Impossible is Nothing
I remember sitting on my couch at age eight watching the 1998 World Cup and seeing David Beckham’s red card. That was the first time I had ever “witnessed” someone receiving a red card and being ejected from a soccer game. I never knew what it meant until I received my first card. This advertisement applies to me pretty well for a couple of good reasons. The first is that I played sports for most of my life, and can relate quite well to the attitude of an athlete. Also, my favorite sport throughout my life has always been soccer. I know what it is like to win a game at the last second, and to lose a game at the last second, which David Beckham talked about. Also, the fact that I am proud owner of many Adidas products and support their products helps me relate more the fact that I will want to by more of their products. Yet, the most important relationship is knowing the feeling of receiving my first card.
I have always worn Adidas products since I was a little kid. I remember having a pair of Samba indoor shoes as well as my first keeper jersey being Adidas. I always had felt that their products helped me perform to the best of my ability in sports. Growing up on Adidas is the main reason that I identify with their product. Yet, when I saw this advertisement I was quickly able to relate to Adidas. Every athlete has a drive to do the best, and when they let their team down, or themselves it hurts. Since I was able to know how it felt to hurt my team and not perform like I should I was able to relate to his story at a personal level. Even as the advertisement started, without relating anything to my past soccer career, I felt like this advertisement wasn’t forcing a product down your throat. I felt like it was promoting good morals like determination, strength, and understanding. Also, it was in a very relaxed setting and it was nice to here something personal that I could relate to from a great athlete like David Beckham. Through this type of advertisement I was persuaded to keep buying Adidas’s products because I was able to relate to the ad even though I had been buying their products for years before this ad. It was more like a reassurance to keep me interested in buying their products.
This advertisement was created by David Beckham with the help of Adidas, for the purpose to promote Adidas. Through the experiences of David Beckham we are able to see how he rebounded from a low in his life, to a place where he could feel good about himself. This advertisement promotes a good message to all athletes with a hidden message. The hidden message is that David Beckham was able to rebound from the low in his life with the help of Adidas. The subject of this advertisement is David Beckham in a relaxed setting but telling a very serious and touching story. The advertisement ends up becoming a visual image drawn by David Beckham telling his story of what happened in the 1998 World Cup. The cross between seeing him narrate and seeing his story illustrated visually impacts the way it is told. Since we don’t see an actual highlight of the past everyone is able to make his or her own perspective on what happened back in 1998.
So, the message that portrayed throughout this entire advertisement is literally “Impossible is Nothing”. Yet, anyone who watches this advertisement knows that you don’t need to have Adidas products to accomplish your goals, or bounce back from a morale low. This is an important part to the Adidas advertisement because by them giving a neutral tone, people are more likely to want to purchase their products because they aren’t exploiting Adidas throughout the entire advertisement. An audience member will relate to David Beckham because they have experienced morale lows and so has David Beckham. Yet, since David Beckham is a largely known superstar, Adidas is making that viewer feel like they are a superstar because they can relate to David Beckham.
I feel as if the audience could potentially be anyone who was watching television at the time this advertisement aired, yet main focus to me is athletes or people who used to be athletes. Most athletes have experienced some sort of low in their sport at one point in their career. Yet, all the while sports seems to reflect life, (something athletes never know until they stop playing) and many people after getting out of sports have had low points in their life. Adidas knows this so they swoop in with this advertisement and are able to connect to large amounts of people in a very brief time.
There is one thing about this advertisement that makes it stand out from all other advertisements on the market. One thing that makes this advertisement appeal to an audience in a way that normal advertisements lack. The power of this advertisement comes from Adidas not branding everything in the ad with their logo. It's sending the message that "Impossible is Nothing" and then at the end it is saying that Adidas supports and promotes that "Impossible is Nothing". By not branding everything in the ad it makes (me) or others possibly more open to the idea of Adidas products. Adidas has plenty of ads out on the market already where they show their product in performance settings. This isn't a performance setting; it is an ad telling a story. The only time you see an Adidas logo is on David Beckham’s hoodie and the soccer ball if you look hard enough. Since they are telling a story from David Beckham’s life it just doesn't seem right to have Adidas logo's posted every five second.
Everything about this revolves around the concept of not pasting Adidas’s logo in the ad. The tone of the advertisement is inspiring and positive. Yet, everything in the ad is very plain. There is a purposeful lack of color in the advertisement. When color is used, like the red paint, it really sticks out in your mind. The images that stick out in my mind about this advertisement are the “red ball” in the “goal” at the end and the gallow in the beginning. These help to bring out the points of his rock bottom low, and his great high after his goal.
Mr. Smith
