While watching MNF tonight I caught a commercial for Nike. It seems they’ve made a ‘cool’ connection with athletes accellerating timed to the sound of a steam engine (and video) accellerating. Whistle, chug, bell…you get the picture.
My point is: I can’t figure out what loco can be seen on the commercial. Anyone else see it?
I only saw the commercial once and there was a partial/second flash of what looked like stock footage of a NYC Hudson on a curve along the (what else?) Hudson. There were some film clips (ATSF in Cajon, SP steam along San Fernando Rd, and these shots of NYC Hudsons along the 4 track main) that seemed to show up indiscriminately whenever the B&W movie called for a generic train. Widespread use of color put them on a shelf somewhere and this seems to have been dug up.
And isn’t it interesting that to “sell” a product they use an image of the “power of steam”!
Nike’s advertising agency has always been rather clueless. The probably tell their kids to look for the “choo choo” when around a train track. I was on the computer working and listening to the ad (you didn’t really WATCH that game, did you?) and it sounded much better than it apparently looked.
I was editing my rrpicturearchives photos during the game as a roster shot from 2 years ago is more interesting than that game was.
I thought the concept was neat. Think about it: 250 lb pro athlete running right at you=it’s gonna hurt. That kind of power commands respect. Expand the athlete’s weight to 250 ton train engine coming at you=it’s gonna hurt/kill you. That kind of power demands respect.
Granted that the commercial wasn’t geared towards rail safety but if you want to, look at it the way I did.