Local Nike ad turns out to be…well…not local
Posted on 16. Jul, 2007 by Jonathan Cherry in Advertising
Eeeeeew – like eating biltong made in India or drinking Klippies produced in the USA, it turns out that one of our favourite ‘local’ TV ads was made by a Dutch advertising agency.
Yeah – the Nike ad, ‘My body is my weapon. This is how I fight. How I defend, deter, attack….yada yada yada’ featuring South African sporting heros like Oscar Pistorius and Benni McCarthy was made by Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam.
What a crying shame. We really liked that ad – thought the production values were world-class – to find out it was made by foreigners just sucks.
More here.
See the 60-second version here.
It’s still a wicked piece of cinematography, but seriously – is our talent not capable?
6 Responses to “Local Nike ad turns out to be…well…not local”
Leave a Reply
Don
16. Jul, 2007
What an awesome ad! Yeah, unfortunately, it sucks to say, but I don’t think our talent is capable, or they haven’t shown it at least…
Jeremy
16. Jul, 2007
it may have have been made by an overseas agency but if you read some of the press releases, the team who made it were ex-SA working in holland
Michael
17. Jul, 2007
Why moan about this? Like all multinationals, Nike will have appointed one agency to shoot all creative material for them internationally – from Latvia to Lisbon to London…
It’s an awesome ad. It features our own local sporting heroes. The fact that Nike international saw SA as unique and inspiring is a real win for us, and that kind of positive sentiment is infectious. It’s a great endorsement. Let’s stop acting like the underdog for a moment… and just enjoy the ad.
Cherryflava
17. Jul, 2007
Yes it’s an awesome ad – but it’s only being shown in South Africa as far as we understand.
If it were to be used world-wide than sure – get any agency to do it. But this is a campaign for South Africa produced by a Dutch agency.
ant
18. Jul, 2007
I think it is a bit patronising to have a foreign agency make ads that are only going to be screened here. Perhaps that’s globalisation for you though. Is there a figure for how many ads to be run abroad are created here?
Stuart
23. Jul, 2007
Hey, just to let everyone know the copywriter, David Smith is a born and bred Durbanite who had a lot to do with the entire concept. As Dave tells it, it was actually quite a push to get Nike to accept the somewhat controversial concept, so nicely done..