Gatorade has saved the best for last in its nostalgic, eight-week-long "Be Like Mike" campaign revival.
In a 60-second video that went live this morning, we finally see present-day Michael Jordan drinking Gatorade—rather than just archival footage of His Airness from 25 years ago.
Created by digital agency VML, the star-studded homage to the original Bayer Bess Vanderwarker spot features no less than 10 Gatorade athletic endorsers.
Among them: tennis superstar Serena Williams; women's soccer stars Abby Wambach and Mia Hamm; Major League Baseball's Bryce Harper; the NFL's Cam Newton; the NBA's Jabari Parker; and NASCAR's Jimmie Johnson.
Plus, we get cameos from singer/actor Nick Cannon and Zach LaVine, who won the Slam Dunk contest at NBA All-Star 2015. The 19-year old LaVine lapped the competition at Brooklyn's Barclays Center while wearing a No. 23 Jordan jersey from Space Jam.
Of course, as the payoff, we see Air Jordan himself drinking his favorite Gatorade Citrus Cooler. "Still got it," quips Michael. The tagline: "We all want to still #BeLikeMike."
To celebrate its 50th anniversary, Gatorade rolled out a digitally remastered version of the classic "Be Like Mike" spot created by BBV 23 years ago during NBA All-Star Weekend.
Since then, Gatorade has layered in three new spots inspired by user-generated social posts and video salutes from the other athletes who've followed in Jordan's footsteps as Gatorade endorsers. But none have featured the present-day Michael until now.
The positive reaction from consumers and athletes to the campaign shows that Jordan—longtime sports king of Madison Avenue—still has legs, according to Gatorade's Chief Marketing Officer Morgan Flatley.
"We hope this final video will continue to inspire a new generation of athletes to show us, and each other, what it means to Be Like Mike," she told Adweek.
CREDITS:
Client: Gatorade
Agency: VML
Gatorade Director of Digital Strategy: Jeff Miller
Gatorade Senior Manager of Digital Marketing: Abhishek Jadon
Gatorade Chief Marketing Officer: Morgan Flatley
VML
Executive Creative Director: Tony Snethen
Group Creative Director: Matt Bowne
Creative Director: Nick Allegri
Associate Creative Director: Maggie Harn
Associate Creative Director: Adam LaRocca
Senior Copywriter: Ryan Simpson
Art Director: Amanda Laffoon
Art Director: Zac Greason
Art Director: Jaclyn Co
Group Director, Client Engagement: Stephanie DeCelles
Director, Client Engagement: Abby Fraser
Senior Account Manager: Carley McNary
Senior Social Strategist: Kyle Rogers
Channel Manager: Chelsea Curry
Directors: Chris Riehl and Christopher Leone
Production Company: Motion Theory
Editorial: Mirada
Editor: Mike Merkwan
Editor: Patrick Smith
Producer: Snake Roth