ESPN's "This Is SportsCenter" is among the handful of classic sports ad campaigns of all time. Launched in 1995 by Wieden + Kennedy in New York, the campaign—originally inspired by the mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap—hasn't changed much over the years. And why would it? You don't mess with a winning formula.
The premise of the ads, as we've noted before, is that ESPN's Bristol, Conn., offices are the center of the sports universe—a surreal yet mundane fantasy world where athletes and mascots live and work together with anchors and journalists. Where other marketers portray athletes as superhuman, "This Is SportsCenter" presents them as comically, relatably human. Eighteen years and more than 400 spots later, the campaign continues.
As part of the Adweek story linked above, W+K drew up a list of its 10 favorite SportsCenter ads. Now, ESPN has one-upped its agency—devoting a whole special to its 50 favorite SportsCenter spots of all time. The show, airing this Thursday at 8 p.m. ET and hosted by Jason Sudeikis, will feature anecdotes and stories about the top 50, and fans are encouraged to vote for their favorite spot over on Facebook. Sudeikis will announce the winning spot on the show. (More than 1 million votes have been cast so far.)
Check out the program on Thursday, and click the link below for a sneak peek at ESPN's official top 10 favorite "This Is SportsCenter" commercials.
The Marijuana Policy Project is spreading its message to Nascar fans by purchasing video ad space on a Jumbotron just outside the entrance to the Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis from today through Sunday. Not only that, but the 30-second spot they're running (see below) disparages alcohol multiple times, something that Nascar sponsors Miller Lite and Crown Royal might not be too happy about. The video's specific claims are that marijuana has "no calories … no hangovers … [and] it's not linked to violence or reckless behavior." Drug cartels might have something to say about that last point, but I get what they're trying to say. If the MPP is truly interested in public service, they'll tell Nascar fans where to find decent weed. I grew up in Nascar country, and the stuff they smoke is total garbage.
UPDATE: The ad was pulled after the Drug Free America Foundation complained about it to Grazie Media, which owns the jumbotron. "Grazie Media does not, in any way, shape or form, support the use of marijuana nor the promotion of illegal drugs at a family event," Vanessa Wojtala, CEO and director of programming at Grazie Media, said in a statement.
Those still annoyed by Roxy's sexualized portrayal of a woman athlete will enjoy this more kick-ass 30-second spot for espnW. The first brand promo for the ESPN property, it broke Tuesday night during the premiere of the film Pat XO, part of the network's Nine for IX series. The spot, from creative agency 77 Ventures, was directed by filmmaker Raama Mosley and edited by Therapy Studio's Kristin McCasey. The original soundtrack was written and performed by Greta Gaines exclusively for espnW. Among the athletes featured are Serena Williams, Brittney Griner, Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan, Heather O’Reilly, Shannon Boxx, Sara Errani and Elena Delle Donne.
Surf and sports apparel brand Roxy's teaser ad for the Pro Biarritz 2013 surfing contest, which it's sponsoring, is more about butts than surfing, which hasn't sat well with some viewers. (See what I did there?) More than a few critics have sneered at the ad's focus on the surfer's body instead of her skills, and I have to say, I agree with them. The idea of not showing the woman's face was to have fans guess who she was—turns out it was Stephanie Gilmore, as you can see in the reveal video after the jump. But coming from a company that claims to speak to female athletes, the teaser video pretty much ignored athletics for blatant eye candy, and Roxy's official response to its critics was a non-committal word salad that didn't actually address the main complaint. Besides, it's not like Gilmore would be less attractive or marketable if they actually showed her surfing.
Robinsons isn't the only British brand drafting off Andy Murray's historic win at Wimbledon yesterday. The Adidas ad above, posted to Twitter, is nice and simple and a worthy tribute. The tennis star's other sponsors, including Head and RBS, also congratulated their man on Twitter. Head even used the same headline.
