Leveraging spiking interest in the FIBA Wiorld Basketball Championships, Nike China has rolled out a series of three comic commercials which might have unearthed the secret to China’s previous hoops failures.
This trio of funny videos, developed in harness with W&K Shanghai and directed by the Malloys via Superprime, seeks to tie athletic success to unexpected influences.
Rolling out in late August, the campaign seeks to have fun with China’s basketball passions and its hang-ups too.
The three ads focus on three hard-working Chinese citizens – a dumpling maker, a milk farmer and a teacher – who each blame themselves for the country’s failure to produce more hoops superstars (despite the fact that basketball is arguably the most popular sport in the country).
The dumpling man sees the country’s potential in the sport – with players like Zhou Qi, Yi Jianlan, Ding Yanyuhang all made it to the NBA during the careers – and yet thinks the fact that he puts pork and not beef in his dumplings is what has prevented others from making it to the big leagues.
While the farmer thinks Yi Jianlin’s daily glass of milk enhanced his performance so obviously he should be producing a lot more milk for the whole nation to benefit from.
While the teacher apologizes for forcing her students to study so diligently that they’re not focused on the more pressing goal.
Each storytelling spot runs online in China and each also closes with the characters making a firm commitment to doing right by their hoop loving nation (followed by unconventional reworking of the Nike swoosh formed out of potstickers, drippings of milk and a rubber stamp).
The campaign broke on 27 August and was created for Nike China by a team from agency Wieden & Kennedy-Shanghai.
Including Executive Creative Director Ian Toombs, Executive Creative Director Vivian Yong, Creative Director Alexandra Lisee, Producer Ross Giardina, Art Director, Producer Matt Skibiak, Director of Photography Matt Meszaros, Executive Producer Josh King, Producer Bernice Wong, Senior Creative Angela Liu, Producer Pandemic, 1st Ads Ay Wei Wong and Jo Chan, with Executive Producer Areta Mak and Producer Sean Lim.
The spots were directed by The Malloys.
Comment:
Previous W&K Shanghai work for Nike China includes July 2019’s ‘Further Than Ever’ campaign which set out to break down social barriers (see case study).
Links:
Nike China
https://www.facebook.com/nike/
https://www.youtube.com/user/nike
https://www.instagram.com/nike/
W&K Shanghai
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