Reebok – “Reepower” from |
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Reebok Hockey is running a 30-second spot that relies on a mixture of created and stock footage to demonstrate the power of its new high-end Ai9 composite hockey stick.
The spot opens on black-and-white footage of a player as he winds up for a slapshot, the only colour in the shot is the distinctive red markings on the stick’s shaft.
Just as the player’s stick is about to make contact with the puck, the spot shifts to images synonymous with power: racehorses exploding out of a starting gate, a rollercoaster hurtling along a track and a building imploding. The spot ends with an image of the stick, accompanied by the super “Reepower, Reebok” and a throw to the company’s Facebook page.
“You can only watch slapshots so many times,” said Simon Creet, vice-president and chief creative officer for The Hive, the Toronto agency behind the spot. “We’re used to watching the hardest slapshots on ice every Saturday night, but replicating it – even in slow-motion – doesn’t do justice to the power this stick has.”
The Reebok spot is currently airing on Canadian Hockey League telecasts, as well as on the scoreboards in both American Hockey League and East Coast Hockey League arenas throughout the season.
It was also shown on arena scoreboards in Berlin, Stockholm and Helsinki during the National Hockey League’s season-opening European tour earlier this fall. The stick is used by current NHL players, including the Detroit Red Wings’ Pavel Datsyuk.
So has the Ai9 elevated Creet’s game? “It’ll take a whole lot more than a stick to do anything for my game,” he joked.