Star-studded stories – Agyness Deyn, David Beckham, Louise Roe, Noel Gallagher & Snoop Dogg for adidas

The Cambridge dictionary defines advertising as "the business of trying to persuade people to buy products or services". 

Advertising is all about selling a product. Or at least that's the theory.

Somehow, it seems that more and more brands are lucky enough to have millions to spend only on image campaigns. No harm done, it's always nice to sell feelings, trying to trigger some kind of emotional relations in a potential customer. 

But are there boundaries where an image campaign comes to the point of not being an ad any longer – and rather a short movie? Are there boundaries to which extent marketers can "use" famous brand ambassadors before it gets tacky?

What is she talking about, you might think now. I am referring to the latest adidas TV advert "The street where originality lives" by Sid Lee:

The unusually long spot (for a branding advert at least) features the appearance of Adrienne Bailon, Agyness Deyn, Ana Ivanovic, Calle 13, Cheer Chen, Ciara, David Beckham, DJ Neil Armstrong, Fernando Verdasco, Hyori Lee, Ian Brown, Jay Baruchel, Jeremy Scott, Louise Roe, Mr. Hudson, N-Dubz, Noel Gallagher, Snoop Dogg, Tallulah Morton and Whitney Port. Yes I know, that's quite a list...

After I saw that ad for the first time was a little confused. "Now what was that?", I thought. I did a little research and found out that the spot was a follow up to an ad released in January which promoted adidas' cooperation with Star Wars. According to advertolog.com the ad translated "the most iconic moments and beloved figures from the Star Wars saga to the streets, telling their creative story across a forceful collection of adidas Originals footwear and apparel."

Okay, I get that. I also get that the new spot is all about originality. And I also think that creatively speaking it's really well done. But: I was wondering... 

Is this still an advert? 

Why did they insist on having a zillion celebs in the movie when the main topic is originality and people from all cultural backgrounds coming together? 

Is it a must in today's advertising environment to include some A-listers in order to get attention?

I couldn't come to an conclusion myself so I decided to conduct a little vox pop, asking the following question:

What do you think about brands increasingly using celebrity brand ambassadors to convey emotions in their adverts rather than to focus on the product?

"I think this is an obvious trend in modern advertising. I personally appreciate advertisements which clarify a product’s true features instead of some smiling celebrities who try to give the product some superior value through his or her attendance. But I think that most conventional customers are not mainly interested in the product attributes but more in the social awareness of friends and acquaintances which is caused by owing products from sounding brands like adidas and co. Therefore – from a marketing point of view – it is an adequate method to attract new customers."

Christian Wittner (21), Business Administration student

"I guess it's because they're trying to approach everyone with just one campaign. And they are failing, because the music is obnoxious. But if you put together: Snoop Dogg, Agyness Deyn, David Beckham and Noel Gallagher; you'll have pretty much ALL OF THE WORLD covered, which is a great strategy because the brand is not tied to one face, that you might dislike they are selling the brand more than the product. It's more about "buy adidas" than "buy adidas sneakers".

Marta Corato (19), Journalism student

“Well I think brands just try to maximise their profit even more, they target a younger audience simply because celebrities are the kind of people they look up to. And of course it is a lot easier to influence younger consumers compared to older ones - given they have sufficient education, they are more likely to buy a product because of the product and not because of the celebrity using it...”

Stefan Mödlhamer (21), Computer Engineering student

So it seems, the majority agrees that featuring brand ambassadors in advertising is a justified means to boost profits. And let's be honest. At the end of the day – it doesn’t really matter how you do that, does it? The only thing that matters is to stay in your audience's minds – adidas certainly managed to do so... they even got someone to blog about it ;)