Adidas Urges You to 'Unfollow' Leo Messi

Adidas and 72andSunny continue to change up the conversation of sports advertising in a new ad that knocks Leo Messi, arguably the greatest soccer player of all time, off his throne. Extending the message of the agency's first commercial for the client, "Create Your Own," the spot celebrates Messi's finest moments in soccer history via a series of found footage clips, but then encourages viewer to "unfollow" the football hero in an effort to find their own glory. Smuggler's Henry-Alex Rubin directed the ad. The key insight driving both films is that "to become truly great, you'll have to re-cast your heroes as your competition," explained 72andSunny CCO Glenn Cole to Ad Age. "You'll have to be willing to take them off their pedestals to see if you merit a pedestal of your own." The challenge for this particular ad, he said, "was to be disciplined enough to source every piece of footage from the internet and not manufacture anything. That includes scenes featuring the Pope and Obama with Messi."

Adidas Urges You to 'Unfollow' Leo Messi

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