Britain had to wait 77 years—until Sunday's win by Andy Murray—to celebrate another British male singles champion at Wimbledon. So, BBH London should feel fortunate that it had to wait only four years to add the proper ending to its now-famous Wimbledon commercial for Robinsons drinks. The spot, which dreams of the day when a British player would once again win the prestigious London tennis tournament, was originally put together in 2009. Murray made it to the semifinals that year, losing to Andy Roddick. He made it to the semifinals in each of the following two years as well, reaching the final in 2012, only to fall to Roger Federer. This year, finally, he triumphed—over Novak Djokovic. "Worth the wait, wasn't it?" says BBH's newly added voiceover at the end.
I did not. Maybe the trophy will get lucky tonight! RT @jode_d@andy_murray did you go to sleep with the trophy in bed next to you? #AskAndy
CREDITS Client: Britvic Robinsons Campaign Name: Wimbledon "Imagine" Original Client: Lesley Davey, Brand Director Current Client: Helen Gorman, Brand Director
Original Launch: June 1, 2009 Updated Film: July 7, 2013
Original BBH Team: TV Producer: Ben Davies Account Director: Sylvia Pelzer? Account Manager: Corina Cuddihy Account Planner: Nina Rahmatallah Engagement Planner: Darius Karbassion Creative Director: Nick Gill Creative Team: Daniel Schafer, Copywriter; Szymon Rose, Art Director
Original Production Team: Production Company: Blink Director: Benito Montorio Director of Photography: Antonio Paladino Postproduction: Phil Oldham @ Absolute Post Editor, Editing House: Andy Mcgraw @ Cut and Run Sound: Aaron Reynolds @ Wave
Nike's "Just do it" slogan, unveiled 25 years ago this month by Wieden + Kennedy, might be the last great tagline in advertising history.
Yes, other notables have come since—among them, Apple's "Think different" and Volkswagen's "Drivers wanted"—but none have come close to duplicating the cultural impact and mass appeal of "Just do it." I frankly doubt that any ever will.
When 80-year-old Walt Stack jogged across the Golden Gate Bridge in Nike's first "Just do it" spot, chatting about his daily 17-mile run and joking that he kept his teeth from chattering in winter by leaving them in his locker, we lived in a more homogenous media world. At the time it seemed complex and cluttered, with some cable systems sporting 100 or more channels, and the recently launched Fox network broadening the broadcast funnel by 25 percent. All that was small potatoes, however, compared to today's ever-expanding digital/mobile/shareable/wearable mega-sphere, which has turned each consumer into his or her own media production and distribution channel, and to a large extent—despite the vaunted "social" nature of it all—isolated us instead of bringing us together.
Back in '88, a news image, song lyric, sitcom catchphrase or advertising slogan could spring to life in a way that's nearly impossible with today's media fragmentation. Modern content may be "snackable," but for the most part it doesn't stick to the ribs. Most of the lists, memes and apps are quickly, often instantly, discarded. Ideas have no time to build the momentum or gain the traction needed to become ubiquitous or, like "Just do it," beloved.
The "big idea" is, of course, a marketing cliche. It's considered old-school and somewhat outmoded, frequently derided by today's data-driven practitioners. That's a shame. Big ideas are, first and foremost, big. From a brand standpoint, they add rather than subtract, lending weight and substance to campaigns that can become unfocused and diluted by too many moving parts. Big ideas strengthen individual executions and provide platforms that make campaigns more than the sum of their parts.
"Just do it" was one of the biggest ad ideas ever, destined to cut across all conceivable psycho/socio/demographic lines in ways author Dan Wieden couldn't have envisioned when he tossed off the phrase in 20 minutes, concerned that the initial half-dozen ads in the campaign, spotlighting various subjects and different sports, had no unifying message.
"It was a simple thing," Wieden recalls in a 2009 Adweek video interview in which he discusses the effort's genesis. Simplicity is really the secret of all "big ideas," and by extension, great slogans. They must be concisely memorable, yet also suggest something more than their literal meanings. Rather than just putting product notions in people's minds, they must be malleable and open to interpretation, allowing people of all kinds to adapt them as they see fit, and by doing so, establish a personal connection to the brand.
