[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idLG6jh23yE]
Nike has launched a new ad—at three-plus minutes, a mega-ad—for the World Cup, and it’s a doozy. Directed by Alexander Rodriguez Alejandro González Iñárritu, the hyper, kinetic, hyperkinetic commercial, “Write the Future,” follows several international footballers through the throes of game play—and beyond: it flashes out into the wider world to spin the reactions to and fallout from each game-saving or game-losing play. It’s a frentic inventive game of alternative-reality-spinning that underscores the basic message of nearly every Nike ad (at least, besides the bizarre one trying to rehabilitate Tiger Woods): people care about sport, intensely.
Over at Slate, Seth Stevenson calls it the best soccer ad he’s ever seen. Given that I can recall myabe one other soccer-themed ad offhand, I’m not going to argue. But I think my favorite Nike ad ever remains, by a hair, “Move,” from 2002, which is embedded after the jump. Your winning pick?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n51XmB5_rh4]