There are a million reasons for participating in sports; and in Nike’s latest "Why Sport?" campaign, the possibility of running into a gladiator is one of them. After all, it could happen.
In the :30 "Gladiator," a skateboard kid comes soaring down a staircase and onto a city sidewalk, where he suddenly finds himself face to face with a gladiator. The imposing character, brandishing a shield and a sword, makes a violent lunge for the skateboarder. The two struggle, but the boarder escapes unharmed down the sidewalk. A Bugs Bunny-like chase ensues, appropriately backed by a Looney Tunes track. The gladiator puts up a good fight, but misses his prey, who skillfully skates over car hoods and through pedestrian traffic to safety. In the end, the supered message asks, "Why Sport?," then answers its own question: "Because you might run into a Gladiator." As a final indication that this cat-and-mouse chase isn’t over, the menacing gladiator peeks his head around the corner, as if to say, "I’m still looking for ya, kid."
"Why Sport?" How about, "Why a gladiator?" Hal Curtis—creative director/art director at Wieden+Kennedy (W+K), Portland, Ore.—answered that question. "It’s supposed to be a cartoon, and there’s something interesting about the most outlandish adversary you could possibly imagine coming after your ass when you’re just going about your business," he explained.
However bizarre the match-up might seem, W+K wanted to make the point that sport can make a difference in your life. Two other spots in the campaign —"Horror," directed by Phil Joanou of Villains, bicoastal and Chicago, and "Elephant," helmed by Dante Ariola of bicoastal/international Propaganda—while incredibly different, follow this same theme. "Horror" features a chainsaw-wielding maniac pursuing Olympic sprinter Suzy Hamilton, but unable to keep up with her rapid pace—proving that sport will help you live longer. (NBC pulled this spot from the Olympics after viewer complaints; "Horror" continues to run on other outlets.) "Elephant" centers on circus players trying to revive an infirm pachyderm. Along comes Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, who breathes life back into the animal. Why Sport? Better lungs.
To execute "Gladiator," bicoastal/international @radical.media director Tarsem was brought into the project. "All they said to me was that they thought it’d be really cool to have a gladiator in the middle of the street; and I said, ‘OK, great,’ " Tarsem recalled.
From there the idea evolved, including hiring Scottish skateboarder Neil Urwin to play the part of the gladiator’s adversary. But much of what is seen in the spot resulted from decisions made just hours before—or on the day of—the shoot. "The Nike guys are great, because they trust you so much that there are no storyboards. I’m just going on instinct," Tarsem enthused.
Originally, the idea was to have the skateboarder do all kinds of tricks in front of the gladiator, while the strongman tried to kill him. But Tarsem questioned this premise. "I don’t know much about skateboarding, but I know that to do those moves you have to be going at a particular speed," Tarsem related.
From that point on, the entire dynamic of the commercial changed from static to high-action movement. Tarsem’s DP Brendan Galvin tracked down a high-speed rollerblader in France, thinking he might help out in some way with the filming.
"The rollerblader had no experience with a camera, but I took one look at him and said, ‘Give the camera to this kid and let him chase [Urwin] around,’ " Tarsem remembered.
Nervous about the violent nature of the concept, the agency lightened the mood by setting the commercial to a cartoon track commonly heard in Looney Tunes episodes. Composer Jim Bredouw of Fun House Creative Services, East Sound, Wash., arranged the piece and conducted a 58-piece orchestra to play it.
Inclement weather gave the production much to contend with. "Either it was sunny and the pavement was dry, or it’d be overcast and the pavement was wet, so we had a lot of continuity issues," related Curtis.
To make all of the shots look consistent, colorist Stefan Sonnenfeld of Company 3, Santa Monica, gave the film a greenish tint. Additionally, all the blue in the sky was stripped out to eliminate any discrepancies in hue. "Bad weather stopped bothering me about nine years ago," Tarsem stated. "There was no control over anything we were shooting, so we decided to just make it look funky."
W+K is set to break an additional three spots in the "Why Sport?" campaign in the coming weeks.
