Watch this Video-journalism driven Nike advert

What's fascinating about this commercial is the references it spawns.

And as always I use the term Video Journalism as a generalisation: Vj is not so much about news, but its visual language.

It has a consistent point of view, a singular authorship - a child of its youtube time.

You never see the protagonist, but you understand the narrative by almost placing yourself in his position.

It is the equivalent of reading a first person narrative such as The Remains of the Day (1989) by Booker Prize winner Japanese-British author Kazuo Ishiguro or Hunter Thompson's Gonzoism.

Or better still mirrors Prodigy's banned MTV track Smack my B**ch Up. It's x-rated so I have not embedded the video here on account I have some idea of the age of some of Outernet's reader

And why I believe the Nike and Prodigy are so clever is they each contain strands of Video Journalism's DNA. A unitary point of view, the editing sequences are aggressive, and the plot ( variable narratives) unfold quite linearly ( though there's some work they could further do here in multi narratives for these multimedia times).

If you push this further it inhabits the MUD game world of Grand Theft Auto.

Could this be replicated across other genres?

With clever innovative directions, yes, and with video journalism becoming the Will Smith of media, I won't be surprised to see more viral driven first person narrative ads.

Footnote: Nike track is Eagles Of Death Metal - Don't Speak which contributes majorly to the ad. I'll look to see if I can produce something with a musical prodigy whose music I regularly use Nancy Ginindza


Nancy again- same song - but different visuals: next time I'll cut this to a POV