Look to the future

Global – Nike’s new Unlimited Future campaign tackles the turbulent times that we are living through and finds a redemptive message.

• The video places infant sport stars born as far apart as Michigan and Mogadishu in the same fantasy nursery
• It acknowledges that the world faced by the next generation is far from easy, but says the future is in our hands

Our uncertain economic, political and social times provide advertisers with a unique challenge. Do you continue to present a rose-tinted vision of your brand and its place in the world or do you tackle difficult issues head on? The first approach risks making you look irrelevant, but the latter can make depressing viewing.

Nike has trodden a middle path in its new Unlimited Future campaign. Set in a Neutral Culture nursery where babies who will grow into the world’s greatest sports stars are gathered – from Serena Williams to Zhou Qi and Mo Farah – actor Bobby Cannavale rants about the ‘messed up’ nature of the world they have been born into. This may not sound like your typical locker room pep talk, but Cannavale soon concludes that although you ‘don’t get to decide how your story begins, you do get to decide how it ends’.