Glory or Ruin? One Moment Changes the Future / Nike "Write The Future"

The problem

Released on May 20, 2010. The timing was carefully chosen: two days before the Champions League final and three weeks before the World Cup kicked off. The biggest stars of the moment, Drogba, Cannavaro, Rooney, Ribéry, Ronaldinho, and Ronaldo, all appear, each acting out their own fate.

The insight

At the core is the idea that a single play on the pitch can spill out far beyond the game of football itself. The instant Rooney loses the ball to Ribéry, riots break out and stock prices crash, and by the end he's fallen all the way down to working as a janitor at a small club. Ronaldo, on the other hand, scores and ends up with a stadium named after him and a statue built in his honor. By pushing these outcomes to such extremes, the ad shows just how frightening the sport of football itself can be.

The idea

The director was Alejandro González Iñárritu, produced by Wieden+Kennedy. Co-creative director Mark Bernath said, "The players' futures are hypothetical, but we wanted them to feel as real as possible." The music is "Hocus Pocus" by Focus. The Mill spent five weeks finishing the effects, including the table tennis scene between Rooney and Federer and the fully CG Ronaldo stadium.

What happened

The film got 7.8 million views in its first week and eventually passed 50 million. Nike's fan base grew 336% during the tournament, making it the most shared brand of the year. At Cannes it won several awards, including the Film Grand Prix. Ironically, every player who appeared in the film went on to have a poor World Cup, and people called it a "curse."

Afterthought

It's ironic that even the players' poor results ended up proving how dramatic this ad really was. Only Nike, a brand that has always signed players with a bit of a wild, unruly edge, could have made a film that so perfectly mirrors the brand itself.

Awards

• Cannes Lions Grand Prix

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