Friday, August 20, 2010

Another Nike athelete? Coincidence?

I think Nike's at it again. This time, the fuss is over Roger Federer's wizardry. The clip creating all the hoo-ha was supposedly shot behind the scenes at a Gillette shoot. Here's the clip:




Now, there is no official word from Roger or any of his sponsors on whether what he did was real or not but for those of you who have not seen the other clips featuring Nike athletes that had audiences guessing its authenticity, here they are:






What's even more amazing is that the first day of polling done by the Sydney Morning Herald (link here) shows 68% of the 6780 respondents believing that it's real! The result really surprised me. Maybe they were all impressionable kids.

There is no doubting that Nike (if it was them) is a marketing genius. I have to admit that when I saw the Kobe clip when it went viral, it got me thinking if he'd really done it. However, coincidently, Nike later collaborated with Aston Martin to release limited edition pairs of Kobe's signature shoes. They have created heroes out of the elite atheletes that they endorse. A lot of their ads do provide inspiration (I have some of the older Michael Jordan and Lance Armstrong ads saved on my computer to provide me with that pick-me-up when I needed one) but do we sometimes exaggerate the capabilities of some of these athletes in our heads? As Tiger, Kobe and even Jordan have shown us, they are human and just as susceptible to desires and failures like any one of us. I think it's important to remember that. As far as their talent is concerned , whoever's doing it is really pushing into Hollywood's territory of make believe with the twist being instead of actors, they're using real athletes. AWESOME!

No comments:

Free counter and web stats