Generally speaking, I’ve been serious fanboy mode in re: the Nike Joga Bonito campaign. I like the stars involved (tough to go wrong with Ronladinho, Wayne Rooney, and Thierry Henry), I like all the fun interactive online stuff (except the joga.com “soccer myspace” thing — that’s actually kind of silly), and most of all I like its values (celebrating the joy of playing fairly and with style).

Which is why I find the most recent flight of creative in support of the US MNT to be so offensive. “Join forces” and “US Soccer Attacks”? Errrr, no. I was okay with the “Don’t Tread On Me” thing — that was more about demanding respect from the rest of the soccer world. But using such blatantly militaristic signifiers when the rest of the world tends to dislike us precisely because we’ve been a bit loose with the “use of preemptive military strikes” seems almost like a bad joke. Shouldn’t the World Cup be about forgetting why we all don’t like each other for just a couple weeks and focusing on the game? Why do we gotta be bringing up the recent unpleasantness? What was wrong with Don’t Tread On Me?

Yuck. I like the Gatorade ad better.

Nike Joga TV site