Exchanging tweets is no substitute for helping people think, dream, or in Nike's case do things in a new way. "Just do it" was open to interpretation, and many folks adopted it as their private mantra. And not just in the realm of fitness and exercise. They just did all sorts of things as they strove toward personal goals. These ranged from starting businesses to popping the question, and in some cases extricating themselves from bad relationships. As a result of the line's resonance, Nike's brand image soared.
It's worth noting that "Just do it" is not a typical feel-good marketing tagline. There's a hard-edged, suck-it-up aspect to the phrase that runs counter to most advertising pablum. It's empowering but makes no promises, implying, in fact, that tough, hard work and personal sacrifice might be involved. On that level, it's an honest slogan, more so than most, and that's a big part of its appeal.
Perhaps the line's attitude stems from its ironic and unlikely origin. Wieden says he channeled, of all pop-culture figures, double murderer Gary Gilmore, who in 1977 became the first American executed in a decade, and famously told his executioners "Let's do it!" before facing the firing squad. That says something about the obscure, inexplicable nature of creativity—and brings me to my final point about why we might never see a slogan on the magnitude of "Just do it" again.
Big data doesn't necessarily kill big ideas, but it can thwart inspiration by attempting to quantify the unquantifiable. Because media is so splintered compared to 25 years go, brands will continue to target based on statistics, eschewing bold strokes for brief inroads in the hope of quick sales. Few creative teams "just do it" these days. They study, filter and refine their ideas into narrow bits of communication—lists, memes, apps—which, while seemingly focused and on point, are ultimately fleeting and insubstantial, little more than static.
"Just do it" belongs to an era when brands were brave enough to run with their visions and invite consumers to dream along with them.
Would you like an NHL championship with that? Leo Burnett in Chicago found an appetizing way to support the Blackhawks during their Stanley Cup run this summer, creating a special bus-shelter display for McDonald's featuring custom hockey sticks shaped like french fries. The copy reads, simply, "Go Blackhawks." (McDonald's may have had something of a rooting interest—the company is based in Oak Brook, Ill., after all.) As part of the campaign, the chain will donate hockey sticks (though not the actual ones from the ad) to local youth hockey programs.
Tiger Woods's latest chapter in his blood oath to Nike is this ad from Wieden + Kennedy in which the golfer is compared to a track-and-field competitor, a boxer, a basketball player and a baseball player (referencing Babe Ruth, no less). The idea is to stress golf's athleticism, but all it did for me was reinforce how lethargic golf is compared to sports where people aren't driven around in carts with other people who carry all their stuff. I would like to see how Tiger trains for big tournaments, though, so maybe next time Nike could be less roundabout in its approach. Credits below.
CREDITS Client: Nike Golf Spot "The Sport of Golf"
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore. Creative Directors: Don Shelford + Rob Thompson Copywriter: Tom Sebanc Art Director: Derrick Ho Producer: Felicia Glover Account Team: Scott Sullivan + Karrelle Dixon Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples / Susan Hoffman Agency Executive Producer: Ben Grylewicz
Production Company: Bob Industries Director: Brad Parker Executive Producer: TK Knowles Line Producer: Melissa Murphy Director of Photography: Morgan Susser
Editorial Company: Joint Editorial Editor: Kyle Valenta Post Producer: Lauren Pullano Post Executive Producer: Patty Brebner
VFX Company: The Mission Executive Producer: Michael Pardee VFX Supervisor: Mark Kolpack VFX Producer: Ryan Meredith CG Lead: Pitor Karwas VFX: Rob Trent
Music Composer: Philip Glass Sound Designer: Jeff Payne Song (if applicable): "67 Cities"
Mix Company: Eleven Sound Mixer: Jeff Payne Producer: Caroline O’Sullivan
Not since I used to play Summer Games on the Commodore 64 have I bludgeoned computer hardware in an effort to complete a simulation of a track-and-field event. But now, thanks to two creatives at Grey London, I can do so again—with The 100-Meter Scroll.
