As if inviting controversy, the ad, which features a shattering slam dunk shot, carries the strapline "Just don't do it".
According to Nike, the ad is a virtual scene-by-scene copy of Nike's "frozen moment" commercial. The classic 1996 ad depicted a Chicago Bulls-Los Angeles Lakers NBA basketball game sequence featuring Michael Jordan.
In the ad, the fast-paced basketball action seamlessly shifts to slow motion as riveted onlookers watch Jordan make his magically athletic moves toward a final slam dunk of the basketball. As the onlookers watch, their world is also depicted in slow motion, and they become oblivious to events and accidents happening around them. The ad appeared on US TV from November 1996 to April 1997, primarily during NBA telecasts and other sports programming.
Sega's ad, which began showing in January, features realistic NBA basketball player characters and virtually re-enacts Nike's "frozen moment", with only subtle differences. Nike alleges that the Sega ad copies the sequence, theme, tone, characters, mood, pace, music and setting of "frozen moment". Moreover, the Sega ad copies the whole look and feel of "frozen moment" so that the viewing public could not mistake the similarity of expression between the two ads.
According to Scott Reames, senior communications manager for Nike: "We believe the Sega ad has almost no original creative elements that weren't taken in whole or in part from Nike. It's rather shocking and disappointing to see another advertiser so blatantly shoplift our intellectual property."
A spokesman for Sega said: "Sega has seen Nike's press release. However, to our knowledge, we have not yet received an official complaint from the company. Therefore, we can not discuss this legal issue at this time."
"Frozen moment" was so well received that in late 1997 Nike created and broadcast a second ad to salute and parody it. "Frozen penny" depicted Anfernee ("Penny") Hardaway in a playground pick-up game, driving to the hoop for a shattering dunk. Again, time slows down and the slow-motion actions of onlookers take far longer than the sequence would normally allow. "Frozen penny" deepened the public's lasting impression of "frozen moment".
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