Nike was quick off the mark when it came to celebrate Kevin Durant’s NBA Finals triumph immediately after his Golden State Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers to win the 2017 title.
The brand had bought the first ad break spot after the final buzzer sounded and used it to air a new commercial, called #Debate This’, which mocks Durant’s critics and the accusations thrown at him in recent years.
The 60-second spot opens with a circular desk of sports commentators and hoops experts shouting damning criticism about Durant career: calling the player ‘weak’, ‘soft’, arguing that he ‘can’t defend’ and repeating the tidal wave of insults hurled his way when he signed with the Warriors last year with words such as ‘traitor’ and ‘gravy train’.
Yet this critical cacophony comes to a sudden end as Durant’s Warrior win the title, his critics fall silent and the ad ends with the title copy line ‘Debate This’.
The message is simple: critics may well have talked down Durant through his entire career, but no argument that can change this fact that he is now a world champion.
The spot, which was created by W&K Portland and directed by Tim Godsall at Anonymous Content, the TV commercial was promoted from 12 June across Nike’s digital platforms and social channels linked by the #DebateThis hashtag: including YouTube, Twitter
Debate This. @KDTrey5 is now a world champion. #NikeBasketball pic.twitter.com/ZCb7PwHGcM
— Nike (@Nike) June 13, 2017
Facebook,
and Instagram.
Activative Comment:
As ever, Nike was pre-prepared to leverage passion around the end of a sports event by debuting a commercial in the first ad spot immediately after the final buzzer sounded.
As ever, Nike’s spot aims to blend style with a little edge to generate engagement and conversation.
And debate this they: in its first 48 hours, the spot generated 2.8m YouTube views, 1.2m Instagram views, 1.1m Facebook views, plus 53k Twitter likes.
The campaign also generated some creative consumer social media content responses too.
— Ladd (@PRPLXDD) June 13, 2017
Meanwhile, rival Under Armour simultaneously launched its own video saluting Golden State’s other hoops superstar Steph Curry.
Albeit in a less high profile media spot (primarily online), Under Armour’s film congratulating its top baller endorser on helping bring back the NBA title to the Bay Area notched up 1.4m Facebook views in the same time period.
Links:
Nike
https://www.youtube.com/user/nikebasketball
https://www.youtube.com/user/nike
https://www.instagram.com/nikebasketball/
https://www.facebook.com/nikebasketball?_rdr=p
https://twitter.com/nikebasketball
https://plus.google.com/u/1/107776789471487751521/about
W&K Portland
http://www.wk.com/work/from/portland
