Nike advertising has been known to showcase feats of physical prowess, but a new campaign for Shox employs the sporting skills of top athletes combined with lesser known abilities in the areas of mime vanquishing, vortex creation and dump truck rending. The "Athlete Armageddon" campaign was created by Wieden + Kennedy/Amsterdam, working with MTV Commercials and the creator of the MTV show Celebrity Deathmatch. The spots, for air in Europe and Asia/Pacific markets represent the commercial directorial debut of CDM creator/director Eric Fogel.

The spots tap CDM's animated style, pitting puppet versions of athletes including Raptor Vince Carter, sprinter Maurice Green and soccer stars Thierry Henry and Edgar Davids against unlikely adversaries. In each case, through inventive use of their particular gifts and the added lift of Shox, the miniaturized athletes crush their opponents to comical effect. In one spot, "World's Fastest Human," Green teams with Arsenal footballer Henry to face the maniacal wrath of the guy who's won the lottery and can't find his ticket. And what better way to defeat such a bundle of angst than for the speedsters to run in opposite directions around him, creating a vortex the swirling power of which ultimately causes the tissue to be exploded from the unfortunate's body. As is the case with CDM, the true comedy is found in the small touches -- like the purring response of a female audience member to Henry's suave gestures, the ring-side announcer's toupee flying off in the wind, the slo-mo shot of the athletes running past each other and giving the finger-gun salute amid swirling detritus.

Another spot features Carter against a trio of time-bomb toting mimes, whom Carter defeats with an explosive slam dunk; a third opens with Davids gnawing on the ropes before confronting a 40-ton dump truck which he dispatches handily after hoofing a sacrificial head thrown from the audience. "They don't teach that in sissy school," notes the announcer, rightly.

W+K/Amsterdam creative director and the spots' writer Glenn Cole says the campaign was all about energy, and creating a strong brand message while advertising the new Shox shoe. "We had some different goals in Europe for Nike and the launch had to have some different creative. The campaign was going to be as much of a branding statement as any of the work we do." The concept of high energy and getting energy back spun Cole and creative director/art director Paul Shearer in the direction of CDM. W+K provided a slew of reference material from which Fogel and the MTV team drew the basis for the looks and the movement of the athlete characters.

At press time, Fogel was working on some tests for a new commercial campaign as well as on the feature version of CDM.

CREDITS:

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy/Amsterdam

Creative Director/Writer: Glenn Cole

Creative Director/Art Director: Paul Shearer

Head of Broadcast Production: Donna Lamar

Producers: Samantha Cox and Jasmine Kimera

Production Company: MTV Commercials

Director: Eric Fogel

Creative Director of MTV Commercials: Abby Terkuhle

Executive Producer: Nick Litwinko

Producer: Tricia Nolan

Associate Producer: Angela Cacchione