Workout Complete: Wieden ends Nike run with Plus spot

We've seen it time and again, and now its Wieden + Kennedy's turn to deliver a great work as the Nike Running business shifts with "Addicted," an exquisite spot for the Nike + iPod running system. Directed by Dante Ariola, the ad takes the perspective of the runner, bobbing and weaving, ticking off the miles and watching out for the hazards along the trip. "I am addicted," intones Edward Norton, a Nike + user himself, who trotted around and got breathless before takes. "I've collected footsteps before dawn, seen places I never knew existed, run to the moon and back." Ariola and cinematographer Harris Savides (who most recently DPed Zodiac) deliver visuals to match the haunting sound design and Norton's command—disoriented and ethereal—the Requiem for a Dream of running commercials. The drugged look is precisely what the creatives were going for, according to Hunter Hindman and Rick Condos, who were CD/art director and CD/copywriter along with CD Alvaro Sotomayor. "It was kind of a nice thing to have this product that really did change this running experience, says Hindman. "People always talk about almost becoming addicted, which made us want to really play with the idea of a runner's high. What does it look like when you come out and you have music that can take you out of that moment where you're really slogging and you're going to lose focus and you feel like the air is as thick as water?" The tagline, Run Like You've Never Run Before seems equally applicable to the shoot—the crew went to Prague, New York City and Marseille, arriving, scouting and shooting as rapidly as possible while creating different rigs to capture the first-person perspective. "We ended up using three or four different rigs to shoot this thing. Every environment presented us with a new challenge—how do we get this camera to move through in the right kind of way and get the right kind of feel?" In addition to hand held shots Ariola used ATVs, rickshaw carts and leverheads to get the look he was after. Add a pinch of visual effects—multiple images, enhancing lens flare—and the brew is complete. "I think the biggest thing was not making it feel like an effects spot," says Condos. "Dante did a beautiful job of capturing the honesty of a run, and we just augmented what he had shot, instead of big effect moves it was just subtle little stuff."

Workout Complete: Wieden ends Nike run with Plus spot

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