Did It Again -Nike

Finally, Nike has done it! With its latest ad exploding on television screens in India, the world's top sports shoe company has done something it has never done before -- a commercial on cricket.The ordinariness of its characters, giving it the everyday familiarity that connects with the audience far greater than ads with star cricketers would.Its one gr8 ad that i have come though in the recent times and may well be for many ad awards.
The concept of this ad was based on " Gutsy Cricket".
This what Agnello Dias the Senior Vice President and Executive Creative Director, J Walter Thompson had to say-"We wanted to show how cricket is played on the streets in India. These players are as tough, mean and hard (as international cricketers). On our streets in India, cricket is played in the toughest, meanest and best way. It also shows a microcosm of India,"

How it began: The JWT servicing and planning team in Bangalore led by Dhunji Wadia and Rajesh Gangwani got the 'Gutsy Cricket' concept approved by Nike headquarters in Portland, Oregon, USA. "I am indebted to them for the best brief ever," says Dias, who took it further from there and wrote the script in text form -- the most detailed script he says he has ever written. 'Balcony, ball dena,' the statue of a Parsi gent with a raised finger, the man looking into a mirror and clipping his nostril hair -- all was written and fleshed out in text.
Featuring a Konkani song in the ad was Dias' idea. He shared the idea with ad filmmaker Abhinay Deo and made him hear Konkani music on his car stereo while eating vada pao in Kalbadevi, south Mumbai. Dias wrote the lyrics and the song is loosely based on an old Goan song.
"Nike says it is amongst their best Nike commercials of all time. In dealer conferences in the US, they are showing this ad at the beginning and at the end. It may later be shown in the UK and elsewhere also," says Dias.

Time taken to write the script: Half hour.

Time to shoot: One month.

Time taken to compose the track: The initial composition took around two days. The final track was finished in 2 hours.

Lyrics (Translated from Konkani):
'Wait, partner, waitFirst let me playIf you don't play, I'll keep chasing you all day Our game is like this onlyWhere we have no time to thinkIt is the game of cat and mouseThat I have begun to loveAnd in the falling running breakingMy destiny is entwined'

WELL I LOVE THIS AD FOR ITS SIMPLICITY YET BRINGING OUT THE KIND OF PASSION INDIANS HAVE FOR CRICKET.

Cheers Nike and JWT

Facts from Rediff.com