Hasta La Creative!

If you’ve been watching the Olympics, you’ve seen Visa’s “Go World” commercials from TBWA\Chiat\Day, in which the impressive feats of Olympic athletes are recounted in gold-tinted slow motion. They made an impressive number of spots (all viewable at the Go World site), but what really struck me were the three executions specifically created for Michael Phelps that aired right after each of his wins. There was the generic, Michael-isn’t-a-dolphin spot, which came after the first few, then the specific congratulations on winning more gold medals than anybody ever, and of course, another one for surpassing Mark Spitz’s record with eight golds in one Olympics. In the bevy of ads that followed Phelps’s wins, Visa stood out as the only advertiser with a relevant message. The spots were given extra gravitas by narrator Morgan Freeman, who was injured in a car crash recently. So, of course, they were recorded far in advance, even though the footage was turned around in less than a day from Phelps’s previous victory. What I wonder is what the ad would have said if Phelps hadn’t pulled it off. Did they have a special “You’re still crazy-awesome, Michael, and we still love you” commercial ready?

—Posted by Rebecca Cullers