Adidas & JD Sports – 3 Bar Superstar

Adidas Originals and JD Sports have collaborated with music artist Kano for ‘3 Bar Superstar’, a campaign devised by McCann London to help find undiscovered talent.

 
 
Worn by Run DMC at the birth of rap culture, Adidas’s iconic Superstar shoe once stood for originality, inspiring subcultures like UK Grime. But today, with arts cuts and music schools closing, original UK talent has no space to be heard.

So Adidas wiped out three musical bars from Grime-pioneer Kano’s latest track – in homage to the shoes’ 3-bar design – with an innovative mobile site that turned mobile phones into studio microphones.

Adidas invited the unheard talent to step up for the chance to be heard by industry reps and win studio time with Kano himself. Young lyricists could record and broadcast their lyrics, with each entry instantly becoming bespoke music videos featuring Kano. Emergent talents got the Superstar treatment and entered the mainstream from the palm of their hands.

Making the unattainable attainable, this intelligent but simple mechanic put possibility at the fingertips of a generation of artists, providing a unique breakthrough opportunity and platform through which thousands of new voices were heard. This empowered their audience, democratized music, and re-established the spirit of the shoe’s heritage for promoting originality.

Credits
Advertising Agency: McCann, London
Client: Adidas Originals & JD Sports / Adidas Superstar trainers
Production Company: Craft
Product: Adidas Superstar trainers
Tags: Adidas Superstar Shoes, 3 Bar Superstar, Digital Campaign