±±¾©Èü³µpk10

Adidas is hitting back at arch-rival Nike by introducing humour to

its brand in a new global advertising campaign backing its performance

range called Equipment.

Adidas’ push, through Amsterdam-based agency 180, introduces a new line

’Adidas - it makes you better’ to position it as an accessible provider

of high performance footwear and clothing.

The irreverent approach is to contrast with Nike’s campaign, which

launched last week. Nike’s ad, through Wieden & Kennedy, is styled on a

video game featuring Nike stars Andre Agassi, Michael Jordan and Ronaldo

alongside cyberbabe Lara Croft.

The Adidas campaign sees it employing humour to make its brand image

more colourful for the youth market.

Rugby star Jonah Lomu, tennis player Anna Kournikova and athlete Ato

Bolton are shown performing good deeds wearing Adidas clothing and

footwear.

An ad featuring David Beckham is likely to follow.

The ads are intended as a tongue-in-cheek dig at products that claim to

change people’s lives. Neil Simpson, Adidas’ global ad director, said:

’We’ve tended to be drier in the past, but these ads are a joke at our

own expense.’

The television and poster campaign breaks this week across Europe, Latin

America and Asia.

The ads through 180 follow the launch earlier this month of an Adidas

campaign through its other roster agency, Leagas Delaney, to build its

tennis associations.

The tennis campaign, using the line ’Welcome to the club’, is also

pitched at the youth market but the ’Adidas - it makes you better’ work

is an attempt to build brand credibility across all sports.

Simpson said: ’We want to talk about performance but appeal to a youth

audience.’