It’s sunset. A shop-owner rolls down his steel shutters. A streetlamp flickers into life. The skyline starts to glow. Young people rack up pool balls on green baize, chalk up their cues, shove at pinball machines and take aim over bowling balls at racks of pins.
Over swelling, happy-sad strings, a voice-over like a laid-back rapper intones, “Backspin on a worktable under bad light. A kiss off the eight ball. A bank on the six. Double bowl in a single throw, three pints in. Picking up a spare on the final frame…”
There’s a lot of bad advertising out there. But great advertising outplays it. Being a copywriter, I most admire ads that sound to me like the concepts and executions were led by the copy, the writing polished till it shines, like the maple floor of a bowling alley.
I wish I could say my favourite ad was something like Guinness Surfer, with its genius “tick followed tock followed tick followed tock…” script. I respect that ad. I’m in awe of it. But After Hours Athletes I just plain love.
Droga5’s After Hours Athletes for Puma is my all-time favourite ad, hands-down.
(youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N59RKKSFxQc)
Yes, there are more famous ads. There are probably better ads, although this is surely up there? In the same way you can’t choose who you fall in love with, you don’t choose your favourite ad. It just is.
Maybe it’s ridiculous, but After Hours Athletes still gives me shivers, four or five years after I first saw it – especially at the point when there’s a slight shift in mood, as the script gets to the “when last calls, don’t answer” bit.
The night is winding down, and you recall that melancholy flicker of recognition you get on all great nights out when you know it’s almost over.
It’s in the craft. The attention to detail. The voiceover, sounding like Morgan Freeman’s cooler and (much-) younger brother. The quick cuts and handheld camerawork. The music. The moment in the end title with the line in neon lettering: “here’s to the after hours athlete,” and your realisation how they’ve put that neat spin on traditional sportswear messaging. It’s not just the script, of course. It’s the idea too.
Back when the campaign first burst, David Droga wrote an (link: http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304432304576371463122019244 text: article) in the Wall Street Journal about cracking that line – a beautiful example of spot-on strategy, sharp insight and elegantly concise copywriting.
“Some athletic companies just celebrate winning at all costs,” he writes. “Puma also champions ‘social’ sports – think foosball, darts, karaoke, bowling and other wildly popular games that you’re likely to play with a drink in your hand.”
The team struggled.
“Then,” he continues, “just when we were ready to pack it in, inspiration struck: ‘the after-hours athlete.’”
I don’t know who came up with the line. Droga himself? One of the writers? Whoever it was, I hate and admire them in equal measure.
All I know is, every time the last line of the ad rolls around: “The night too is for sport, and they are the champions,” I pull the red progress bar back to the start of the video and watch it again.