The latest incarnation of Adidas' speed boot silo, the X Speedportal, was officially released yesterday. As well as including top players like Mo Salah in the launch campaign, Adidas went a different marketing route, bringing the Rick and Morty team on board to create a short video.
Next-Gen Adidas X Speedportal Boots Released
Rick and Morty Adidas X Speedportal Ad
The "Solar Green/Core Black/Solar Yellow" colourway and the name of the boot itself bear obvious similarities to the portals used by Rick and Morty to travel through space, creating an easy tie-in for the German brand and the hit tv show.
Alongside the photos of Salah emerging from a portal wearing the new boots, a Rick and Morty short was produced starring the Liverpool forward, as well as star of the Dutch women's team and raw herring enthusiast, Vivianne Miedema.
The titular protagonists were obviously involved, with the show's trademark humour seeing Morty unwillingly thrown into a football-themed adventure while wearing the new boots, all for the Rick's personal gain, which in this case was "free sandwiches in the press area."
Collaborations are now a well-worn part of marketing and sales drives from brands and clubs alike, and although the popularity of the cartoon guarantees wide-reaching publicity for the X Speedportal boots, Adidas deserve some credit for this effort.
They allowed their product to be humorously mocked, with the boot's tech features dismissively referred to as "marketing terms".
It seems that they didn't attempt to stifle the creativity or interfere with the writing process, letting the otherworldly humour be the focal point of the ad instead of going for a hard sell and portraying the boots as "game changers" or other similar hyperbole.
Rick's indifference to the whole thing is clear at the end, a believable representation of his character from the show rather than an altered version for advertising purposes only.
What do you think of this marketing collaboration from Adidas and Rick and Morty? Would you like to see more light-hearted stuff like this from the big brands? Or do you think the usual, more serious campaigns work better? Share your views in the comments.