A 90-second argument for return-to-play
On 30 July 2020 Nike releases You Can't Stop Us, a 90-second film by long-running creative partner Wieden+Kennedy Portland. The spot publishes during the resumption of major team sports after the COVID-19 stoppages and runs as the third instalment in Nike's You Can't Stop Us platform that begins earlier in 2020. Megan Rapinoe narrates over a montage of athletes from across disciplines, races, abilities and genders, framing collective sport as a force for unity.
The split-screen edit
The film stitches together 36 pairs of pre-existing clips into a single split-screen frame in which the action on the left mirrors the action on the right. The edit by Cabin Edit and post-production by The Mill align matching gestures, ball trajectories and crowd movements between athletes such as LeBron James and Serena Williams, joining footage from different sports into a continuous visual rhythm. The technique turns a constraint of the moment, the difficulty of staging new productions during the pandemic, into a craft signature of the film.
The campaign earns the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy for Outstanding Commercial in 2020 and reinforces the long-term creative partnership between Nike and Wieden+Kennedy that began with Just Do It in 1988.
Source: Marketing The Rainbow Youtube
