B'YOOOTiful!

Here's a nice campaign for Nike, just in time for the World Cup.

The first in the series shows Eric Cantona, an old-school French international who played his best years at Manchester United. Known for being feisty and combative in his time, he's now outraged that bad sportsmanship has permeated "the beautiful game". So he and his cohorts burst into a German TV studio, take over and launch the underground Joga Bonita channel. With revolutionary fervor, Cantona implores everyone to make the game beautiful again, and chews the scenery with the help of football stars like Ronaldinho, Wayne Rooney, and Thierry Henry, extolling the virtues of heart, honor, and playing with your feet, not your mouth.

To paraphrase Cantona himself in the opening spot, these ads are beautiful! They show that Nike (and their Dutch ad agency) truly understand their subject and at least one large segment of football fans. The spots even work if you aren't in on the sly in joke that Cantona isn't exactly the poster child for sportsmanship; In the end, the Joga Bonita spots again tie Nike and its products with all the emotions and bromides that are at the very heart of sport. Great way to continue their dominating branding efforts.