Nike’s fond retirement farewell to Rafa Nadal

Nike has paid a fitting tribute to Rafa Nadal on his retirement from tennis, featuring a V/O from founder Phil Knight, no less.

There’s a kind of valedictory air to this in more ways than one: Knight, of course, is no longer CEO (replacing the founder has been no easier for Nike than it was for Apple with Steve Jobs.) Nike is struggling to retain its dominance after nearly 60 years of upsetting the applecart and, maybe, this kind of muscle-bound advertising has had its heyday too.

As the genre goes this is timely and graceful, from almost equally long-serving Wieden+Kennedy London.

MAA creative scale: 7.5.