
Foot Type Test Ad
ASICS
Issue 44 | September 2017
Agency
Neogama
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer Alexandre Gama Creative Directors Márcio Ribas, Fabio Mozeli Art Directors Gabriel Marcondes, Sávio Hatherly, José Pedro Bortolini, Michel Morem Copywriter Pedro Rosas
Production Team
Head of Production Mariah Bayeux RTVC Paula Alimonda Artbuyer Vanessa Raad, Felipe Moro Production Company Ritmo Visual Filmes Film Director Pedro H. M. Marques Executive Producer Patrick Caracas
Other Credits
Account Team Guilherme Nogueira, Renato Miguez, João Castro, Oleg Loretto Planner Maju Strasburg Media Team Luiz Gini, Giuliana Chekin, Cibele Perandin, Karem Pugliesi Client Mauricio Busin, Thaise Oliveira
Date
May 2017
Background
Thousands of runners were not using the correct running shoes for their type of foot. Consequently, they were in danger of injuring themselves.
ASICS, whose name is an acronym for the Latin phrase 'anima sana in corpore sano', meaning 'a healthy soul in a healthy body' wanted to help runners choose the right shoes for them.
Idea
The Foot-Type Test ad was created using a thermochromatic ink that reacted to body heat. The ad originally ran on the front covers of 'Runners' and 'Women's Health' magazines in Brazil and invited readers to stand on the magazine.
Within moments they discovered whether their foot type was supinator (when the shoes wore out on the outer area of the sole), pronator (wore out on the inner area of the sole) or neutral (when the sole wore out uniformly).
Results
Unknown
Our Thoughts
One of the effects of the digital revolution is that it has brought a culture of innovation to other media. Only print has resisted. But now it does seem as if there is the occasional instance of a brand and an agency trying something new.
Also from Brazil we have seen a press ad for Nivea that connected to a mother's phone so she could monitor how far her child wandered on the beach; in Austria, blood from people with HIV was mixed with ink for Vangardist magazine to combat the stigma still attached to HIV-positive people; and so on. Now an interactive ad that reads the shape of your foot. Brilliant.
Will it win awards? Not a chance. Print juries are stuck in a rut. Yet again at Cannes this year all the winners were visual puns with a tiny logo in the bottom right-hand corner. Only two campaigns in all the Golds and Silvers had any body copy.
C'mon guys, you're supposed to be looking for originality and all you're doing is rewarding the same-old.