
Sit back in your chair. Close your eyes. Imagine the theme music from the movie The Last of the Mohicans welling up inside your head. Picture Daniel Day-Lewis running through the woods and over the mountaintop to save Madeline Stowe from certain death. Now, open your eyes and watch this new commercial (YouTube or higher quality on the U.S. Nike site) from Nike called Never Quit directed by Michael Man. It’s transfixing. It’s intense. It puts you in the game. It makes your blood rush. It sends chills through your spine. It proves there’s more than money in the game of American football.
Now, turn the sound off and watch it again. Pretty lame, right? Music is masterful, even more so than video sometimes, at conveying and amping up a message. Of course, we’re partial to this sort of emotional manipulation but, then again, isn’t that what advertising’s about? Thanks, Bill for calling this to our attention.