To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Nike Air Force shoe, the company introduced Nike Air Force 25, which it is promoting with a multimedia campaign that includes a long form animated :45 video from R/GA/New York and Stardust Studios, a bicoastal design-animation studio.
“25 Years of Force” provides an alluring history of modern basketball featuring shots of Charles Barkley and other NBA stars taken from product photography from the past, with narration by hip-hop star Rakim.
“The piece brings the user into the Barkley era, the Sheed era and up through the current face of the game, Amare Stoudamire,” said Joseph Cartman, R/GA’s associate creative director. “It lands users into an interactive time line, where they can explore each individual Force player through rare coach/player interviews, player commentaries and on-screen photography.”
Justin Blyth, Stardust’s art director, said “Nike gave us old print ads from the ’80s and we placed the cut-outs in a 3D environment to animate the neon shapes. We didn’t have footage and had to bring it to life from the stills. All camera moves were done in 3D programs exported with camera data into After Effects.”
In one scene, a poster of Charles Barkley had a picture of smoke, “so we cut it out and put live action smoke behind him,” Blyth said. “It brings it to life without altering the ad at all.”
As the video segues from the ’90s to the current era there is a transition of three sections of hardwood floor that slide out to reveal a new floor with players on it. “We used still photos of players from the modern era and placed them in different positions of the 3D environment and added large blocks of 3D type,” Blyth said. “We also added lighting from the sky to bring it home and make it rugged.”
The spot combines colorful animation and graphic action shots of basketball super stars with a hip-hop beat. The Nike Force campaign began in December and will continue through this summer, Cartman said. The video plays exclusively at Nikebasketball.com.
Supreme Court Allows Multibillion-Dollar Class Action Lawsuit To Proceed Against Meta
The Supreme Court is allowing a multibillion-dollar class action investors' lawsuit to proceed against Facebook parent Meta, stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm.
The justices heard arguments in November in Meta's bid to shut down the lawsuit. On Friday, they decided that they were wrong to take up the case in the first place.
The high court dismissed the company's appeal, leaving in place an appellate ruling allowing the case to go forward.
Investors allege that Meta did not fully disclose the risks that Facebook users' personal information would be misused by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump 's first successful Republican presidential campaign in 2016.
Inadequacy of the disclosures led to two significant price drops in the price of the company's shares in 2018, after the public learned about the extent of the privacy scandal, the investors say.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the company was disappointed by the court's action. "The plaintiff's claims are baseless and we will continue to defend ourselves as this case is considered by the District Court," Stone said in an emailed statement.
Meta already has paid a $5.1 billion fine and reached a $725 million privacy settlement with users.
Cambridge Analytica had ties to Trump political strategist Steve Bannon. It had paid a Facebook app developer for access to the personal information of about 87 million Facebook users. That data was then used to target U.S. voters during the 2016 campaign.
The lawsuit is one of two high court cases involving class-action lawsuits against tech companies. The justices also are wrestling with whether to shut down a class action against Nvidia.... Read More