After its pandemic-enforced break, the NBA finally got back to action on 30 July and Nike leveraged its return and the restart of several other major US sports by releasing a striking campaign celebrating sport as a source of inspiration and unity.
The third film in its ‘You Can’t Stop Off’ initiative uses a split-screen to seamlessly splice together the movement of seemingly disparate pairs of athlete pairs to illustrate athlete parallels and celebrate sporting togetherness.
The ‘You Can’t Stop Us’ spot spans 20-plus sports and stars 53 athletes from Nike’s endorser stable including Megan Rapinoe, LeBron James, Naomi Osaka, Eliud Kipchoge, Caster Semenya, Cristiano Ronaldo, GiannisAntetokounmpo, Serena Williams, Colin Kaepernick and Kylian Mbappé.
Team USA soccer icon Megan Rapinoe narrates a rousing speech alongside a set of 36 split-screen scenes that splice together dynamic movements by unrelated pairs of athletes to suggest they are performing as one.
To produce the film, long-time agency Wieden + Kennedy Portland’s creative team (with director Oscar Hudson of Pulse Films and editing by JOINT) sifted through around 4,000 pieces of footage to find perfectly matching shots and clips to underscore the commonalities between athletes.
“We know things won’t always go our way. But whatever it is, we’ll find a way. And when things aren’t fair, we’ll come together for change. And no matter how bad it gets, we will always come back stronger because nothing can stop what we can do together. We’re never alone and that is our strength,” says Rapinoe.
Outcome:
With 39,849,871 YouTube views on Nike’s own channel, plus 39m on Twitter and 3m on Instagram since it was posted on 30 July, this superb piece of editing has certainly commanded eyeballs.
Comment:
Launched on 30 July, the piece highlights just how resourceful and inventive post-production techniques can create standout visuals and messages despite the restrictions of pandemic filmmaking.
It manages to pull in what feels and looks like pretty much the whole world of sport whilst simultaneously addressing and combating the challenges and ills affecting today’s world – from the pandemic to racial injustice.
There is no doubt that this is another visually inventive film from Nike which dovetails with the contemporary zeitgeist and the mood of its audience.
Throughout theCOVID-19 lockdown, Nike has found creative ways to keep people upbeat and reinforce its brand and this is the third film of Nike’s ’You Can’t Stop Us’ campaign.
In April, Nike offered a tribute to athletes around the world working hard to maintain physique and performance from home in ‘Play for the World’ (see case study)
Then in May, the sportswear behemoth rolled out a montage of sporting triumphs as inspiration for those persevering through difficult challenges which was narrated by NBA legend LeBron James (see case study).
Links:
Nike
https://www.nike.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/nike
https://www.instagram.com/nike/
https://twitter.com/nike
https://www.facebook.com/nike
Wieden & Kennedy-Portland
https://www.wk.com/about/office/portland/
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