adidas Celebrates The 'Folklore' of Tracy McGrady in New Global Campaign

adidas Celebrates The 'Folklore' of Tracy McGrady in New Global Campaign

PORTLAND, Ore., Oct. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Today adidas announced the launch of a new global basketball campaign highlighting Houston Rockets all-star forward Tracy McGrady and his latest adidas shoe, the T-MAC 5. The fifth edition of superstar Tracy McGrady's signature shoe, the T-MAC 5 is set to launch globally at all major retail partners and on-line at http://www.adidas.com/ on October 28, 2005. The "Folklore" campaign will debut on NBC Saturday, October 15 during the Notre Dame vs. USC football game. "Folklore" will then continue on national network and cable television (ESPN, ESPN2, BET, Comedy Central, MTV, TNT).

The strategy behind this highly integrated global brand campaign is to highlight the legendary feats that T-MAC had been doing on the basketball court his whole career: scoring 13 points in 35 seconds against the eventual NBA World Champion Spurs, scoring 62 points in a game, becoming the youngest player in NBA history to lead the league in scoring. This type of unbelievable play allows adidas to take a much more creative approach when creating a fully integrated global brand campaign and that is what is done with "Folklore." "Folklore" talks about T-MAC in a whole different way by using the art of storytelling and metaphors, borrowing from these ideas to tell a more fantastical and magical story of the league's most exciting player, Tracy McGrady.

Television is the highest level of storytelling and it introduces the idea of "Folklore." "Folklore" continues to use the adidas creative approach of metaphors to tell a truly amazing story about a truly amazing athlete. "Folklore" starts off with voices of several kids telling a story with each kid jumping in to give the "real" version of what really happened. As they speak, we see T-MAC doing what they say happened. The opening scene has T-MAC at the free throw line. As he begins to shoot, his uniform changes from home black to road white then back to black as the shot goes in. He then steals the ball and blows past two defenders. When a third defender appears, T-MAC is so quick that when he blows by him for the dunk the defender's arm breaks. In the replay we see that as he goes up for the dunk, T-MAC according to the kids grabs a stack of quarters off the backboard. When we return to the action, T-MAC once again steals a pass. T-MAC is on fire as he begins to dribble and approaches the arch, where he then hits a three, just as it starts to rain. On the next possession, like an animal, T-MAC strips the inbounds pass. The next thing we know he is getting rushed by everyone in the stadium. He then rises above the game and the moment with the help of wings and drains a three to win the game as it once again rains. As he walks off the court, T-MAC knows that he has stepped up in the moment when his team, the fans and the game needed him most and made the impossible happen.

The art of storytelling is continued to be told in the T-MAC 5 print campaign. The print campaign tells the story of Tracy McGrady, his signature shoe the T-MAC 5 and its unique design elements: incorporation of wood, the #1 and the strap. In each execution, the ad starts off with a truth, and extends into a story of mythical proportions, highlighting the amazing things that T-MAC has done. Each print ad finishes open-ended, driving people to the adidas basketball website (http://www.adidas.com/basketball) to find out more and to bring together both the television and print campaigns. The campaign will also be supported by point-of-sale, public relations and on-line executions.

adidas is a global designer, developer and marketer of athletic footwear, apparel and accessories with the mission to be the leading sports brand in the world. Brand adidas is part of the adidas-Salomon Group, a corporation that includes sports brands Salomon, TaylorMade, Bonfire and Mavic.

For more information, visit http://www.press.adidas.com/

Folklore Credits:

Client adidas International B.V. Koningin Wilhelminaplein 30 1062 KR, Amsterdam The Netherlands Uli Becker, Head of Global Communications

TV & Cinema Credits Agency: (180/TBWA) TBWA\CHIAT\DAY, San Francisco Executive Creative Directors Lee Clow (TBWA) Chuck McBride (TBWA) Associate Creative Director John Patroulis Art Director Marco Worsham Copy Writer John Patroulis Account Handling Doug Sweeny Agency Executive Producer Jennifer Golub Business Manager Julie Blanc

Director Rupert Sanders Production Company MJZ Executive Producer Lisa Rich DP Jess Hall

Editor Neil Smith Post-Production Company Whitehouse Visual Effects Company Method Effects Supervisor Cedric Nicolas

Music My Wee Cod Piece Composer Howie B Sound Designer Stimmung

Print Credits Agency (180/TBWA) TBWA\CHIAT\DAY, San Francisco Executive Creative Directors Lee Clow, Chuck McBride ACD/copywriter John Patroulis Senior art director Keith Cartwright Art director Marco Worsham Photographer Jim Fiscus Illustrator John Wayshack

Source: adidas

CONTACT: Travis L. Gonzolez, adidas Global Public Relations, +1-971-234-2305, or cell: +1-503-504-8602, travis.gonzolez@adidasus.com

Web site: http://www.adidas.com/ http://www.adidas.com/basketball http://www.press.adidas.com/

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