The film starts with a block of Vodafone's corporate red and the sound of a crowd cheering and a game of cricket in play. Suddenly a flash of white text appears, reading "That's how long you have to react to a Steve Harmison delivery", before disappearing as the batter deflects it.
The line appears again, but this time stays on the screen as the commentator tells viewers that Harmison has bowled someone out. The cheering reaches fever pitch.
The ad ends with the Vodafone and ECB logos appearing onscreen. Some copy reading "Good Luck England" appears. After a pause the line "Or should we say good luck Australia" appears underneath it in brackets. The commentator says, "And Australia is really in trouble now".
The ad is also running on TV in eight advertising breaks during the final test today, Friday and Saturday.
It was created by JWT and the media was handled by OMD. It was copy-written by Laurence Quinn, art directed by Mark Norcutt and produced by K-Post.
Vodafone is not the only brand tapping into the nation's obsession with the Ashes. Yesterday, British Airways launched a promotion that will see them selling airline tickets to Australia based on the visitors' first-innings run score tomorrow.
The offer means the lower the Australians' score, the lower the fare to Australia. By contrast, a good performance from the England team will also benefit the travellers lucky enough to pick up the cheap fares -- BA will be offering the same number of tickets as England's first-innings score.
Nestle's KitKat has also joined in with a special ad, shot through the fish-eye lense of a camera in the stumps, showing a batsman reaching into his kneepad to pull out a KitKat when he needs a break. The ad was also created by JWT and will run on Channel 4.
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