Nike and imagined Brazil: the production of the commercial Mandingas for the World Cup 2010

Abstract

The four advertising for launching Nike campaigns for the World Cups from 2006 to 2018, and particularly the most extensive of them, Mandingas, for the 2010 World Cup, are the subject of this essay, focusing on the imagined Brazil from which this ad production drift. It is intended to show how the largest sporting goods company in the world interacts with the social imaginary, in a double sense, both in the search for its references in that imaginary and, at the same time, in the food and reproduction of these symbolic constructions through the films produced. Methodologically, the research is based on Depth Hermeneutics, as formulated by John B. Thompson, with the support of content analysis and in the broader light of understanding as a method. The text hopes to promote an understanding of how advertising can act as a link between the brand and its audience, which means, in the specific case, with the Brazilian nation itself.