We usually try to bring our readers unusual, and unique, up-to-date ideas, so when it came to this fan-made (!) Adidas commercial, we couldn’t resist appreciating its creators craft and creativity. Made by German student, Eugen Merher, as part of his university project, and posted right before Christmas, this sad story of a German long-distance runner will definitely get you teary-eyed. While reaching over 9.7 million views, you would really not guess that’s this is not an official advert by the iconic German sports brand. Despite it’s apparent success and becoming a viral sensation, the popular brand has turned down the opportunity to use it as their own, twice!

Eugen Merher is a 26-year-old director who created a quite heart-breaking commercial with beautiful music by composer Alexander Wolf David, and then sent it to Adidas, who — unfortunately for them — turned it down. Mehrer told The Huffington Post about his experience: “We tried sending it to [Adidas’] communications department but they didn’t really react.” And it seems they have made a mistake, as people all over the world are talking about this emotional short movie, which — despite being only 1 minute and 39 seconds long – will grab your heart with a story about and old and sad marathon runner who lives in a retirement home with a special regime (probably for seniors with some form of mental disorder).

One day the old man finds his old Adidas shoes and despite being held back by the nursing facility personnel, he decides to starts running again. Take a look yourselves to see, if he succeeds to break free…

Eugen Mehrer was born in 1990 in Chisinau, Moldova and later he moved to Germany. At that time, he found his passion for filmmaking by using his parents’ DV camera and started making cheap action flicks with his Russian friends. In 2014, he became a commercial director at the Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg and created several commercial spots, e.g. for Nivea or Busuu.com.

The unofficial advert is the second ‘fake’ branded spot that has gone viral in recent months. Back in November last year, an imitation of a John Lewis video called ‘The Snowglobe’ – created as an A-level media coursework by Nick Jablonka — was believed to be the department store’s much-awaited Christmas commercial and it received quite large media coverage and over 1.5 million views on YouTube.

Credits:

Cast: Jens Weisser, Herman Van Ulzen, Anja Karmanski, Hiltrud Hauschke, Daniel Hubertus
Director / Script – Eugen Merher
Camera: Mortimer Hochberg
Producer – Karli Baumann, Karl Heidelbach
DoP – Mortimer Hochberg
Editor – Ernst Lattik
Music – Alexander Wolf David
Sound design – Marcus Fass
Sound recording – David Hill
Make-up – Sandra Untenberger
Production Design – Nora Brockamp, Julian Dieterich

Production Company: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg

VFX: Tim Markgraf