Nike Ad Induces World Cup Fever Without Mentioning the Tourney Once

Nike released a new World Cup ad on Friday, and predictably enough, it's freaking excellent.

Let's take a deeper dive.

Starring Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr., Wayne Rooney, Andres Iniesta and other soccer demigods, the four-minute "Winner Stays" spot (above) also features cameos from folks you wouldn't expect — the Incredible Hulk, for instance.

The overall premise, meanwhile, is simple and effective: A bunch of kids play a pickup soccer game while imagining themselves as the game's biggest stars. Then — lo and behold! — through some glitch in the space-time continuum, they get to actually play (or at least think they're playing) as incarnations of those stars.

But here's something the ad's missing: any reference to the actual World Cup.

Similar to the first installment in its "Risk Everything" campaign, Nike avoids mentioning the World Cup. The company did the same thing in its iconic spot "Write the Future," which was released just ahead of the 2010 World Cup.

Why would it purposely omit referencing the biggest sporting event known to mankind? For one thing, the World Cup is sponsored by Adidas, Nike's chief rival.

For another thing, new "Winner Stays" ad isn't strictly World Cup-related. It features some players in their professional club jerseys — not just national team ones — which they won't be wearing during the World Cup. The ad also includes Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a soccer megastar whose Sweden team didn't make the World Cup. But with the 2014 World Cup just weeks away, it's not a stretch to call this a World Cup ad.

The "Write the Future" spot from 2010 is still the standard-bearer for sports advertising, as far as we're concerned. The ad, below, looked more like a surrealist film than standard ad, imaging soccers stars experiencing alternately marvelous and extremely depressing futures, depending on their performances in the (implied) World Cup.

But wait! As @mateusbrinati pointed out on Twitter on Friday, Nike's "Winner Stays" spot does bear a certain resemblance to an Adidas ad that ran ahead of the 2006 World Cup.

The ad, "Jose + 10," features a young boy playing pickup soccer, but with a twist — he's joined by many of the world's best players. Check it out for yourself:

Fans have been imagining themselves as world-class athletes since the dawn of mass media, so we're not hating, but rather noting the similarities.

Of course, we'd be remiss to mention this subject without referencing Dave Chappelle's classic skit that showed a world in which fans impersonated their favorite athletes off the playing surface, too. So, you know, doing things like choking their bosses and getting caught smoking weed. Sadly, this vertical video seems to be the only recording we could find on YouTube.

Sometimes, sports fans, there is no justice in this cruel, cruel world.


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