What '00s commercial should come back into fashion?

For Nike’s latest commercial, created in collaboration with Corteiz and directed by Gabriel Moses, the brand drew from the Swoosh archives, taking inspiration from the iconic 2001 Nike Basketball ad. This ad, which was already reimagined in a football version after its initial release, is now being reinterpreted once again. Nike’s choice demonstrates not only the fans’ affection for commercials from the 2000s, but also how some of these, even twenty years after their debut, can still feel relevant from both a technical and stylistic perspective. It raises the question of which other classic sports ads could be reinterpreted and adapted in the future to feature today’s athletes and to align with the ever-evolving digital platforms.

When thinking of a sports commercial released between the late 1990s and early 2000s, it’s almost automatic to recall scenes from videos produced by Pepsi, the brand that most heavily focused its marketing on this type of advertising content. It’s impossible to forget videos like Final Coin, where, before a match between Juventus and Manchester United, the referee tries to get a bottle from a vending machine. Pepsi’s specialty was constantly seeking realism, recreating iconic rivalries between European clubs in the form of commercials. In 1999, the classic clash between Juventus and Manchester United appeared again in the commercial Can I Have Your Shirt?, a masterpiece - perhaps more famous - featuring a child in the tunnel asking David Beckham for his shirt, only to use it to wipe the rim of the can the English star drank from.

In short, without wanting to use a cliché, those were really different times. A time when athletes were more easily involved, a large portion of the budget was allocated to this type of content, and brands had discovered the advantages of associating themselves with athletes, whose personalities were crafted from scratch in each commercial. This turned athletes into superhumans with hidden powers, making us almost forget they were the same figures competing in sports throughout the year. While soccer is often seen as the sport that invested most in promotional videos—thanks to Joga Bonito, Pepsi, and league campaigns—many other sports helped enrich the digital archive of ads, preserved in our memories—or simply in low quality on YouTube or DailyMotion. Sports brands, video game companies, and more: all the major players in these sectors capitalized on the immense appeal of athletes to promote their products.

McDonald's, Canon, and Sony

The 1990s were a fruitful time for multinationals like Canon and Sony, active in the optical device sector. Tourism was booming, and more and more people began to consider cameras as indispensable travel companions. In 1991, Japan's Canon chose the extroverted tennis player André Agassi as the face of its campaign for the new EOS Rebel model, with the unforgettable ad titled Change the Image. In the ad, Agassi is shown breaking away from his athletic role, shirtless and driving a white Ferrari Testarossa, an iconic car also featured in the famous scene from The Wolf of Wall Street with Leonardo DiCaprio. Perhaps it's the same White Ferrari mentioned by Frank Ocean in the track from his album Blonde. Sony also made its mark in advertising, collaborating with rally legend Colin McRae. Not only did the driver lend his name to the popular Colin McRae Rally video game series, but he also provided technical support for its creation.

In 2000, six years after the release of PlayStation 1, Colin McRae Rally debuted as the first installment of a video game series that would become a landmark in motorsport gaming culture. The game’s promotional video was extremely simple, with a straightforward storyline and almost rudimentary editing, appearing outdated even for 1999, a full eight years after Agassi’s ad. Finally, there’s McDonald’s, which in 1996 involved NBA star Dennis Rodman in a commercial promoting the Color Change Cups, special edition cups decorated with Rodman's images. One unique feature of these cups was that they changed color when liquid was poured in, mirroring the player’s colorful hair. This marketing strategy not only leveraged a celebrity’s fame to boost sales but also incorporated Rodman’s distinctive trait into the product itself, making it an innovative and difficult-to-imitate strategy.

WWE, American Express, and ESPN

For WWE, creating a commercial like the one for Summer Slam 2006 must have been a breeze; after all, when athletes have strong acting skills, everything is easier, especially with stars like Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Viscera, Kane, Eugene, Trish Stratus, and Lita, some of the top athletes of the early 2000s. Speaking of athletes turned superhumans, American Express did an outstanding job of this by including Tiger Woods (with whom they had a partnership) in a video campaign: on September 26, 1997, the commercial aired for the first time, offering viewers a glimpse of the golf champion alongside the U.S. financial services company. Given the perception and essence of an elite sport like golf, the ad’s New York skyline setting was perfect.

Moving on to ESPN, the most famous sports broadcaster in the U.S., their 24-hour programming included the X Games, an annual extreme sports event organized by ESPN. The X Games consist of two seasonal editions: the Summer X Games, held annually since 1994, featuring disciplines such as skateboarding, BMX, motocross, and other extreme land and air sports. The Winter X Games, on the other hand, focus on extreme snow and ice sports, with competitions in snowboarding, freestyle skiing, snowmobile racing, and other winter disciplines. For the second Winter X Games in 1998, an ad featuring the legendary stuntman Evel Knievel was launched. The X Games were—and still are today—the premier event for extreme sports, and Knievel's presence made the event’s message even more powerful and memorable.

There are several ads that could be revisited: while the one with Colin McRae seems quite dated and difficult to adapt to today’s times, the same can’t be said for the Color Change Cups ad with Dennis Rodman, which would be ideal for social media. Imagine Rodman’s face in a vertical 9:16 format—it could actually be even more impactful than the original 1996 version.