For those familiar with the previous “Nike ADN Pack”, Nike has just unveiled its latest boot reissue to the football world today. It’s a stroke of genius, whilst also capitalising on the success it continues to enjoy today thanks to its most famous football advert. The American brand has today unveiled a new version/colourway of its Nike Phantom GT football boots, a pair of boots with a design entirely inspired by the 2002 Scorpion collection and the “The Cage” advert from the same year.
2002 advertising campaign – The cage
The concept behind this legendary Nike advertising campaign centred on a fictional football tournament involving eight teams, each featuring three of the best players of the era. The tournament format was fairly straightforward, operating on a knockout system where the first team to score a goal won and progressed to the next round. All the matches took place on a closed pitch, located on a ship on the high seas, with former footballer Eric Cantona still acting as referee.
In addition to the advertising campaign that could be seen all over the world, the American brand’s marketing strategy for this football advert centred on organising local football tournaments with the same rules as the advert, held in various capital cities around the world.
At these local events, and at a time when the internet was not yet widely available, all participants in these tournaments received interactive CD-ROMs in silver sleeves containing the original advert in its entirety. At the time, these CDs were highly prized by their owners, as the only way to watch the advert was to own one of these famous discs; on television, only a very short, adapted version of the advert was shown.
Players in the tournament:
Luis Figo
Thierry Henry
Francesco Totti
Luis Enrique
Javier Saviola
Roberto Carlos
Ronaldo
Ronaldinho
Patrick Vieira
Among others.
The song featured throughout the advert, which really added an even more spectacular touch, was a new remix of the famous song ‘A Little Less Conversation’, originally by Elvis Presley.
Nike Phantom GT Scorpion SE football boots
With today’s launch of these fantastic football boots, Nike is forging a link between the generation featured in its 2002 advertising campaign and all football fans, regardless of age. The passion for football lives on, and this is Nike’s way of bringing together all these different age groups and perspectives on the game into one: a love for the game!
The new Nike Phantom GT Scorpion boots feature a silver/chrome upper, and it is in the small details that we can see where Nike drew all the inspiration for this design. On the outside of each boot, we can see this logo with the scorpion inside, creating a clear reference to the official Nike football from the same collection. The darker accents also found on the upper act as a signpost leading us to the secret location of the ship where the tournament was being played, and symbolise the yellow and black stripes visible both on the boot’s small sock and on the tips of the laces.
Log in or
create your account
Your best self starts here. Come in and get in your prime