Nike Supports Athletes Competing In Londons Around The World

Tonight the world will be watching the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. But the British capital isn't the only city in which sporting greatness can be found, as this new ad from Nike  proclaims.

The sportswear giant is not an official Olympic sponsor. As such, it can't refer to the games, the Olympic park, medals or anything conencted with the London games in its advertising. But what it can do, and is doing very well, is talk about sporting ambition in the rest of the world.

Of course, the rest of the world includes Little London, in Jamaica, Small London, in Nigeria, East London, in South Africa, and countless London Roads, London Hotels and London Fields. These places may not have an opening ceremonies or play anthems. Some of them are little more than dusty patches of dry grass and stinking gyms with paint peeling off the walls.

But sporting greatness can be found here too, well away from the bright lights and cameras of the Olympic Stadium.

The ad claims that it isn't just the professionals with sponsored tracksuits and screaming fans who can achieve greatness.

Everyone who pushes themselves toward a sporting goal, however big or small, is already on the road to greatness. Put together by Wieden + Kennedy the ad is well on its way to greatness itself, earning over 1 million views and 22,000 shares in just two days.

The Olympics is the hottest ticket in the advertising world right now, but the strict rules on how they can be used, and by whom, have prompted Nike and other brands to carefully skirt the rules in clever, well made ads.