Blog #5

For my fifth and final New Media/Technology in Sport blog, I will be discussing the viral video that is the 1998 “The Airport”, a Nike Airport Soccer Commercial featuring Christiano Ronaldo and the Brazilian national soccer team. The ad was made in preparation for the 1998 World Cup, where the Brazil team is seemingly at the airport waiting for their flight to France. The video starts with the players sitting around in the airport, delayed for a flight, seemingly bored. However, the fun begins when a ball is brought out from a bag and kicked around between a few players like Romario, Roberto Carlos, and Denilson.

            Arguably, this ad is considered one of Nike’s best soccer commercials produced. The commercial is set to the tune of “Mas que nada” by Sergio Mendes, furthering the excitement of the commercial with its music. In the 1:30 commercial, Ronaldo and others kick the ball around the airport and runway, all the while escaping security guards. At the end of the commercial, after all of the skillful juggling and passing, Ronaldo approaches a “goal” (made by two line poles) with numerous patrons looking on. In a concluding shot to the commercial, the advertisement presents a comical end when all the skill is rendered meaningless by Ronaldo’s shot bouncing off the pole and resulting in a miss.

            I chose this video because, first off, it was viral. However, for me, it’s my favorite Nike commercial, next to Tiger Woods’ golf ball juggling video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK_b6eYCAOo). This ad combines a lot of different appealing elements in order to create an effective commercial. First, they built up the hype of the World Cup with this video. The excitement was already there, but Nike was able to build on it by featuring a well-liked Brazilian national team. Second, with the beauty of soccer, it’s hard to not enjoy the skills of the world’s best. As this commercial showcases, the juggling ability of players such as Ronaldo is remarkable. Further, it is a somewhat relatable commercial because it features average patrons in the airport, which we can see ourselves as. Another key element, as I already alluded to, is the music. The fun nature of the background music drives the nature of the commercial. Lastly, the commercial produces humor in its final seconds as Ronaldo, even with all the skill he illustrates in the commercial, can’t make a wide open “goal.” Overall, the commercial turns a boring environment in to a fun game, all the while promoting the World Cup and Nike. It’s commercials like these, that are so well choreographed, that make us forget we are even watching an advertisement.

            As is the case with most viral videos, we need to find humor, interest, or a relatable feature in order for us to truly connect to the video and want to show it to our friends and colleagues. Nike was able to produce all three of these elements in this ad through the airport, the topic of soccer and its respective illustrated skill, and lastly, the missed “goal.” As aforementioned, Nike was able to help this video go viral by releasing it when they did – in preparation for the 1998 World Cup. Even today, this video still receives recognition. When I Google’d “Nike Brazilian Airport Commercial” there were four articles, all written in the last year, discussing the commercial. This was because of the 2014 World Cup and Nike’s new amateur-turned-professional ad featuring Neymar, Wayne Rooney, and a now much older Ronaldo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaVtinE8oO8).