Post by Simon Derungs

“Football, football, football. We get nothing but football morning, noon and night.” Nike’s 1997 commercial is named after and features the hit 1994 Britpop track ‘Parklife’ by Blur. It’s incredible, largely because it was the exact opposite of all the glitzy high budget sponsor ads out there. Featuring a bunch of pub league players on Hackney Marshes in East London on a Sunday morning, plus a few top Premiership footballers (Eric Cantona, Ian Wright, Robbie Fowler and David Seaman), the film was fresh and authentic, establishing Nike’s football credentials in the UK by showing it understood and respected the grassroots game. It’s also a lot of fun! The ad was created by Tony Malcolm and Guy Moore at Simons Palmer Denton Clemmow & Johnson, and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Jonathan Glazer. Choosing the Blur song was genius. Apparently, frontman Damon Albarn had originally tried singing the verses himself but felt his voice lacked the rugged edge of a real person down the pub. So they brought in Phil Daniels (star of the iconic 1979 Mod movie Quadrophenia), who nailed the entire legendary spoken-word performance in just 40 minutes. It won numerous industry awards including three D&AD Yellow Pencils and was ranked 15th in the Best Commercials of the 20th Century by Channel 4’s polling of the 100 greatest TV advertisements. Fun fact: the man telling his wife to “shut up” at the start of the ad was legendary manager Brian Clough. The story goes that art director Guy Moore found a pirate cassette tape sellotaped to a football fanzine that featured a clip of Clough on a TV show snapping at someone "Shut up while I'm talking". #advertising #FIFAWorldCup #WorldCup2026

Video Content