When we think of the word “creativity,” professional athletes are not the first people who come to mind unless, perhaps, they double as pop stars, fashion designers or memoirists.
Success in sports is all about a winning combination of inborn talent, practice and self-discipline, right? Probably. But maybe there’s also something of an art to it. 72andSunny’s newest spot for Adidas argues that any authentic athlete also needs a bit of that wild style.
This kind of makes sense given that every athlete is now also a “brand,” Even Marshawn “I Don’t Give a Shit” Lynch.
So this is a dig at Under Armour, which is somehow perceived to be all about training and becoming the world’s greatest at some given task like Michael Phelps or Tom Brady.
The spot features a bunch of athletes we don’t necessarily recognize who are famous for being famous in addition to being good at the thing they get paid to do. The last lines ask, “If you call yourself an athlete, create something. Why are you even here?” That would be beyond, you know, playing an organized game to the best of your ability with the ultimate goal of defeating your opponents and justifying your ridiculously inflated salary.
Lots of athletes want to be noticed, though. It’s a little hard to stand out when everybody does a fancy dance in the end zone. As the not-hero of that classic consumerist propaganda film The Incredibles put it: “When everyone’s super … no one is.”
Cue maniacal laughter.