The emotionally powerful and unusually fresh retro Adidas spot ‘Break Free’ has gone globally viral.
The film, which portrays the dream of an elderly man who yearns to escape from the restrictions of his retirement home and return to his passion for running, ‘Break Free’ is generating buzz right across the online community, the ad industry and the sports brand space.
And yet, despite all appearances – and the high profile presence of Adidas sports shoes, shirts, shorts and tracksuits – this isn’t actually an Adidas ad at all.
It is the (second year ‘project’) work of Eugen Merher, a young German director and student at Filmacademy Baden-Wuerttemberg, sent the film to the German sportswear giant but didn’t get any positive response to it.
After the rejection, Merher uploading his video on YouTube and it instantly became and internet sensation.
The film tells the story of an elderly man yearns for a momentary break away from his restricted (dreary) nursing home life: one in which he and his fellow residents seem to be doing little more than counting down the hours while dreaming of past glories.
The video, set in the 1970s, includes an East German football match, the protagnosist’s black and white track athlete photos and a Nurse Ratched-like villain.
The key to his freedom was simple – a well-worn pair of Adidas trainers (and retro kit too).
Merher wrote and directed the spot, the producers were Karli Baumann and Karl Heidelbach, the director of production was Mortimer Hochberg and the editor was Ernst Lattik. The music was composed by Alexander Wolf David, sound design was by Marcus Fass, the sound recordist was David Hill, with production design by Nora Brockamp and Julian Dieterich, VFX by Tim Markgraf and the production company was Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg.
Merher himself has said that a distant relative who passed away last year he was the main inspiration for the film: an old man with a very young spirit who used to walk two kilometres every day and bring his wife flowers and loved to watch sport.
‘The company did get back to me after we emailed them,’ explains Merher.
‘They said that they didn’t support the work because they get lots of these kinds of requests, they already have their agencies, and they don’t really need it. I’m not sure if they even watched it, but we sent an email before production and afterward.’
Comment:
From the pace and tone, to the retro feel and the demographic, this striking spot certainly cuts through the cluttered commercials currently in the sportswear marketing category.
As with most ‘on spec’ and ‘student’ work, it is freer from the commercial constraints of a creative brief, but this doesn’t take away from the fact that this is one of the most remarkably moving sports spots we at Activative have seen in recent weeks.
We are not alone.
On Merher’s own YouTube channel the spot has already notched up 8.5m views and it has been posted and amplified elsewhere across the web.
Can Adidas itself change its mind and collaborate with the creator to further leverage the spot’s success?
Links:
Eugen Merher
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQK7f8Q8qYxxx-eEn_SSrrg
https://www.linkedin.com/in/eugen-merher-a3912435
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
