Did Nike write their futures?
World Cup Open Blog — By Adam Higgitt on July 4, 2010 10:35 pmQ: WHAT unites Fabio Cannavaro, Wayne Rooney, Franck Ribéry, Didier Drogba and Cristiano Ronaldo, apart from disappointing their legions of fans in South Africa?
A: All starred in Nike’s epic Write The Future television and internet advertistment for the World Cup.
It may have been a hugely successful piece of promotion, apparently setting a new viral record, but the fate of its many stars prompts the question of whether award-winning director Alejandro Inarritu’s three minute masterpiece hexed its multi-millionnaire subjects.
Cannavaro’s Italy and Ribéry’s France were humiliatingly eliminated in their respective group stages, while Rooney’s England and Ronaldo’s Portugal went out to their arch-rivals and far sooner than either’s fans expected. In fact, of the advert’s main stars, only Didier Drogba’s Ivory Coast can be said to have not fallen well short of expectations, but even here Sven’s men must have fancied their chances of sneaking through to the knockout stages.
Still not convinced? Then consider the fortunes of those with cameo appearances:
Theo Walcott: Controversially not selected for his squad
Ronaldinho: Ditto
Roger Federer: Spent today watching instead of playing in the Wimbledon’s Men’s Final for the first time since 2002
Kobe Bryant (the Basketball player): suffered a seriously injured finger that has curtailed his season and may permanently affect his shooting ability.
Thiago Silva: Spent the tournament on the bench.
No cosmic conspiracy theory is watertight, of course. The American players featured had rather a good World Cup (although you could argue that goalie Tim Howard should have saved the goal that dunked the USA out) while Luis Fabiano slotted three goals for Brazil.
But that aside, the only featured players left in the tournament are those of Spain, who hardly sparkled in their narrow and scrappy defeat of Paraguay. And with Spain’s next opponents the rampant Germans, is anyone putting money on a single Nike star making it to Soccer City on Sunday?
+++ Update: Ok, they did. Time for a new theory than somehow links Nike to Spain only? +++
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4 Comments
It’s called the Nike curse.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow did a great 4:30 segment Thursday evening: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/
The curse has affected stars around the globe.
(Note Brazil was mentioned as being still in? Knocked out by Holland. And Spain v Germany? Long odds against the the Spaniards surviving.)
The Nike Curse is real! Just ask this Red Sox fan who waited 86 years for a baseball championship in 2003, a year after my father died, not having seen one in his lifetime.
It’s the fourth video on the left side slide bar.
I can hear the Gillette brand managers now, with their Paul Hogan-esque : “Call that a curse?”
Hmmm, been thinking about this – wondered whetehr there was an Adidas conspiracy, what with the Jambalaya and everything. (awful ball, used it a few times now, high bounce, erratic flight and in no way suited to low quality parks football pitches). That said, it does absolutely fly if you adjust your technique (see Forlan, Elano, Suarez, Podolski shooting and dead ball).
I’ve decided there’s no conspiracy.
The Nike brigade were clearly lulled into believing that one-off moments of technical excellence would bring their teams victory on the pitch. Rooney presumably left the filiming wondering why no other England players had ‘made the grade’. Ribery must have fumed when he realised only he, among his French colleagues, was good enough to do a trick-flick for Nike. Walcott presumably stopped bothering in England training, assuming his Nike selection predetermined Capello’s.
Then in South Africa, the rot set in. Rooney clearly spent four matches trying to find enough room to do something fit for a Nike advert, forgetting even to maintain basic competence on the pitch in his quest for a 30-yard screamer, or any movement that would look impressive on HD slow-mo (spitting/grimacing/falling).
Diego Forlan meanwhile (my player of tournament so far, w/ Mueller, Sneijder, Suarez, Pique) used the time he wasn’t in make up for an advert to practice with the new ball. Hence he scored great goals and consistently found quality from direct and indirect set pieces. Other teams just concentrated on playing football (Chile, Japan, Paraguay) in the style of 11 men connected by string, rather than 11 boys torn apart by boot sponsorships.
In summary, Nike’s advert positioned a group of footballers as a group of individuals pursuing moments of individual excellence such that they might ‘write the(ir) future’ and become a statue, knight of the realm or president.
The World Cup challenges groups of individuals to work effectively in teams, which tends to create opportunities for moments of technical brilliance. Van Bronkhorst’s goal – Honda’s turn and finish – Germany’s 3rd and 4th goals x2 and David Villa’s strikes – all were born of the team and I suggest none of the scorer’s will demand a knighthood, or a giant gold statue.