p; Blu

Found this new video from Blu. I love the originality and inventiveness of lots of his work. This is great:

BIG BAG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.


And one quick thing to think about, following a tweet from eye magazine. Nike's fantastic pre-world cup epic got everyone excited, and was just another example of Nike projecting an air of high standards and wide-reaching cool, but look at it now and consider this: as we reach the climax of the competition how many of the "stars" are still there (not to mention The Ronaldinho(/Walcott)s who never got to the world cup at all)? The Spain squad are still there, but other than that, the big names from the ad pretty much failed to Write The Future that they wanted.
Does this show that marketing based on individuals is too fallible? Did the demise of Tiger Woods also show that placing an entire brand's image in the hands of a few stars is a bit too risky?
I don't particularly think so - the Nike ad avoided this problem by the timing of its release. It was timed perfectly to hit the excitement, and now its stars' current absence is not a major issue. The ad caught the mood of the target audience perfectly at that moment at the start of the competition (when expectations hadn't been lowered by an appalling set of group stage matches), and the effect it had on the viewers will not be now tainted by those stars underperforming. If for no other reason, just because most people won't connect the idea that those players flopped with Nike, but they will retain the sense of awe and excitement from that ad, and their opinion and perception of the brand has already been enforced by the marketing. The timing of the release of the ad meant that how well they actually did wasn't too much of an issue. The work was done for Nike before anyone kicked a single Jabulani (except for those pesky Germans, who've been playing with it for months now)...