Nike released this spot on May 17th, strategically positioned to build steam in the run-up to the World Cup beginning next week on June 11st in South Africa. A cinematic tour-de-force directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and starring the likes of Didier Drogba of the Cote d’Ivoire, Fabio Cannavaro of Italy, Wayne Rooney of England, Roger Federer, Frank Ribery of France, Ronaldinho of Brazil (somehow not on Brazil’s squad for this year’s World Cup), and ultimately Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal…
This is an incredibly fast paced, gorgeous, hypnotic film flush with the raw unadulterated joy and passion that is football… I’d consider it a Film Grand Prix contender…but is it a legitimate entry at Cannes? It premiered worldwide on May 21st, after Cannes’ submission period had concluded, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t run somewhere, at some time, perhaps deliberately obscured from view at some godforsaken hour of the morning in the middle of nowhere. There is an apocryphal story of Apple’s legendary “1984” commercial, the Cannes Grand Prix winner of the same year. Although “1984″ premiered during the Super Bowl, to millions of people, it also ran months earlier in December, at 1:00 am in the sleepy town of Twin Falls, Idaho, just to be eligible for Cannes. So there is precedent here, which begs the question: is Nike’s “Write the Future” eligible for a 2010 Lion? Where did it run, and when? If it doesn’t win a Lion this year, I would happily put a large wager on it winning a Lion in 2011… (And for the sake of reference, and because this spot will forever remain a great moment in marketing history, here is “1984″, the spot that launched the Mac revolution…
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