Sportswear company Under Armour launched this week one of the most remarkable ads featuring an excerpt from EInstein on the Beach by Philip Glass and Robert Wilson.
Einstein on the Beach, the opera by musician Philip Glass and director Robert Wilson, presented for the first time in 1976 at the Avignon Festival, considered one of the most iconic works of the 20th century has an excerpt of this very same Opera setting the tone for one of the most remarkable new ads, the first of the new campaign “Rule Yourself” by the sportswear company Under Armour. “Knee Play No. 1” is the excerpt featured in this ad relying on the participation of prima ballerina Misty Copeland, NBA Player Stephen Curry and No.1 golfer Jordan Spieth. Robert Wilson, whose plays can be seen as of September in a number of European cities drew the attention to this ad today in is Facebook page and to the remarkable text by Alex Ambrose published on WQRX on this ad: “The excerpt chosen comes from the opera’s opening “Knee Play No. 1” where the vocalists intone accented, fragmented repetitions of “1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8,” mirroring the synchronicity of the movements of the three athletes and their army of clones.
