More Creative Tidbits Concerning I WANT IT

There’s this article that a friend shared recently:

http://www.businessinsider.com/25-nike-ads-that-shaped-the-brands-history-2013-8#the-very-first-just-do-it-ad-1988-1

That might be a thing to look at.

When I look at those ads, I reflect on what an impact on the culture those ads had.  I’m fighting hard against my own instincts to be cynical in the creation of this play.  I could make Fred this cult leader or this Svengali character.  In his purest form, here is a guy who had an idea about getting a message out to the world and decided to do it through advertising.  When you have something that pure, it is so easily corruptible.  So you have these “disciples”, if you will, of his GLENN, ROBERT, JANET, and KIMBERLY who also have the task of getting his message out there.  (The second I typed the word “disciples”, I automatically thought of Jesus and the Apostles – not a bad road to go down)  Sometimes, the message gets a bit messed up when you entrust a group of people who have their own set of goals, ambitions, prejudices and the like that contaminate the message.  The same thing has happened with religion.  The same thing happens with any message that gets out. 

And what is our religion now?  What do we worship?  We offer our tributes to the gods these days with our dollars.  And what do we spend on?  Clothes, shoes, electronics…stuff.  And who gets us to buy stuff, ad agencies.  But what if one ad agency decided that they were going to be more altruistic and that’s the message that it constantly preached.  Yet still this altruistic message was still the force behind people buying stuff.  It gets convoluted.  And that’s what I want to focus on.  The leader doesn’t have to be corrupt.  The disciples are the ones that corrupt the message.

I like THAT message more.

I also like that KIMBERLY is this character who starts out unsure of herself and thrust into this world that seems beyond her.  Then she happens upon an idea and eventually that idea becomes bigger than her.  But she latches onto it because she wants to believe that message and she wants the recognition that comes along with it.  She’s only 27.  So this is her shot.  And she takes it, but it turns her into someone she isn’t sure she is or should be.

To me this is reflective of the transition that happens from this “golden age of W+K” that we all keep talking about to something that becomes more commercial, even though the fame and the fortune came about because they were pure and honest. 

Then when she thinks she’s won, someone comes along and “steals the ball”, another guy.

This BOY in the play, he eventually gets chosen as a “regular person” who’s featured in one of the ads, to add to the authenticity of the message.  Like the “Find Your Greatness” kid in the Nike Ad or Walt Simon in the first “Just Do It” ad.  This gives me so much to think about.

In Terms of Physicality...

Glenn and Robert play basketball.  One on one.

Janet and Kimberly talk.

These scenes happen side by side.

Actually, this scene happens while Janet and Kimberly are in the middle of the court.

The floor should be a mini basketball court.

There’s another scene where a boy plays basketball by himself.