This is an older campaign (circa 2007) but looked pretty interesting – and gives some insight into Chinese youth culture. Focused on a 3-on-3 basketball tourney and centered around the 9 gates of “Old” Beijing, we see the obvious fusing of western and eastern pop culture to create what I guess would be hiphop kungfu.
I’ve seen kungfu mixed in with hiphop in LA; the Wutang clan being a pretty good example; this series of ads captures that spirit, but seem to lean more on the Chinese side. By creating clans (which is another way of saying “gangs”) symbolized by kids standing behind their respective gates, Nike recreates the feeling of ancient turf wars.
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Advertising Agency: DMG, Beijing, China
Chief Creative Officer: Dan Mintz
Creative Directors: Kelvin Mak, Weibing Xu
Art Directors: Weber Zhang, Alan Guo, Ben Dong, Leo Sui, Hui Wang, Yeesin Heng
Copywriter: Ray Yuan
Photographer: Alan Guo
Designers: Zhenyu Zhao, Yuanyuan Ni, Sinel Luo, Zuoxiao Yang
Published: May 2007
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You should check out Kam Louie’s book “Theorizing Chinese Masculinity” for an interesting discussion about the interplay between the wen/wu paradigm and how it is used to construct Asian masculinity. It will give you a good idea about why Nike China ran these ads.