Nothing Beats A Londoner, eh Nike?
A case of good creative, bad timing
Nike’s new spot ‘Nothing Beats A Londoner’, courtesy of long-standing agency Wieden & Kennedy, has been exalted by many, including the Mayor of London no less. Nike have a history of fantastic adverts that often combine humour and endeavour, as this does, so the clamour is unsurprising. Yet, for all its adulation, something feels off.
For one, the sports manufacturer seems to have misjudged the composition of its talent; although the capital has produced many great athletes, many more of England’s* best hail from elsewhere. Indeed, a cursory sift through the national soccer team — itself a Nike endorsed property — would reveal an array of accents from across the land. Furthermore, the traditionally zeitgeist Nike have arguably misinterpreted a mood within England (all too clearly reference by ‘Brexit’), namely that many people feel like London has too much attention, often to the detriment of other towns and cities.
This is not to detract from the quality of the piece (which is good, although not a patch on this, this, or this), instead, it is a suggestion that unless this is part of a wider campaign that will tour the United Kingdom (#NothingBeatsManchester, for example), it feels like a cultural miss.
*Note: ‘England’ is in reference to the fact that most of the narrators in the advert appear to be English. There is no doubt that Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland also have an abundance of talent.
