OK, who saw it? It's simply the most outrageous Nike soccer commercial yet. Only it's not really about soccer, it's about running shoes. It uses footage from an English stadium, in the middle of what appears to be an EPL game, however. http://www.nike.com/usa/index.html Click on the box in the lower right corner to see it in streaming video. Also, go to the Niketown clearance sale link to see a darn cute pic of LD. (He's such a fine young man.)
Also go here at http://www.nike.com/morego/ (alternate site, same clip...) It's been discussed at the Free-for-all section... Scripted ad between a fake team resembling Leeds and Sunderland (two teams on the Nike outfitting umbrella)... Really meant to be entertaining, though the cynic could say another ad meant at bashing soccer. Still very hiliarious. There is another ad that was broadcast in Spain if that is right. It deals with a clothesless soccer crowd and the players have no uniforms at all. The "streaker" is clothed. If the game is to be promoted right, use someone like Landon or anyone involved in the Nike stable, preferably American. The ad is talked about, but that's it. Cheers!
"And he's off! Like a bull with gas!" I'm using that line this year when Russell beats someone on the wing.
Great commercial,funny as hell. Some guy's at my job thought it was actual footage of a match. In case your wondering, the commercial was shot at the New Den, Millwall's stadium.
I thought it was hilarious. I can be pretty sensitive to the soccer-bashing, but I took it in good humor. It really has no relation to soccer. In some respects, you can consider a good thing. A lot of funny commercials really have no relation to the background, but they are used because it's relative imagery to the viewer, making them more attuned to the media (thanks Art 101). So you can say that soccer is more accepted in the general collage of America, away from the 'soccer mom' thing.
While I can understand the "soccer bashing" viewpoint, I also like to look at it from the "glass-half-full" perspective. Nike has fingers in every pie. That streaker could have been at any sport and they chose to portray soccer. You know the old sayings about there being no such thing as bad publicity?! Good, bad, indifferent--get the game out there in peoples' consciousness and in front of their eyes!! Damn funny commercial. Bajaro--I also love how you have already attached the "bull with gas" line to an Ian Russell run.
"bull with gas" I was wondering what he said. Add that to the visuals I don't need along side Kathy Bates full frontal in About Schmidt That comercial was funny the 1st & even 2nd time I saw it, but 16th? Geez, you'd think they'd ever heard of overkill. Someone get rid of those damned twins & freakin Dell dork too while they're at it. I thought the best stuff was reserved for the Super Bowl. It'll be pretty hard to top that. The look on that guys face, that silly scarf & the comment, "that's an image that's going to stay w/ me for a long time" followed by, "scorched onto my retinas" made that spot a classic. Greatest Nike add though? Come on now. We had Mars Blackmon "gotta be the shoes money", Buggs Bunny versus Mike, Mike stop motion shaving, Mike vs Bird "off the statue-nothing but net", Mike vs rookie Mike vs UNC Mike.
The fans were chanting "who ate all the pies?" BRILLIANT! The second best commercial out there right now, next to the bud light one with the two strippers wrestling in the fountain.
Kudos to Nike for making it available in a Java applet. Other firms would have only used Windows media crap.
You must like Mike-- But not a single one of the Mike commercials takes place in a "soccer-specific" stadium!
My votes for best Nike commercial ever: 1. "Little less conversation" Elvis remix with the secret soccer tournament. 2. "Who ate all the pies?" The current scarf wearing streaker. 3. "Bo knows..." A classic with Bo Jackson knowing how to do a variety of things. TWO classic lines. A. Bo Knows Hockey then a shot of Wayne Gretzky simply saying "no." B. Bo Diddely's "Bo don't know Diddely."
I saw an Umbro commercial from europe where a goodlooking couple are laying in bed in the morning and she gets frisky and he rejects her advances, gets out of bed in his undies and leaves her high and dry. The obviously frustrated woman leaves the bedroom to figure out what his problem is. She peeks into the living room where she see's him sitting on the couch, his back to her and he appears to be tossing the spam javelin, if ya know what i mean. She screams at him in anger and storms off to her room. To which he replies "WHAT???"....as the camera pans around to the front of the couch he's actually pumping up an Umbro soccer ball. The commercial says something to the effect of "Don't let anything come between you, and the game." I had a link but i cant find it, its hilarious!
The Cantona v. the Devil one goes down as the all time classic, along with Ronaldo w/ Barcelona when he won his first player of the year
Spot on...it's only debut'd this weekend and already it's reaching overkill status? Great waste of a good spot.
And while we're at it, those weren't all Nike ads... Mike vs. Bird was McDonalds Mike vs. Mike was Gatorade (Mike vs. Mia, too) Bugs vs. Mike might have been 10-10-220 or something of that ilk
I thought it was funny, even a couple of times through. I didn't see it as soccer bashing at all. I suspect one of the reasons they chose soccer was to preserve the illusion for americans of this being real footage. It takes a couple of viewings (at least it did for me) to determine that it was fabricated. If this were set in an NFL stadium it would have been obvious instantly that it was a fake because the teams would have been wrong.
That was pretty good. I wonder if they'll do something like that with the USWNT this fall. Or, have another secret tournament ... Sissi, Hamm, Parlow -- TEAM ESTROGEN!!!!