ASICS, a sponsor of the Brazilian Paralympic Committee (CPB), launched its campaign this week to launch uniforms for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games with a video manifesto starring Paralympic athletes. The campaign was created by the DOJO agency and produced by Volt Filmes, with scene direction by Gabe Maruyama.
“Brazil is a powerhouse in the Paralympics, and initiatives like ASICS’ are essential to support, celebrate and give even more visibility to Paralympic sports. I am immensely proud to direct this campaign as a woman with disabilities, with a cast made up 100% of para-athletes, which I believe is unprecedented in the history of advertising. It is representation on the fields, on the courts and on the tracks, but also behind the cameras. This campaign not only highlights the exceptional skills of our athletes, but also underscores the importance of authentic and empowering narratives in the advertising landscape. This is inclusion in practice,” celebrates Gabe Maruyama, director of the manifesto video.
“Since we started connecting more with Paralympic sport and the CPB, we have noticed a very strong connection with the principles of ASICS. We are very happy with this manifesto because it represents the power of the athlete and Paralympic sport,” says Constanza Novillo, Marketing Director of ASICS Latin America.
About the campaign
The campaign’s goal is to highlight the athletes’ sporting performance, reflecting what is most important to them in the foreground: hard training, the relentless pursuit of medals, the battle to break Olympic records and, above all, the daily struggle to get to Paris and excel in each sporting discipline. With the concept “Above all, for athletes”, the ASICS manifesto talks about athletes’ overcoming in sport without placing disability as the main focus of the message.
“Disability is part of these athletes’ lives, but it is not what defines them and it is not from this perspective that they want to be recognized. With this in mind, the campaign is careful in designing the visual identity, translating the discourse into images. For example, we emphasized the athletes in the foreground and not the disability. And, in the art direction, the ribbons in the background represent the biased views and prejudices from which they are freeing themselves in order to be recognized as athletes,” explains Thiago Baron, CCO of DOJO. According to him, having a stage director like Gabe Maruyama, who is a person with a disability, was a differentiator in directing this production with a fine-tuned vision, bringing authenticity, originality and truth to the message.
The garments were developed in collaboration with Paralympic athletes, from the initial design phase through to testing. Uniquely, they have been adapted with accessibility features to ensure they are functional for the people who will wear them. Additionally, for the first time in CPB history, pieces from the official Paralympic collection are being sold and are available to the general public.
The collection includes a podium jacket, sweatshirt, t-shirts, polo shirt, tank top, shorts, pants, leggings, sneakers, backpack, socks, arm warmers and cap. All pieces feature accessibility details, such as backpacks with handles on the pulls, pants with zippers on the side near the ankle to facilitate athletes with prosthetics, and internal Braille labels that highlight the corresponding colors to help with clothing selection.
In addition to the clothing, footwear and accessories for the entire Paralympic delegation, ASICS will also be present on the uniforms of the athletics and sitting volleyball teams.
Some pieces from the collection are already available in ASICS physical stores and e-commerce, such as the podium jacket (R$499.99), sweatshirt (R$399.99), official t-shirts (R$199.99), polo shirt (R$249.99), compression shorts (R$199.99) and ASICS GEL™-Pulse 15 sneakers (R$699.99).
Technical Data Sheet:
Technical Data Sheet:
Agency: DOJO
Advertiser: ASICS
Title: Above all, For Athletes
CCO: Thiago Baron
COO: Rodrigo Toledo
Creative Director: Fernando Bartolo
Copywriter: Leandro Neves, Filipe Oliveira
Art Director: Julian Laruccia, Karine Bosco
Executive Producer: Paula Pocas
Account: Helena Freitas
Designer: Adriano Brandao
Client approval: Constanza Novillo, Felipe Pontual, Jessica Orsini, Gustavo Silva
Producer: Volt Filmes
Executive Production: Lucas Haas and Patricia Maccioni
Direction: Gabe Maruyama
Assistant director: Thais Soares
Cinematography: Lucas Haas
VHS Camera Operator: Guilherme Bretas
Stylist: Isadora Ribas
Makeup: Marcia Emiko Maruyama
Production Direction: Rounder William
Assembly: Bruno Alves and Bruno Mascena
Color Grading: Clandestine
Colorists: Alexandre Cristofaro and João Paulo Geraldo
Audio Production Company: CarbonoSoundLab
Music Producer: Ze Godoy
Still Photographer: Flavio Melgarejo
