Eyebrows were raised earlier this year when Nike awarded a piece of its business to CP+B. After all, Nike’s top of mind presence can be traced directly to the decades of outstanding work from Wieden + Kennedy. I guess, loyalty doesn’t mean much when you have shoes to sell.
According to The Wall Street Journal, CP+B hoped to break away from all that history.
“We didn’t want it to feel like a Nike commercial in the beginning. We wanted the consumer to say: ‘What is this?'” says Alex Bogusky, a chief creative officer at Crispin Porter.
The commercials will air on ABC Family, MTV, ESPN and Comedy Central, among other channels. Print ads are set to run in specialty magazines including Runner’s World and Shape.
I have a lot of respect for Crispin, but I don’t see a breakthrough idea at work in the spot above. Instead, I see them leaning on high production values to carry the day. So, the spot is not only un-Wieden, it’s un-Crispin.
