On 18 November sportswear giant Adidas rolled out a player-specific strand in its ‘Family Reunion’ 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup activation programme fronted by flagship player ambassador Lionel Messi and called The Impossible Rondo’.
Created in harness with agencies TBWA and Fresh Juice, the spot stars five different versions of the Argentina skipper using artificial intelligence and VFX to create a version of the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner for each of the World Cup’s he has appeared in – 2006,2010,2014,2018 and 2022.
‘The Impossible Rondo’ was posted across the brand’s digital and social channels – generating more than 2m YouTube views in its first 48 hours.
The campaign was conceptualised and created by TBWA x Fresh Juice with production company Iconoclast Paris. The spot was helmed by Director Ian Ruschel, DOP Pat Aldingery, Executive Producer Jean-Pierre Gavini, Line Producer Maxime Brun, with VFX created by Ambassadors, grading by Company3 and the editor was Adriana Legay.
The spot also appeared as a key element in other aspects of adidas’ Qatar 2023 activation programme including a TV ad to virtual realty crossover and adidas’ low latency, CGI/OOH response to Argentina’s eventual victory.
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There is only o̶n̶e̶ Messi!
This follows the campaign’s core ‘Family Reunion‘ film which also featured Messi alongside other brand ambassadors Karim Benzema, Jude Bellingham, Stormzy, Achraf Hakimi, Son Heung-Min, Pedri and Serge Gnabry.
There are echoes here of Pepsi’s Qatar 2022 hero commercial which also focuses on a specific, showy soccer skill – ‘The Nutmeg Royale’.
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