Write the Future
Nike2010
Write the Future is a 2010 three-minute film for the 2010 World Cup for Nike, created by Wieden+Kennedy, Amsterdam.
The line
Write the future.
Why it works
The biggest canvas sports advertising has attempted: a three-minute epic in which a single touch — Rooney's loose pass, Ronaldo's free kick — branches into entire alternate futures of national glory or trailer-park disgrace, directed by Oscar-winner Alejandro González Iñárritu with cameos from Kobe Bryant and Homer Simpson. Launched on social media and then aired worldwide during the 2010 Champions League final, it framed Nike's World Cup without Nike being a tournament sponsor — ambush marketing elevated to cinema. It won the Film Grand Prix at Cannes in 2011 and is studied for its narrative engineering (consequence as drama), its blockbuster production logic, and the launch strategy that treated an ad's premiere like a film release.
Techniques
- Storytelling Branches a single touch of the ball into alternate futures of national glory or disgrace, making consequence itself the drama.
- Testimonial and endorsement Star footballers such as Rooney and Ronaldo, plus a cameo from Kobe Bryant, carry the epic, closely identifying Nike with the players fans are about to watch.
- Transfer Borrows the excitement of the World Cup for a brand that is not a tournament sponsor, attaching the event's stakes to Nike without official rights.
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