We made a couple key trades and we got the Funk

I was thinking back on some Nike commercials after seeing the new ones for Nike Sparq where every one's faster is faster than my fastest. I like this a lot and it's great to see Saul William's get much overdue exposure with his song in the commercial, "List of Demands." I love huge Nike campaigns like this and it got me thinking about the best ever. There's been a bunch but one stood out in my mind.




Anyone remember the Roswell Rayguns? They were the fictitious ABA team comprised of "Dr. Funk" Vince Carter, Jerry Stackhouse, Jermaine O'neil and Baron Davis.It was 1975 and they just wanted to keep the funk alive. The commercials were made to promote Vinsanity's new shoe by Nike. The Nike campaign was based on an ABA team that was struggling and invested in a new brand of basketball that could be the future. They were right and it was also the birth of pro sport's widespread historical appreciation of past uniforms, especially basketball. Now you started seeing 10-15 throwback games a year and killer uniforms for fans to galk at and desire to buy. Soon enough Mitchell & Ness, the leader in throwback reproductions over saturated the market with uniforms that at one point in time were nearly impossible to find. Rappers started sporting them in nearly every video you saw and the widespread demand was crazy. It was more common so see a "Throwback uniform on the street than a regular jersey. The craze was everywhere and thank God it died down, any and all nostalgic value the jerseys had was killed. I don't think the commercial was completely to blame, Andre & Big Boi played a huge part in the madness as well. A Nike campaign that fresh deserves a shout out, it was the best thing since Spike Lee and Jordan's "It's gotta be the shoes."
Nike last great campaign was the Lebrons. That was funny. I hate Lebron, but the guy can sure sell a product. Especially when he jumps off the high dive while Kool and the Gang is playing, that's smooth. Not sure if it's better than Chris Rock and Penny Hardaway's "Little Penny," but it is damn funny.
Still all of those are no match for the genius of the Roswell Rayguns. Nike + Vince + Diddy + Stack + JO + Snoop + tha P + Tha Funk Ship=The best Nike ad ever!