Sports Commercials

This one isn't really about commercials of the past. Rather, its about the quality of commercials that I have seen relating to sports branding, specifically Nike.

If you know me well enough, then you know that I HATE Nike. Most things that I get from Nike are either returned or worn because of other obvious reasons. I'm an adidas (not Adidas) guy, and I love pretty much anything adidas. I've had 4 generations of the same shoe and still going strong. If only the red devils wore adidas...but I digress. I'll the rant on why I hate Nike for throwing out money at players and such for a later blog or something. One thing I do have to give props on for Nike is their commercials. They don't give blatant endorsements on the products they try to sell, but instead they just show subtle glimpses of athletes using the new merchandise (If you look closely, #11 Dwight Howard is the only adidas sponsored player, the others are Nike. Look at how his adidas shoes are blocked by the coach and he covers the Nike logo on his pants).

I was thinking about Nike commercials awhile back when they made two really good commercials. One was called "Leave Nothing" with Shawn Merriman and Stephen Jackson. The other one was "Take It to the Next Level" with a whole lot of Nike sponsored football players (Fabregas, Rooney, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho). It's not just that they sell the products, or that if you wear their gear then you automatically get better (though many think this...)

Today I saw yet another new Nike commercial called "Fate". The kid running around avoiding things and speeding away is LaDanian Tomlinson. The kid with the big hair smashing tables and people is Troy Polamalu. Really good setup for the climactic "battle". And yet, even after they collide, you see them both get up and Tomlinson pats Polamalu on the head, both giving a sense of approval of the other. Awesome. Really great commercial. They didn't try to sell their gear (NFL jerseys are made by Reebok btw). No talking, just showing a really good story of two probowl players.

As much as I hate Nike, I have to respect their marketing ability. They really know how to get to you, even though they didn't directly try to sell their merchandise. If only adidas had Reggie Bush making some of those commercials instead of hanging with Jared Fogle on the Subway ads.....and make some cooler commercials.

Anyways, since I was on youtube, I thought I would share with you some of my favorite commercials.

- Tide: Talking Stain
- Gatorade: Winning Formula
- Zazoo: Wear Condoms

Commercials don't have to be star-studded, multi-million dollar ads. They just need to be memorable in one way or another...or another...