ADIDAS | VERTICAL FOOTBALL | 2004
They played soccer on the wall of a building / ADIDAS "VERTICAL FOOTBALL"
They hung people on the wall of a building and had them play soccer. That alone is enough. Just imagining the faces of the people looking up, I can't stop grinning.
The problem
In 2004, Adidas was running its "Impossible is Nothing" campaign all over the world. But outdoor ads in Tokyo have to compete with the most cluttered streets on earth. Just putting up a billboard would get lost in the noise.
The insight
Creator Akinori Otani has said he was aiming to make "an ad that gets photographed." Even back in the era when flip phones ruled, he was already designing for a world where "everyone takes a photo and shows it to someone." He wasn't just trying to surprise people and stop there—he built in, from the very start, a mechanism that would make surprised people want to spread the word themselves.
The idea
On a building in Tokyo, a giant billboard was set up at the height of the 12th floor. In front of it, two soccer players were suspended by bungee cords and actually kicked a ball back and forth. One of them was reportedly a 43-year-old window washer. The session lasted 20 minutes, with both players floating in midair. The sight of people playing soccer on a vertical wall was, quite literally, "Impossible is Nothing."
What happened
It won two Gold Lions at Cannes Lions, plus the Grand Prix. Media around the world picked it up, exactly as intended, grabbing free TV coverage. Otani has looked back on this as his "biggest turning point," saying that "winning at Cannes changes your world."
Afterthought
Honestly, it looks terrifying. But whether you can actually pull off that terrifying idea is what separates the ads that make history from the ones that don't. In 2004, before smartphones or social media even existed, I have to tip my hat to TBWA\Japan for already seeing clearly how this would be photographed and spread.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2004
