Luis Suarez is a controversial footballer- so how do you sell a sports brand on his image? This new Adidas' takes a bold move to embrace the ‘haters’- which appears to have paid off.
The challenge
Addidias has an uphill challenge in unseating Nike as the king of the sports brands. With a new ad series, the firm took a bold approach to market controversial but talented football Luis Suarez as part of a 'haters campaign.
The solution
Featuring Gareth Bale, Luis Suarez, James Rodriguez and Karim Benzema, the video titled 'There will be haters', has quickly gone viral with over 1.15 million views in a single day.
Produced by London-based agency Iris, the provocative ad sees the footballers ask their haters to 'bring it on' in the video which describes exactly what people hate about them.
"They hate the way you walk. They hate the way you talk," the voice-over yelps, while the screen fills with trolling hashtags like #FAIL, #FREAK and #FUGLY.
The video makes subtle references to certain controversies, such as the infamous Suarez bite.
The results
Rather than take the usual symapthetic view off the 'poor harangued athlete', the voice-over then announces defiantly, "they hate that you score all the goals...and get all the girls".
The way the brand describes it on their YouTube channel is that the "best embrace the hate.
They thrive on it, turn it around and feed on it."
Within a month, the ad has notched up over 15 million YouTube views.
