Connor McDavid has yet to play a game in the NHL, but this year’s top draft pick has already been hired as the point man for well-known hockey brand CCM.
This week, Reebok-CCM unveiled its new “Made of Hockey” campaign, which ties hard work, identity and character to McDavid’s success on the ice.
Produced by Montreal-based Exacto Communications, the campaign kicks off with a microsite and a stirring television spot.
“Made Of Hockey revolves around the principle that hockey is more than just a game; it is passion, pride and quite simply, a way of life that only those excited by the drop of a puck or a clean sheet of ice can understand,” according to a release.
Nicknamed “McJesus” by hockey fans, McDavid appears destined to join the ranks of Canadian hockey greats like Wayne Gretzky and Sidney Crosby. And following the lead of those forbearers, a little personal myth-making is already being applied to the McDavid story.
For Crosby, success was tied to a beat-up old dryer the young player used as target practice. Meanwhile, Gretzky’s narrative has always been linked to his father’s faithful maintenance of a backyard ice rink, where his son could practice for hours.
Likewise, Made of Hockey ties McDavid’s on-ice skills to a piece of plywood in the garage of the family home. As a boy, McDavid’s dad told him that if he could shatter that hunk of wood with his shot, he’d get an NHL tryout.
“So every day, I went after it,” says McDavid in the TV spot. “Even as a kid, I was aiming for the NHL.”
The ad is interspersed with footage of McDavid’s practice regiment and his dominant on-ice play as a junior.
“Let’s just say I wasn’t going to let anything stand in my way,” narrates the 18-year-old McDavid.
Benoit Allaire, president of Exacto Communications, says the piece of plywood was vital to connecting McDavid to the campaign and its themes of persistence and character.
“Puck after puck, he never stopped striving to reach his ultimate goal: to join the ranks of an NHL team and hit the ice with the world’s greatest hockey players. That right there is the essence of Made Of Hockey.”
McDavid joins an all-star roster—including Crosby and New York Islanders star John Tavares—for Reebok-CCM, which is a subsidiary of the Adidas group.
