Nike | The Switch | 2016
An Ad Strong Enough to Carry You Through, Even When You Know the Twist / Nike "The Switch"
Cristiano Ronaldo collides with a ball boy and they swap bodies. Spoiler: that's the whole story. And yet for almost six minutes, you can't look away. It's the kind of ad that makes you think, "So this is how far you can go if you really commit."
The problem
Nike had already built a run of big star-studded ads ahead of major tournaments: "Next Level" for Euro 2008, "Write the Future" for the 2010 World Cup, and "Winner Stays" in 2014. "The Switch" continued that series, built around the theme "Spark Brilliance." It set out to show how one person's brilliance can lift an entire team.
The insight
Creative directors Stuart Brown and Chris Groom wanted to tell a story about how, with the right mindset, anyone can go far. So they put an ordinary boy's heart inside Ronaldo's body, and Ronaldo's heart inside the boy's body. The idea wasn't to create pure fantasy, but something more like "fiction that gets you fired up."
The idea
During a match, Ronaldo collides with a ball boy, and the next morning they wake up having switched bodies. That's the entire premise. 16 pro players, including Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling, made cameo appearances. The director was Ringan Ledwidge, who also made "Winner Stays," and the cinematographer was Matthew Libatique, known for Black Swan. Ronaldo's double-take reaction, and the boy's awkward attempt at being Ronaldo, both feel like performances you'll never see repeated.
What happened
It was the largest brand shoot of Ronaldo's career, filmed entirely in Spain over five days. Ronaldo did his own stunt for the opening collision scene, which was completed in three takes. The ad became the most shared ad of Euro 2016, racking up 335,618 shares.
Afterthought
On paper, the structure is so simple it's almost surprising anyone approved it. But watch the whole thing, and it wins you over purely through the strength of its craft. Even knowing the body-swap twist going in, it has enough power to carry you all the way through. Let's go.
