Production company Tight Shirt Production Films has launched a new campaign for Under Armour, entitled “Book of Will,” an effort the brand claims is its largest advertising push to date.
NOTE: AOR Droga5 played no role in this campaign.
The campaign, which launches with a couple of ads featuring actor Jamie Foxx, really is an ambitious effort. In “Charged By Belief,” Foxx quotes William Shakespeare‘s famous “All the world’s a stage” line from As You Like It before saying “But Mr. Shakespeare never met Stephen Curry.” Propelled by a mix of in-game and on-set footage of Stephen Curry (who Adweek recently declared “the NBA’s New Marketing Megastar”) and a solid soundtrack in Run The Jewels’ “Close Your Eyes,” Foxx champions Curry’s rise from unheralded high school player to NBA phenom, saying, “You’ve got to find the person with the new story to tell.” The spot introduces Under Armour’s Curry One sneaker, as well as the “Book of Will” campaign and its larger-than-life approach.
Another spot, “Erase All Doubt” seeks to inspire by re-imagining a quote from Aristotle. Foxx waxes philosophical about what it takes to achieve excellence and persevere through hard times, concluding that “The excellent ones just step up to the line and ask, ‘What’s the record?'”
Droga5 made waves with its advertising for Under Armour in 2014, winning praise for its “I Will What I Want” campaign, which featured some unexpected celebrity endorsement choices such as Misty Copeland and Gisele Bündchen. But “Book of Will” ushers in a new era for the rapidly growing brand, and while the choice of Stephen Curry in “Charged By Belief” is a nod to the brand’s past, Under Armour and Tight Shirt seem to be looking toward an ambitious future with the new campaign.
While Jamie Foxx is a newcomer to Under Armour’s advertising efforts, he’s no stranger to the brand. Foxx wore Under Armour uniforms in the 1999 Oliver Stone football flick Any Given Sunday, which Under Armour Senior VP, Creative Steve Battista described as “…so pivotal to our growth.” Foxx doesn’t only appear in the ads, but, according to Battista, had an important role in the creative process, helping to write the ads as a “creative partner.”
“We’ve never had a non-athlete in one of our campaigns to such an extent,” Battista told AdAge. “But it felt like this just wasn’t hiring a face. [Mr. Foxx is] a friend of the brand who was also coming on as a creative partner.”