Rooney Fronts Latest Nike Advert

With the Olympics and Wimbledon coming up and Euro 2012 in full swing, England has gone sporting mad. Brands have, of course, been quick to latch on to this sporting fever, with Nike's "My Time Is Now" campaign currently leading the way.

Following the interactive "Hidden Tunnels" advert and the "Magic Soccer Night", the latest installment from the campaign features a close-up of Wayne Rooney listening to football commentaries about himself, before dramatically turning his gaze to the screen.

Simple? Yes. Effective? Yes. But Rooney, who seems almost drawn to causing trouble for himself, has managed to get the campaign banned from Twitter as he and England midfielder Jack Wilshere posted the link without stating that it was a Nike endorsement.

This went against Twitter's advertising code, which states that a disclaimer must be included when someone is being paid to endorse a product.

However, the footballers argued that, since it is public knowledge they are both endorsed by Nike, and the campaign's hashtag #makeitcount was included in the Tweets, followers would not be misled by the nature of the advert.

What we would like to know, however, is why Nike chose Rooney, of all players, to appear in a topless close-up ad.

Successful and, arguably, inspirational as Rooney may be, Wilshere, Lampard, or good old Beckham would have been so much more appealing.

It seems that viewers don't mind this too much, since the video has gained 422,884 views and 72,616 shares since it launched 2 days ago.