Has anyone seen the new Nike commercial? With Lance, Andre Agassi, some car racer dude, Michael Vick, Marion Jones, Serena Williams and I don’t remember who else. They are all edited in doing another sport. Lance is boxing, Andre playing for the Red Sox (baseball for our non-US friends), Marion J. is vaulting, Serena is playing beach volleyball. It’s pretty good. Almost as good as the Lalia/Muhammed Ali Addias spot.
Nike’s ad agency has traditionally turned out cutting edge, exciting and compelling ad imagery. I love their ads. They sell the sizzle and not the steak, so they are basically perfume ads, but they are fun nonetheless.
Some car racer dude? Your kidding right? Nike doesn’t sponsor car racers - they don’t exactly wear shoes or clothes you can see.
You must be referring to possibly the best part of the commercial which is Randy Johnson (a baseball pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks) as a top bowler. Genius.
The other person you might be referring to is Brian Urlacher who is a line backer for the Chicago Bears. He is shown with Mike Vick (Atlanta Falcons quaterback) as Colorado Avalanche hockey players…again, genius.
And Lance as the boxer is pretty spot on, very good correlation of toughness. Outstanding ads.
I believe Michael Schumacher (race car driver) was a Nike sposored athlete. I also see alot of the pit crews in Nascar events wearing a Nike Driving/Racing shoe. They kind of look like wrestling shoes.
The ads are fun and very well done. Weiden+Kennedy is the agency and they have done the Nike stuff forever - always on top of their game.
I was reading (it might have been the NY Times article) at how quickly all the athletes, especially Lance, picked up their roles so quickly and expertly. The technical advisors (mostly athletes in that sport) were very impressed.
And in answer to Snepper - yes, Nike was involved in auto racing. We made pit shoes for the drivers and their crew for Schumacher and a few others. I don’t know how involved we are now, but we did do more a few years back. It was something you would have pretty much only noticed if you were a NASCAR fan.
If you are into Golf or like Tiger, check out the new “Frank” commercials on nikegolf.com. “Frank” is Tigers talking headcover. Some very funny commercials. You can see two new ones as well as go to some of the archived ones on the site. Tiger has a very good camera presence, but Frank steals the show. I heard that Tiger is reprising the Carl Spagler (Spangler?) role (Bill Murray in Caddyshack) for an AMEX commercial. It is supposed to air this weekend during the Academy awards.
Dennis
I stand corrected about sponsorships but those guys weren’t in the ad. Nike is smart to make those racing shoes and get a piece of NASCAR, a very endorsement based sport with a huge fan base, long season and great TV coverage. Schumacher and IRL/CART on the other hand live in the shadow of NASCAR and are on tough times…so I doubt there is much to that endorsement relationship. Thanks for pointing that out.
You can see the commercial at nike.com
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IMO, Nike commericals really took of with Spike Lee as Mars Blackman and the whole “Bo Knows” stuff. The Bo knows commericals were the best. “Bo, you don’t know diddly”.
Coincidently the best Nike commercials are the ones that show everyday people doing the same sports as the pros … only they’re doing it solely out of love.
No, Schumacher and F1 are certainly not in the shadow of NASCAR, and they’re not in tough times. It’s the other way around if one considers the fan base in every part of the world except the US. (It’s kinda like “soccer.”) Nike knows its got an international following (especially with all the foreign drivers in CART and the IRL) so it makes perfect sense to sponsor drivers/teams and place a one in an ad.
That said, Lance as a boxer is genius.
Not only is the commercial a great representation to say that top athletes in any sport have the mindset that they could compete in other sports…
…but it’s the first time I’ve ever seen a cyclist throw, what appears to be, a solid punch! (not the usual sissy flailing arm roundhouses thrown while off balance from wearing their cycling shoes 
Denis,
Obviously we are going to get the thumbs-up from you!!
Seriously though, whatever anyone says about Nike, it’s an organization that has always pushed the envelope on the technical front from a product perspective and on the advertising front with cutting edge ads in all media. My fav of all time was the “there is no finish line” slogan/campaign - the print ads were truley gorgeous, very inspirational but most of all really got to the meat of the matter what gets me and I am sure many others out the door every day!
Fleck
Sweet clip. Urlacher and Vick would have looked much better in Wings unis though…
ken
that is a great ad, Lance doesnt seem so skinny there. as i was watching it, i was thinking, i wouldnt mess with him on or off the bike! I just wish Lance’s extreme popularity would carry over and encourage growth in American cycling so it could be to the level of european cycling (or at least close) within a decade. 
But CART is bankrupt, right? Thus the tough times comment. I guess internationally things are as good as ever.
Um, I’m not sure, but I doubt that’s his real body. All the other sequences were doctored, that one looks like it may have been too.
Lance?..a boxer?..Now way.
-It’s not how fast you are, it’s how fast you look
How can I save this?
Does anyone else think it’s weird that the ref has his hand in Lance’s pants?
CART is bankrupt but SChumacher doesn’t race in CART. He races in F1. That is like trying to say that an ITU athlete isn’t popular because Ironman ratings have fallen. Within the racing world they are two very different sports.