Wieden + Kennnedy has been getting a bit of stick over the first execution in the Nike ‘joga bonito’ world cup campaign. The campaign aims to highlight the things that are wrong with the modern game and champions the joy of football at its purest. The article above is from satirical magazine Private Eye, which has a go at the choice of Eric Cantona as a proponent for the Beautiful Game, citing the interesting statistic that Eric was responsible for a tackle voted the 44th worst of all time.

I guess any attempt by a brand of Nike’s stature to put forward a point of view about football that’s even midly provocative will attract criticism. But the point is Nike is a brand that at least attempts to have a point of view about sport and the part it plays in our culture and our lives. And making that attempt is what gives the brand a heart and soul that just isn’t there in the hundreds of other brands that will be trying to ‘own’ football around the time of the world cup. See what you think of the campaign at http://nikefootball.nike.com/nikefootball/siteshell/index.jsp