Commercial with old runner in nursing home is touching but bunk
With 4.7 million views on YouTube, this would-be adidas commercial by Eugen Merher has become a cult classic with runners. Eugen is a 26-year-old German film student who once studied at Oregon. The 99-second spot pulls at heartstrings, but it’s full of baloney. What nursing home would discourage an aged runner from donning his old flats? Unless Alzheimer’s is involved, what’s the reason to lock someone in? Whatever. Many people like the spot, and are encouraging adidas to air it. What say you?
13 Responses
Kind of a strange commercial with no explanation of why they oppose his running. One resident was watering his TV so maybe Alzheimers is the issue. It would play on peoples fears of nursing homes so I can see where it might get a lot of hits on social media. Is Adidas still selling the shoes?
There’s a number of mixed messages in this commercial, and I’m not surprised it was created by a 26-year-old (never trust anyone under the age of 30!).
Sure, there are plenty of bad nursing homes, but the “nursing home as prison” is a pretty tired trope. And of course the actress hired to play the nurse is big, cruel and scary looking…like a prison guard.
From the activities of the other “inmates”, I believe we are supposed to think that this is indeed at least in part a memory-care unit.
So, the upshot of the commercial is that the elderly athlete is supposed to “break free” of his nursing home/prison by strapping on his Adidas and running away. And we are left seeing him run off toward a city. Then what?
Kind of pathetic to use bathos to sell shoes.
The idea could have been done better a number of different ways. My thought on the last scene was “never to be seen again” as he runs off into the sunset.
Lighten up, people! The spot is warm and touching and speaks to the essence of those of us who are runners for life. The guy is my hero.
If it were a documentary or even a filmed drama, I would agree with you, Bill. But it’s a commercial designed to play upon emotions to sell shoes.
Several years ago, I actually approached Adidas with a marketing pitch to use a couple of well-known Master Athletes in an “upbeat” age-positive way as spokespersons for the growing Baby Boomer market and they said “no..we only use young models and spokespeople”. And their web site is a testament to that fact.
So maybe I am just prejudiced against Adidas.
Bill, While I do like the concept of not giving in to aging, that commercial really is kind of strange and clearly was designed to evoke emotions that will sell shoes, not show reality. My experience with nursing homes is thankfully limited but the few that I have visited are nothing like the one portrayed in the commercial.
I love it.. It reminds me of the movie “one flew over the cuckoo’s nest” and the bid Indian breaks the gated window to get out…. I don’t read anything into it, just like any other piece of art… Just that you feel good he gets out..
It’s NOT an Addidas spot. It is a student director “spec” commercial. He sent it to Addidas but they never responded.
In response to Rob’s comment #5, its a sad fact that the general public is simply not interested in masters athletes unless they are competing against open age athletes such as the case with Bernard Lagat or even the late George Blanda. If Blanda played in the Senior Football League no one would have cared. We know how amazing Irene Obera is because we experience the challenges of aging each day yet masters athletes don’t merit an invitation to the IAAF annual awards ceremony which is an incredible slap in the face. Its time to recognize that our sport is very important to the participants and their families but outside that group it doesn’t move the needle at all. Enjoy it for what it is.
I’ll bet his shoes, considered “old school”, are worth money- once he got to the big city over the hill, I hope he sold them on Ebay and made a bundle -probably the nursing home expenses sucked away all his prior savings.
Post #10=Funny. I didn’t like the commercial because it was just a bad commercial. And, why was the nurse trying so hard to keep him inside? Maybe because he’s a threat to society and doesn’t want him out there running free…:).
okay,it’s a film student’s adidas based project – never a real commercial. But I like it. I like the sense of escape from perhaps the boundaries of an aging mind and body. The spark of memory of what once was and might still be. At least for a moment or a block or two.
who, of the aged, does not want that moment again?
Perhaps the commercial is meant to be symbolic of how we all feel trapped by age but still wish to run free. If given the choice I’d rather run than work, or be confined in any manner that wouldn’t allow me to run, injury etc. Our running is a symbol of our freedom, it defies our friends and family and it is an expression of how we see ourselves. One of the most absurd things about my divorce is when the court told me I couldn’t run anymore because I was using marital assets in order to run, I kept waiting for the punch line that never came, I then politely told them they could go F themselves, I explained that I had been running since I born, bare foot, in the mud, on the concrete, and there was nothing they could do to stop me. I appreciate the commercial and its implications, its a sweet gesture of age and desire.
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