"Usain Bolt holds the record as being the fastest person in the real world—100 meters in an astonishing 9.58 seconds," Rasmus Smith Bech and Jonas Roth tell us in an email. "But who is the fastest person on the Internet? The 100-meter scroll game is made to find out exactly that. It's a website where you scroll 100 meters or 283.500 pixels on time. Scroll for fame, scroll to settle an argument, scroll in the hope it becoming an official 2016 Olympic discipline, or just scroll simply because you love to scroll."
I came in at a lousy 1:00:60. Somebody named "Satan" appears to be atop the leaderboard with what looks like an unbeatable time of less than 1 second.
The outpouring of support has been impressive for NBA player Jason Collins, the first openly gay male athlete in a major U.S. professional sport. Marketers, though, have been largely silent about Collins since yesterday—except for Nike, of course, whom he already endorses. (In a statement, the company said: "We admire Jason's courage and are proud that he is a Nike athlete. Nike believes in a level playing field where an athlete's sexual orientation is not a consideration.") About an hour ago, though, JetBlue posted an image created by its ad agency, Mullen, showing a rainbow image of the "i-people" from the company's "You Above All" brand campaign—to show support for Collins. "Thanks Jason, today we're all on the same team," reads the caption on the image, which was posted to Twitter and Facebook. Response has been mixed, with many fans and followers lauding the airline for supporting Collins and others wishing it had stayed "neutral." The brand's courage here is but a shadow of the player's courage, but it's brave nonetheless. Have other brands come out in support of Collins? Let us know in the comments.
Nathan Sorrell, the heavy kid from Nike's infamous "Jogger" ad by Wieden + Kennedy, has lost 32 pounds since last summer—and plans to lose 30 more. The London, Ohio, native, now 13, returned to the Today show recently and reflected on what motivated him to follow through on a promise he made after the Nike shoot. "I still can't believe that was me then, and this is me now. It just looks a lot different," he says. "I would never have changed my lifestyle if I was never in this commercial. That's not the only reason, but that really did help." Sorrell has been working with a personal trainer and a nutritionist and making healthier choices generally, which has helped him drop from 232 to 200 pounds. On a recent visit to Bob Evans, "I got a turkey sandwich" and a side of fruit, he says. "Usually that would be a double hamburger, cheese and all that bad stuff. Usually, it would be fries. Just stuff like that. Just little changes, but that's obviously carrying me 32 pounds less."
The red-hot pitching arms in Cincinnati are costing one local pizza chain a pretty penny. LaRosa's Pizzeria has already given away $100,000 worth of pizza this season (can't be good for the bottom line) through its "Strikeouts for LaRosa's" campaign with the Reds. The challenge, which is promoted on the Reds scoreboard, is simple enough. Anytime Reds pitchers combine to strike out more than 11 batters in a game at home, every ticket holder gets a free eight-inch pizza valued at $6.79. Not sure which mathematician worked out the algorithm, but 11 K's doesn't seem like much when you have stud starters like Johnny Cueto, Mat Latos and a freak like Aroldis Chapman closing games out. Hope you're hungry, Ohio. Last season, in the first year of the campaign, the Reds had a total of 13 free-pizza games. But this year, just 15 home games into the season, Reds pitchers have K'ed more than 11 batters seven times already. At this rate, it wouldn't surprise me if Ohioans petition to change the Reds logo into a giant pizza.
Nike placed this ad in Sunday's Los Angeles Times (and in social media), honoring Kobe Bryant following his season-ending injury. It's classic Nike—simple, rhythmic, inspirational. It's also sly. It reads like a career retrospective, until the last line, when it's revealed to be anything but. From Tiger Woods to Bryant, you can always count on Nike never to be boring. Full text of the ad below.
