Source: adidas Originals Releases Original Is Never Finished | 2018 Film
I hate that I come in at the end of a project, or at the launch of it, to give my criticism or praise. Last year adidas was my shining star in marketing and the growth adidas experienced was as much about the marketing as it was the product. To me the grimey, dark, presentation of subversiveness, carried some element of hope. The product was never primary it was in support of the Original is Never Finished. The marketing was art.
2017 Original is Never Finished:
Now I’m not saying that a brand has to go back to the well and pull up the same bucket of water. What I am saying is that in this 2017 version Kareem is juxtaposed with Brandon Ingram, the imagery is dark, but independent. The future informs the past. In the 2018 version the production is very much a part of the snapchat, IG direction and I think that is a mistake. The past should still be informing adidas and the creation of product and marketing should continue to connect. I mean when I heard Kaytranada was a part of this, I got excited only to find the most generic presentation of product, colors and faux glitchy retro music as the foundation of the first version of the 2018 campaign.
When I consider this campaign and the upcoming All Star Weekend launch products by Jordan Brand, I’m afraid adidas is about to hit a wall, if they haven’t already hit it. I expect greater video from the Three Stripes. You’ve built my hope up as a brand that beat Nike at its own marketing game last year, now you’re making videos that feel like you won when you should be doubling down in the dirt.
Here are the players in the video, but does it matter? I didn’t really care if I knew anybody in last years Original because the shit was dope.
- Dua Lipa
- Miles Silvas
- Playboi Carti
- Lu Han
- A$AP Ferg
- Nick Young
- Kaytranada
- Marcelo Vieira
- Florencia Galarza
- Adrianne Ho
