You have to give the athletes featured in the Foot Locker spot “All Is Right” credit for having a sense of humor about themselves.
Created by BBDO New York and directed by Jim Jenkins of O Positive, the :60 spot, which is all about making things right in the sports world, finds Brett Favre demonstrating he actually knows when it is time to quit and Dennis Rodman buying a one-way plane ticket to North Korea. The biggest shocker: Mike Tyson hands Evander Holyfield that chunk of ear he bit off years ago and says, “I’m sorry, Evander.”
According to BBDO senior creative director Dan Lucey, the athletes were up for having some fun with their images and understood the value in it. “The Foot Locker Approved campaign has been up and running for about a year now and has shown a lot of athletes poking fun at themselves. They see the charm in this type of humor, and they come off looking very good for it,” Lucey said, noting, “Now, when we approach someone, there is a reference, and they know what they are getting into.”
“Everyone in the spot is really owning their past actions,” added BBDO senior creative director Chris Beresford-Hill. “So there might be a little closure, but there’s also something powerful and positive in owning it.”
It certainly didn’t take any convincing for Jenkins to agree to direct “All Is Right.” “The concept is pretty much bulletproof. I was into it the minute that Chris and Dan told it to me and that was before the athletes had been nailed down,” Jenkins told SHOOT. “It’s just a smart idea and very fertile ground comedically. Plus, the fact that they were somehow able to get Tyson and Holyfield to agree to do it really ramped up the scope and the humor of it all. You have to applaud the agency for presenting it and the client for buying it. It wasn’t without risks, but it paid off.”
Long-time collaborators
Jenkins has worked with BBDO frequently over the years on spots for clients ranging from FedEx to Snickers, and that level of familiarity and comfort between the agency and director helped make this Foot Locker a spot a success, according to Lucey and Beresford-Hill. “Jim keeps you very honest,” Beresford-Hill remarked. “He’s never afraid to tell you a line is soft or a vignette needs work. In the end, what we come out with is always better for it.”
One of the most challenging parts of the job was simply organizing a production schedule around athletes spread all over the country. Ultimately, the shoot took place in two locations–New York City and Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Jenkins and his crew, which included DP Ramsey Nickell, didn’t have unlimited time with their celebrity talent, of course, but the director said he had enough time. “Athletes and other celebrities can often squeeze you for time, but that urgency often works to the advantage of the spot,” Jenkins said.
Athletes aren’t always the most natural actors, but Jenkins got strong performances out of his talent, Tyson and Holyfield in particular. “Clearly, the Tyson-Holyfield ear return is the key moment in the spot, and a lot of people have said to me when they saw the spot they couldn’t believe that these two really did this,” Jenkins said, admitting he, too, had a moment on set when even he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“Tyson is obviously the key to that scene, and you really believe him in the moment,” the director continued. “His eyes are what sells his performance, which is the mark of an actor. He comes off as genuinely remorseful, so he not only gave the spot his star power but also kind of an emotional center. In short, he nailed it.”
Tyson and Holyfield had actually reconciled months before, so they were comfortable with each other, according to Lucey. That said, the depth of their on-camera reconciliation was amazing. “When the camera rolled we realized that we didn’t just have a funny joke, we were getting something genuine and unexpected,” Lucey said.
Ian Mackenzie of New York’s Mackenzie Cutler edited “All Is Right.” Jenkins described the editor as “hugely talented” as well as “pretty much one of the most pleasant human beings on the planet” and praised him for being willing to try different editorial constructions.
At the outset, “We all had an idea in our head that we would go from scene to scene,” Lucey recalled. “When Ian Mackenzie began working on it, he brought his own ideas and moved the story throughout this new world, cutting back and forth.”
“Once our creative team, Jason Stefanik and Alex Taylor [both BBDO creative directors as well as art director and copywriter, respectively], saw this and added some of their magic, it was very clear this was right, and neither Dan nor I felt the need to look at other structures,” Beresford-Hill said.
