HBO’s Vinyl has already proven that one man can’t carry a franchise, even if he happens to be a charismatic actor who was good in that boring retro gangster show that lasted three seasons longer than it should have.
But Bobby Cannavale was a nice choice for this new Wieden+Kennedy Nike ad, which aired last night and already has about 8 million YouTube hits.
In “Unlimited Future,” Cannavale speaks to some of Nike’s (and the world’s) best-known athletes as babies, giving them a very unconventional pep talk.
That ad reminded us of a few things that we sort of knew: Mo Farah was separated from his family; Serena Williams and her sister grew up in Compton; top Chinese NBA draft prospect Zhou Qi is “mysterious“; Neymar Jr. did not choose to be a Jr. Also, LeBron went to Cleveland and Nike made an ad about it after he won.
Even though you can’t determine your parents, your place of birth, your social class or any number of other variables that will ultimately have a significant impact on your life, you CAN control whether you decide to work your ass off from the moment you first become self-aware enough to start considering it. And a Nike contract can be the ultimate product of all that work for an athlete who isn’t yet a household name.
“The road to greatness is a long one, made up of staunch determination, inevitable struggles and hard-won triumphs,” the release tells us.
It’s part of a pre-Olympic series profiling Nike contract athletes that provides a pretty good twist on the common millionaires as underdogs narrative, and it allows for a lot of winking references to famous names without crowding any of those familiar people onto the screen.
To get serious for a moment, though: the Rio games are gonna be a big mess, right?
Credits
CLIENT: Nike
PROJECT NAME: Unlimited Future
W+K PORTLAND
Global Creative Directors: Alberto Ponte, Ryan O’Rourke
Interactive Director: Dan Viens
Executive Producer: Matt Hunnicutt
Copywriter: Josh Bogdan
Art Director: Pedro Izique
Agency Producer: Erin Goodsell
Digital Producer: Patrick Marzullo, Keith Rice
Strategic Planning: Andy Lindblade, Nathan Goldberg, Reid Schilperoort
Media/Comms Planning: Danny Sheniak, John Furnari, Brian Goldstein, Jocelyn Reist
Account Team: Chris Willingham, Alyssa Ramsey, Corey Woodson, Anna Boteva, Carly Williamson
PRODUCTION
Production Company: Superprime
Director: Damien Chazelle
Executive Producer: Rebecca Skinner
Head of Production: Roger Zorovich
Line Producer: William Green
Director of Photography: Rodrigo Prieto
Production Designer: Melanie Jones
Casting: Dan Bell Casting
EDITORIAL
Editorial Company: Exile
Editor: Eric Zumbrunnen
Assistant Editor: Dusten Zimmerman
Post Producer: Brittany Carson
Executive Post Producer: Carol Lynn Weaver
Head of Production: Jennifer Locke
VFX
VFX Company: The Mill
2D Lead Artist: Adam Lambert
2D Artists: Joy Tiernan, Jason Bergman
Matte Painting: Rasha Shalaby
VFX Producer: Alex Bader
VFX Coordinator: Samantha Hernandez
Executive VFX Producer: Enca Kaul
Shoot Supervisor: Phil Crowe, Tim Rudgard
Color
Company: The Mill
Colorist: Adam Scott
Executive Producer: Thatcher Peterson
Color Producer: Diane Valera
ORIGINAL MUSIC
Music Company: Beacon Street Studios
Composer: John Nau
Executive Producer: Adrea Lavezzoli
Music Company: Walker
Composer: Frédéric Chopin
Track Name: XBereceuse, Op. 57
Arranger: McKenzie Stubbert
Executive Producer: Sara Matarazzo
Senior Producer: Abbey Hickman
Music Coordinators: Jacob Piontek, Marissa Hernandez
LICENSED MUSIC
Artist: Santigold
Track Name: “Kicking Down Doors”
Music Supervision: Walker
SOUND DESIGN
Sound Design Company: Barking Owl
Sound Designer: Michael Anastasi
Creative Director: Kelly Fuller Bayett
Producer: Ashley Benton
MIX
Music/Sound/Mix Company: Lime Studios
Audio Mixer: Rohan Young
Audio Assistant: Ben Tomastik
Executive Producer: Susie Boyajan