Nike's new marvellously edited COVID-themed Ad is a powerful message on hope and equality

A new split-screen ad from Nike tells us that sport won’t end due to the coronavirus pandemic, and that all athletes, regardless of sport, are seeking the same things. The overt message of the ad is simple: The tenacity of athletes and their spirit of pushing through adversity will win out in the end, and a global pandemic won’t stop sports.

However, it’s the underpinnings of the commercial that make a larger point. Editing together in split-screen format, athletes from every sport and walk of life show they go through the same triumphs, the same agonies, and celebrate the same ways. It doesn’t matter their race, gender, sexual orientation, religion or what sport they play — everyone is equal.

It’s how this commercial is edited that really makes it stand out. Stitching together different clips from a variety of sports must have been painstaking, and it really pays off in creating the visual imagery of athletes being united.

The W+K team—working with Pulse Films director Oscar Hudson, Joint editors Peter Wiedensmith and Jessica Baclesse, and the visual effects team at A52—researched 4,000 sports action sequences and chose 72 of them to combine into 36 split-screen moments, where the action on both sides appears to meld into one.

The astonishing editing work is a great way to deliver the message—about the unifying power of sport, at a time when the specter of Covid still hangs heavily over all professional sports leagues' best-laid plans; and about the pursuit of an equal playing field by athletes looking to create change.

The writing (credited to W+K copywriter Dylan Lee) is top-notch, too, with the voiceover delivered by Megan Rapinoe.

There is also mention of the Black Lives Matter movement, which shows NFL players and NWSL players kneeling together in one long shot.