Last year this basketball player named LeBron James sent shockwaves through his home city because he turned his back on the team who had nurtured and created him. He moved. He changed teams. He didn’t do it in a very classy way. Anyway, he’s probably the best basketballer going around – and he’s a Nike sponsored superstar.
That intro is necessary for you to understand why this mashup of Nike commercials where Michael Jordan gives LeBron some advice is pretty cool.
Have you seen Nike’s “Write the Future” advert during the World Cup? It was brilliant. A viral masterpiece. It was everything Adidas’ involvement with the World Cup was not (they made the Jabulani ball) – popular, successful, brand-building. And then this curse struck. Every player in the ad campaign has been bundled out, somewhat unceremoniously. Even Roger Federer, who made a cameo in the ad, was knocked out of Wimbledon prematurely.
“Because Write the Future was so well-executed, and because it became so popular so quickly, it effectively functioned as an inspiring prelude to the kickoff. And when that decisive moment came for Rooney (or Ronaldo, Ribéry, Cannavaro, et al) and they crumpled exactly as they had done in Nike’s vision, the entire meaning of the ad shifted away from “just do it” and toward a prognostication of doom.”
From Slate.
Maybe this is what got Tiger Woods.