"You showed us that an 18-year-old could play with the best. You showed us that a championship, an exhibition game and a charity event are all must-wins. You showed us how to play chess while others played checkers. You showed us how to hit game winner after game winner. You showed us that an 81-point game is a real thing. You showed us that gold still matters. You showed us how to take an ice bath. You showed us how to score 30 points in a quarter, twice. You showed us the Mamba Face. You showed us how to demand perfection and demand it of everyone. You showed us how to put big-boy pants on. You showed us that you were never out of it. Ever. You showed us how inspirational a pair of free throws could be.
Following the bombings in Boston on Monday, New York City's 5 Boro Bike Tour is swiftly pulling all posters advertising its own May 5 race—because of now-inappropriate imagery showing pyrotechnics going off at the starting line. "We had these ads all over the city, and beginning today, the MTA is removing all of them," the group's CEO, Ken Podziba, told Gothamist on Wednesday. "We were getting phone calls and emails from people who thought the ads were inappropriate, and we agreed. The last thing in the world we want to do is offend anybody in a time of tragedy." Podziba said the ad space will probably be left blank—"which I guess is a message in and of itself," he said. "Our hearts go out to the victims and their families. We're in solidarity with them."
CC Sabathia is a large man, but he's not technically wearing a fat suit. That latter fact—and not just his slimming New York Yankee pinstripes—gives Sabathia the advantage over the horizontally striped (and comically fat-suited) Scott Van Pelt in ESPN's new This Is SportsCenter commercial from Wieden + Kennedy in New York. Now, if they can combine a fat suit and a mullet, they'll really be breaking new ground.
We've been in love with taxonomies ever since the agency-name infographic a few months ago. Here's one that's truly stunning to behold—Pop Chart Lab's new Chart of Collegiate Sports Teams. For sale (at $30 a pop) as a 2- by 3-foot poster, the chart claims to offer "a taxonomic breakdown of every collegiate sports team in the United States. From Division I to Division III, from Banana Slugs to Little Giants, there are over 1100 schools charted in six square feet of higher learning." (My beloved Bears of Washington University in St. Louis are represented. Shout if your school's team isn't represented.) There sure are a crapload of Eagles and Tigers and Bulldogs, oh my. But the real gems are found in offshoots like Professions -> Resource Extraction and Self-Referential -> Abstractions. Best place to examine this masterpiece in more detail is on the Pop Chart Lab site itself.
Does winning take care of everything? Perhaps for Tiger Woods. Probably not for some other athletes who've been on Nike's payroll. Here are some nicely done spoofs of the much-discussed new Tiger ad that put the sports marketer's controversial headline in less comfortable contexts. Two more after the jump—with Michael Vick and (though he was not a Nike endorser) O.J. Simpson. Via.
Here's a fun toy for obsessive baseball geeks: the new "Mission Control" installation at MLB's "Fan Cave" space in downtown New York. There, each year, a selection of the sport's most die-hard fans are paid to watch every game and crank out social-media content about the experience, part of a Lord-of-the-Flies-esque competition to get to the World Series. This year, the space also features a custom multi-screen computer rig, built by Breakfast, that's designed to pull in and display a wide range of data about the upcoming baseball season. The smaller screens on the left and right include video feeds of stadiums from American League and National League teams (even when the games aren't in progress). The toggles on the bottom calls up information like weather conditions and wind speeds at each location, as well as relevantly tagged Instagram and Twitter posts about the ballparks and their home teams. The dashboard meters measure stats like total games played and total number of hits for the season. The central monitor connects to a camera that can be used to record and broadcast video clips of the sports stars and other celebrities who stop by for concerts and other events, and of the "Fan Cave" marketing program's less famous participants. Why? Because all you've ever wanted since you were a little kid was to be a professional baseball commentator and astronaut at the same time. If that doesn't ring true, you're probably not invited.
ARM Architecture a conçu cette superbe structure appelée « Wanangkura Stadium ». Situé à South Hedland en Australie, ce bâtiment proposant un design très réussi et accueillant de multiples aménagements sportifs tire son nom du mot « tourbillon » en langage Kariyarra. Plus d’images dans la suite.
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