Ad of the Week: 2016 Olympics Edition

The marketing Olympics is on! You can't watch TV without seeing a ton of Olympics themed ads. But there are a few that are doing a very nice job while highlighting the stories of inspiring Olympians. For this week's Ad of the Week, I've chosen two such ads that I think do a good job of pulling on the emotional heart strings in an inspiring way without coming across as inauthentic. One is the latest ad in Nike's "Unlimited Courage" campaign featuring the first transgender man competing in the Olympics. The other is a spot created by Grey London for the UNHCR highlighting the Olympians competing on the refugees team.

In the Nike ad, they pose questions to Chris Moiser while he trains. Questions like "how did you know you would be fast enough to compete against men?" and "or strong enough?" and about how did he know the team would except him. The answers to all the questions from Chris is that "he didn't." The answers lead seamlessly to the theme for this campaign, "unlimited courage." But they also lead well into their long-standing theme of "Just do it" even though that line doesn't appear here. Nike took what could have been a controversial subject and delicate matter to address in a brand commercial and pulled it off with class and a deft hand. Kudos to them.

  Nike – "Unlimited Courage"

The other spot is titled "#TeamRefugees: Champions against all odds," cuts back and forth between scenes of refugees fleeing their war-torn homelands and similar Olympic scenes. For instance, a scene of refugees in a rubber raft riding a wave onto a beach and a wave washing up on the side of an Olympic pool. According to The Drum, "Four months ago, when the IOC announced the formation of the team, Just So sought out refugee athletes around the world to make a long form documentary to change perceptions." And that "the documentary tells the story of 65 million people forced from their homes, distilled into the experience of a few. A human perspective on the biggest crisis of our generation, the film is about determination and dignity."  This minute and a half version is well done, shot beautifully and has just the right amount of human emotion.

  UNHCR - #TeamRefugees: Champions against all odds. 

There you have it, two spots covering some of the lesser known Olympic heroes, What did you think? Got another Olympic spot you think deserves mention? Let me know.

Mike McClure – Armchair Olympian