Every now and then, an advertiser gets it so right that their ad sends shivers down my spine. It’s becoming a rare phenomena these days because so many advertisers copy one another … but when the World Cup started last week, someone did something right.
First, you have the Dodge Challenger commercial that debuted with the USA v England match on Saturday. I honestly can’t get enough of that one. It’s edgy. Directly relevant to the demographics who’d be the most likely to watch the match. And above all, it’s memorable and will get people to talk about it. There’s no better way to create buzz than by putting something like that together. Remarkably, there are so few words in the commercial, too! No 5-minute sales pitch. No feature descriptions. No benefit comparisons. No product evaluation matrices. The entire ad is sold on the basis of the emotional overtones of the images presented.
In a word, perfect.
Then you have the 3-minute Nike Soccer “Write the Future” commercial below. Three times as long, with no dialogue whatsoever. The entire message is emotional, yet it speaks to multiple facets of society. We see glimpses of blue collar workers coming together for a game. We see soccer reflected in theater. We see soccer superimposed on basketball thanks to Kobe Bryant. There’s social networking involved. Homer Simpson makes a cameo. Even if you’re not a soccer fan, there’s something in this commercial that will resonate with your life.
But above all is the characterizations the commercial presents. The fans are dreamers – their hopes and ambitions and emotion pinned to the performance of their favorite team. And the players are dreamers – running through potential future scenarios during the game and playing just that much harder to squeeze out the better outcome. You really couldn’t put together a broader, more complete message.
So even though it’s long, take a minute or three to watch the ad below and share your thoughts. Does it resonate with you, too?