Nike and longtime agency Wieden & Kennedy stormed Super Bowl XXIX with this minute-and-a-half-long comic monologue capping a series of spots starring Dennis Hopper in his first TV ad campaign. Hopper again plays a deranged former ref obsessed with football, drawing on his roles in feature films such as "Blue Velvet," as noted by Robert Goldman and Stephen Papson in "Nike Culture: The Sign of the Swoosh."

The staging was as striking as the 90-second ad buy (ABC was averaging $1.15 million for 30 seconds that year). Stuart Elliott described in in The New York Times: 

Dennis Hopper returned as a mad fan, reciting a lyrical paean to "the ballet of" football while standing before a Nike "swoosh" logo as enormous as the American flag behind George C. Scott during his famous scene in the film "Patton."

The "swoosh," in fact, was appearing on national TV for the first time unaccompanied by the word "Nike."

Director/director of photography: Super Bowl legend Joe Pytka, whose portfolio includes Nike's 1990 Super bowl debut "Announcers," Budweiser's "Clydesdale Team," Bud Light's "Applause," Gatorade's "23 vs. 39," Sony's "The Trip," FedEx's "Bolivia" and "Delivery for Oz," Pepsi's "Goldfish" and "New Can," and Diet Pepsi's "Stunt Can," "Hip Hop Can," "Guy Watcher" and "Truck." Production Company: Pytka.

Creative directors: Dan Wieden, Susan Hoffman. Agency producer: Bill Davenport. Art director: John Boiler. Copywriter: Stacy Wall.

Editorial: Beast Editorial. Editor: Paul Norling.

BRAND: Nike

YEAR: 1995

AGENCY: Wieden & Kennedy

SUPERBOWL: XXIX