efficiency and decision-making abilities. The results on the game are disastrous, turning it into a complete bore. Brazilian legend Ronaldo decides to do something about it, and gets together a team of superstars, all now leading “normal” lives, to take on the clones in a sudden death match.

Somehow the lengthy “The Last Game” doesn’t feel as long as its predecessor. While the trend of calling long ads “short films” is a touch ridiculous, W+K comes closer to earning that title than most do with “The Last Game,” which, in addition to some fine animation, has a plot that convincingly tells a story that viewers (especially children) may actually feel compelled to follow to its conclusion. While “Winner Stays” felt like an idea drawn out past the point of effectiveness, “The Last Game” actually uses all of its extended run time in service of a story. Whether or not it’s the most effective way to market Nike, the results are certainly entertaining. In addition to the full-length online spot, the campaign also includes 30-second trailers and athlete-specific teasers, and will run for six weeks. We’ve got a full list of credits after the jump. continued…

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No sooner had we shared our lament over the fact Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s had seemingly abandoned their sex sells approach, we see Kia is unapologetically illustrating the awesome power a hot woman holds over a man, or in this case, sports fans who think there are actually sports other than soccer worth watching during World Cup month.

In three David&Goliath-created spots, Adriana Lima (and her endless legs and come-hither smirk) turns men into slack-jawed putty which she then molds into World Club fans by cooing, “In my country, this is football.”

Like lemmings off a cliff, every guy is more than happy to become a soccer fan for a month. And why not? What wouldn’t you do for a supermodel in a little black dress?

The FIFA World Cup starts on Thursday, but it’s in the news today not for the games about to kick off in Brazil, but for the 2022 games planned for Qatar. Sponsors Sony, Adidas, Visa and Coca-Cola are up in arms over a fresh round of allegations that the sovereign Arab emirate landed the World Cup through improper means.

For Americans who may not closely follow the World Cup or the shenanigans of its Zurich-based international governing body, HBO’s John Oliver has come to the rescue. In an extended rant delivered as a part of last night’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” the soccer-loving Brit calls the Fdration Internationale de Football Association “a comically grotesque organization” with a history of corruption and scandals, explains why Brazil will be financially worse off once the games are over (“Brazil, let me put this in terms you might understand: Think of money as pubic hair and FIFA as wax”), and takes a look at the deadly, slavery-like conditions surrounding the construction of soccer facilities in Qatar.

Simon Dumenco is the “Media Guy” columnist for Advertising Age. You can follow him on Twitter @simondumenco.

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