Hare Jordan
Nike1992
Hare Jordan is a 1992 60-second television commercial for Nike, created by Wieden+Kennedy, Portland.
The line
This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Why it works
Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny team up in a gym to outwit a gang of basketball bullies, mixing live action with hand-drawn Looney Tunes slapstick until Bugs signs off: “This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” Created by Jim Riswold at Wieden & Kennedy and directed by Joe Pytka, it aired during Super Bowl XXVI on January 26, 1992. It took six months and nearly $1 million to make, about four times the cost of a typical spot, with some 3,000 drawings by Warner Bros. animators, and Pytka fought the studio for months to modernize Bugs. It is studied as the commercial that became intellectual property: Pytka has described its success as useful research for Warner Bros., a sequel followed, and the pairing became the basis for the 1996 film Space Jam, which he directed. It won USA Today's 1992 Ad Meter with a score of 8.51, and USA Today's editors later ranked it the second-best Ad Meter winner of the poll's first 24 years.
Techniques
- Humour Live action and hand-drawn slapstick combine as a basketball star and a cartoon rabbit outwit a gang of bullies on court.
- Testimonial and endorsement Michael Jordan plays alongside Bugs Bunny, so the brand pairs its star athlete's fame with a much-loved cartoon character.
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