Nike "Write the Future" ~ The Moment Last a Second, The Legend Lasts Forever.

Nike’s ‘Write the Future’ viral ad has attracted over 16+ million views in 2 weeks, establishing a new record for YouTube. Accompanying the viral video are these five absolutely brilliant and equally gorgeous print ads.

Each of the ads highlight key scenes from the the video. The print campaign has immortalized soccer stars like England's Wayne Rooney, Portugal's Christian Ronaldo and France's Franck Ribery in statue form. The slogans are tailored to each player and plays up to their unique abilities on the field. For instance, Rooney’s slogan reads, “Arise Sir Wayne,” as Rooney’s statue is positioned in mid-air ready to head butt the ball in the desired direction.

Most interestingly, there is a significant dose of revisionist history in the print campaign. I don’t quite remember Robinho being in the spot, but that's because Brazilian national team coach Dunga made plenty of headlines when he left world class star Ronaldinho off the roster for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Ronaldinho is a big ticket item in terms of the Nike brand world wide and there was little doubt that he would be key to the Brazilians but the coach had a different idea.

The Nike ‘Write the Future’ campaign will definitely has football and World Cup fans hyped. The campaign was created by Wieden+Kennedy of Amsterdam. The overall campaign was 6 months in the making and is perhaps the best commercial for any sports event. Interestingly, Nike released the ad first only on their Facebook page with viewers being able to view the ad after they clicked the ‘Like’ button. A bit strange, forcing one to ‘like’ something.