Adidas celebrates Greek victory with 'never' execution

LONDON - Adidas' advertising agency 180 Amsterdam has celebrated Greece's shock win in Euro 2004 with a new campaign using the 'impossible is nothing' slogan.

The ad is called "never" and shows the Greek football team. It simply reads "impossible is nothing". It is running this week in newspapers across Europe, including The Sun in the UK, l'Equipe in France and Italy's Corriere della Sera.

Greece came from being 100-1 rank outsiders when the Euro 2004 tournament began in June to score a 1-0 victory against host nation Portugal on Sunday after a 56th minute goal, leading to mass celebrations for Greece and Greek communities around the world.

Uli Becker, head of global communications at Adidas International, said: "The Greek football team, from their opening game onward, showed all of us that impossible doesn't exist."

The "impossible is nothing" slogan was introduced in an advertising campaign last year, which used CGI to show sporting stars from today, including David Beckham and Zinedine Zidane, jogging with a young Muhammad Ali, using footage from the documentary 'When We Were Kings'.

The ad was one of thee Adidas spots awarded gold Lions at this year's Cannes International Advertising Festival.

This latest campaign was written by Ben Abramowitz and art directed by Stuart Brown.

Brown said: "Considering Greece has never won a game in a major tournament before, it is absolutely spectacular what they achieved during Euro 2004."

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