Anthem spots are a great thing for advertising. Every account needs to do them every once in a while. It’s a chance to reinvent your brand from scratch, if you need it. It’s a :30 evangelization A walking Brand Essence video. But to an AE, it’s a chance to write your brand story, and it’s an acid test for the brief. If you’re strategy’s even a hair off, no one will sing your tune.
This New Balance anthem, creatively enough called, simply “Anthem,” captures the genre perfectly. It raises a flag with patriotic devotion to the brand. It’s stunningly written and art directed in an eerily postmodern way. And it’s payoff is brilliant. It takes the product name and makes it the brand promise, not unlike a previous NB campaign, which urged viewers to “Achieve New Balance.” But what really sticks out about this Anthem is what surely is the brief behind it. And the one key insight that speaks to everyone who’s ever called himself a runner.
Running is an exercise in masochism. We hate ourselves for what it does to our knees, our sleep, our lives. But we love it so much we couldln’t live without it.
It’s torturous and darker than any shoe commercial has right to be. But so is every runner’s outlook on his sport. And for that, this Anthem perfectly targeted. It nails the brief. And that’s the kind of spot you take your hat off to.
Filed under: Work | Tagged: Anthem, New Balance, Running, Sports
