To celebrate Gatorade’s 50th anniversary, TBWA/Chiat/Day is celebrating the brand’s most iconic campaign, “Be Like Mike.”
A series of three new broadcast spots pay homage to the 90s classic, utilizing footage from the original or paying homage to it, while also resurfacing the “Be Like Mike” tagline (okay, it gets the hashtag treatment this time around) and song, which gets the remix treatment from Animal Music with a different version for each ad. In the 90-second spot, “Move Like Mike” (featured above), two young athletes train while watching footage of the classic commercial and listening to the song, recreating certain shots along the way, showing how even today athletes are inspired to “Be Like Mike.” At one point, the rim is raised to a level marked as “Like Mike” as a challenge designed to push the duo to new limits.
The campaign also includes two 60-second spots, “Groove Like Mike” and “Dream Like Mike.” In “Groove Like MIke,” TBWA/Chiat/Day echos the feeling of the original ad, with animation. Scenes from the original are recreated with the retro-feeling animated style, ending with the animated Jordan turning into footage from the original. “Dream Like Mike” pictures a young basketball player practicing in his yard and imitating Jordan. Over the course of the spot, he is inserted, in place of Jordan, into footage from the original spot, with Jordan lifted from the ad to appear in the new footage — a clever way to show how his routine is fueled by dreams of being like Michael Jordan.
The campaign has already proved to be tremendously popular online, racking up over 7 million views combined since being uploaded to YouTube. With the growing trend of nineties nostalgia, it’s easy to see why, but beyond its obvious appeal it really is the ultimate anniversary celebration for the brand.
Credits:
Advertising Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles, USA
Creative Director: Renato Fernandez
Art Director: Pierce Thiot
Copywriter: Scott Cleveland
Producer: Garrison Askew
Music Production Company: Animal Music