At the risk of appearing to be a fraud at my job (I hope the boss does not see this blog), I say that I really do not get this new Adidas campaign, at least the promotional line.
The first time I came across it online, I clicked on the ad and was carried to a video showing some boys skate boarding up and down some ramp or other…for about five minutes…and there was no mention of Adidas. There was no dialogue. There was no narrator. Just the sound of the skateboard against the asphalt and the ambient street noises.
I later saw the TV spot which encapsulates all the different activities that the Adidas brand is used at and then I got it…I think.
Reflecting more on it, I realise that I have always had a “thing” with language, since primary school. You know that sign at the gas station, “No smoking. No naked flames. When filling switch off engine”. For years I wondered what was the “Switch off Engine” until it dawned on me that the sign was missing a comma and oh, what a difference that comma made – “When filling, switch off engine”.
So maybe my issue, if you want to call it an issue, is that I am too traditional and the funkiness of the language is causing me to not properly get the angle they are coming from. I therefore bravely send out an S.O.S. for help. Someone please explain this Adidas campaign line for me so that my not-so-contemporary mind will get it.
