I love the world of sports marketing, branding, and world dominance. And yes, I follow their commercials.
The Adidas Super 7 series of videos were filmed in March 2009.
I purposely waited until the Berlin Marathon to post this. Haile Gebrselassie won the 2009 Berlin Marathon in 2:06:08 setting a new 30 km world record (unofficial) of 1:27:49. I assume weather conditions hampered his attempt to break his previous WR of 2:03.59
In March, Adidas chose 7 of their flagship athletes from 5 different countries. 4 were women. These Track and Field athletes are former Olympic and World Championship Gold medalists:
- Alyson Felix
- Blanka Vlasic
- Christine Ohuruogu
- Haile Gebrselassie
- Jeremy Wariner
- Tyson Gay
- Veronica Campbell-Brown
What a difference one or two years can make! The take home message is your performance is like a roller coaster (or max velocity!)… you are either going up or going down, never standing still. You can be on top of the world one year only to have someone else hungrier for number 1.
How did they do in Berlin?
Only Alyson Felix and Blanka Vlasic were able to win Gold at their respective events.
In the video below, I think Haile wasn’t present for the photo and video shoot and he was superimposed at the the group gathering at the end of the video. I have my sources.
Jimson: If your sources are as good as mine then you know that Jessica Ennis will replace Ohourogou with the hopes of her being the focal point in the runup to 2012 London games. Quite a risk to take on a multi-eventer as they are frequently injured. Not to mention that an abnormally high percentage of British athletes seem to get injured every year. jh
Hi Jim,
Certainly. Christine Ohuruogu has definitely hit some bumps in the road this year. I’ve read recently that she has failed to break 51 seconds in the 400 so far in 2009. Adidas is probably looking at the current marketing potential while the coals are hot with Jessica Ennis. She is almost 2 years younger than Christine and ranked #1 in the heptathlon. Hailing from Sheffield with London 2012 right down the road makes her a smart risk despite the valid points you raised. Regardless, that’s one heck of a lineup for Adidas. I’m partial to Blanka, myself. lol.
I believe most of the pressure falls on Mr. Jeremy Wariner. Playing second fiddle to Mr. LaShawn Merritt is not going to sell the amount of shoes he was probably expected to deliver for the company. To steal a phrase from Isaac Hayes’ song “Shaft” concerning LSM:
“He’s One Bad Mutha… Shut yo Mouth! What?”
LaShawn cannot be faulted for winning everything this year but his times remind me of the kind of season Wariner had last year. Ever wonder why both Wariner and Merritt failed to run under 44.00 this year? It was a World’s year and both have shown in the past they can run 43’s….btw, Blanka is definitely a performer/entertainer and her consistency at huge heights is awesome. jh
They say “competition is healthy”.. it brings out the best in people. Look at Usain’s 9.58 with Tyson in the race. There was no chest thumping at 80 meters. He ran right through.
As far as LaShawn goes, he always quoted “he ran to win”. So unless JW steps up to 44 flat again (or better yet, 43 point), we’ll see a lot of 44 mid 44 highs when he runs.