A new Nike ad (watch above) has captured worldwide attention for its message during this trying time. The campaign, dubbed “You Can’t Stop Us” debuted during the first NBA game in the so-called bubble Thursday night. Since then the video, narrated by soccer star Megan Rapinoe, has been viewed almost 10 million times. USA Today writes that it “explores issues of race, gender and equality.”
The ad contains a split screen that blends movement from 36 different pairings of athletes, including Colin Kaepernick, LeBron James, Naomi Osaka, Cristiano Ronaldo, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Serena Williams and Rapinoe.
The ad intends to draw common links between athletes of various ethnic backgrounds and genders and focuses on the return of sports amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to the social messages, the ad is also being applauded for the way it was edited together. Writer Tim Nudd from The advertising blog Muse by Clio calls it an “editing marvel, and maybe the best Covid spot yet.”
“The visual effects team… researched 4,000 sports action sequences and chose 72 of them to combine into 36 split-screen moments, where the action on both sides appears to meld into one.”
can we talk about the editing in this Nike commercial holy crap pic.twitter.com/VuWj6u5PaW
— Spencer Althouse (@SpencerAlthouse) July 30, 2020
The TV ad is part of a bigger campaign from the athletic brand.
#YouCantStopUs pic.twitter.com/nRTBL4Q3LC
— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) July 31, 2020