MWCB - Nike Guerilla Tennis 1995

The brief was centered around the fact that tennis was a subdued, quiet sport where the tennis fans are asked to hush before every serve. At that time, you had one of the most dynamic, high energy rivalries on the courts with Sampras and Agassi. Nike wanted to show how that energy and excitement was disrupting the tennis world.
Spike’s location team looked at New York, but it proved too costly and complicated. San Francisco allowed them to close four downtown city blocks for the day. After the spot was out, most people just assumed it was filmed in New York.

After Spike filmed Sampras and Agassi exiting the taxi, the entire shoot kept building and building from there. With so many cameras filming in multiple directions, all agency and clients watched from a nearby rooftop so none of them ended up in the background.
The most challenging part of the shoot was the ending, with the city bus crashing through the net. At that point, a large number of people was watching in the intersection. So there needed to be a lot of planning to get the shot and have nobody injured in the process.
The spot has had enduring appeal because everyone had a memory of the Sampras vs. Agassi rivalry. At the time, they went head to head in final after final. Championship match after championship match. Their styles were different. Their personalities were different. But they both played and battled every point with all they had.
The spot actually won a Silver Lion at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and 20 years later they recreated a rematch in the streets on NYC.