Nike & Adidas commercials

[soccerdome]

Is anyone still upset that they didn't put U.S. or MLS players in those commercials. I know I am. That seemed a little cruel to say the least.

[UncleSam527]

Nike could have definitely "upped" the effect of their Cage commercials in the US had they included someone like Landon.

[JBlazini24]

Nope. The commercials were intent for all world markets, not just the U.S.

And U.S. players are not popular anywhere else but the U.S., so it wouldn't make sense to include them.

Don't get me wrong, I would have loved to see Clint Mathis in "The Cage." I would have loved to see Landon Donovan get "footballitis." But people in France, or England, or Japan, or Senegal would not.

They chose the most recognizable faces, the biggest stars, and for that, you cannot blame them.

[soccerdome]

Originally posted by UncleSam527
Nike could have definitely "upped" the effect of their Cage commercials in the US had they included someone like Landon.

That's exactly who I was thinking of. Landon has that appeal that I think would have worked. Maybe even Run DMB. But instead they used these "foreigners" that the average American wouldn't recognize.

[soccerdome]

Originally posted by JBlazini24
Nope. The commercials were intent for all world markets, not just the U.S.

And U.S. players are not popular anywhere else but the U.S., so it wouldn't make sense to include them.

Don't get me wrong, I would have loved to see Clint Mathis in "The Cage." I would have loved to see Landon Donovan get "footballitis." But people in France, or England, or Japan, or Senegal would not.

They chose the most recognizable faces, the biggest stars, and for that, you cannot blame them.

U make a pretty good point but, it seemed like the commercials had players from every nation BUT the U.S. Almost like we were purposely being excluded or we weren't considered "good" enough.

[CrewDust]

Weren't all these commericals shot before the World Cup?

[soccerdome]

Originally posted by CrewDust
Weren't all these commericals shot before the World Cup?

I think so. Why?

[BenReilly]

Originally posted by JBlazini24
Nope. The commercials were intent for all world markets, not just the U.S.

And U.S. players are not popular anywhere else but the U.S., so it wouldn't make sense to include them.

Don't get me wrong, I would have loved to see Clint Mathis in "The Cage." I would have loved to see Landon Donovan get "footballitis." But people in France, or England, or Japan, or Senegal would not.

They chose the most recognizable faces, the biggest stars, and for that, you cannot blame them.

I don't see why you couldn't make a few versions, tossing in an American here or there.

[Northside Rovers]

Nike - US Company. Landon Donovan - US player

It would not have killed them to put in Donovan. He may not have had the proven pedigree of a Davids or a Figo but he wasn't chopped liver. But then again, we found out that pedigree don't mean crap on game day. Donovan ate Figo's lunch.

I was just thinking about this 20 minutes ago paging thru my new Eurosport looking at the Nike cage pull out poster.

[JBlazini24]

Originally posted by soccerdome


That's exactly who I was thinking of. Landon has that appeal that I think would have worked. Maybe even Run DMB. But instead they used these "foreigners" that the average American wouldn't recognize.

But they weren't produced for the average American.

[JBlazini24]

Originally posted by soccerdome


U make a pretty good point but, it seemed like the commercials had players from every nation BUT the U.S. Almost like we were purposely being excluded or we weren't considered "good" enough.

All the biggest stars from the best soccer countries in the world were included in those Nike ads -- Brazil, Italy, England, Portugal, Spain, etc.

Seol and Nakata were the only exceptions, and that's because their countries were the host countries.

You are being paranoid that there's a big conspiracy against the U.S., and that's not fair to Nike, which is a business. Their job is to appeal to the worldwide audience. The U.S. is a relatively small soccer market compared to the rest of the world.

[Ringo]

Originally posted by soccerdome


But instead they used these "foreigners" that the average American wouldn't recognize.

the average American wouldn't recognize an american soccer player if you beat them over the head with Landon Donovan.
I'm not doggin on the u.s. or u.s. soccer ... but it's a fact. U.S. players aren't really media darlings, and certainly not before their World Cup run.

[CrewDust]

Originally posted by JBlazini24


But they weren't produced for the average American.

Bingo, we have a winner. Does any one think the average American would even notice if an American player was in it?

[Northside Rovers]

Originally posted by CrewDust
Bingo, we have a winner. Does any one think the average American would even notice if an American player was in it?

Exactly. The average American wouldn't recognize Figo. But we saw those commercials about 1000 times in June and it would have been a great time to at least introduce a face or two of Amercian players to the average American (who may or may not have been watching).

They could have shown a different commercial here in the USA with a few scenes of Landon running around and shown the regular version for all the Euros who would have been offended.

If I were Nike, I would have said put Landon in, he is a Nike guy, plays on a Nike team, we want to expand our US soccer revenue, we'll show this version in the US. Not too expensive or difficult.

[timmy409]

i think if they made a commercial now it would probally include somebody

[timmy409]

autchally they probally woulda thought they were all american

[toddinho]

I'm pretty sure I saw Claudio Renya in some of the Adidas Footballitis commercials. The one when he was heading the ball, looked exactly like him. I know he wears Fila cleats, but it might have been him. So, it appears that they did have the most prominent US player who plays in England. If that wasn't Claudio, then who was it?

T-

[trickyfool]

Originally posted by timmy409
i think if they made a commercial now it would probally include somebody

Bingo, open up the new Rolling Stone magazine. Landon's abs make an appearance in the Nike ad.

Yeah, it's only his torso, his face is blocked by the shirt but the ad says, "Landon Donovan wears some type of Nike technology"

I was surprised

[elainemichelle]

...I might have to start reading Rolling Stone...

[ED Fajardo]

The Cage commercial was filmed in Rome last year during the month of December--by an American director. Go figure.