adidas Originals superstars aren't superstars or something.

Adidas continues its "I'm not a superstar, no, really" campaign with these out of home boards in Times Square and Madison Square Garden. The anti-superstar campaign features superstars like Pharrell Williams, David Beckham, Rita Ora, and Damian Lillar.

The intention, much like the 90 second spot is to make us question what it means to be a superstar. Problem is, a superstar telling me they aren't a superstar without explaining what they really mean only makes me ask, what do you mean? And why I should believe you? And why should I care? If the TV's anthemic VO wasn't able to explain it, the OOH boards are unfortunately even more of a head scratcher.

So they put three stripes over the word "superstar," to "strike it out," but it's on top of a celebrity face. Huh? Is that it?

adidas has been known for doing cool youth-oriented ads forever, especially with their Originals brand. But a few years back we were celebrating Originality, and talking about what unites us and now we're defiantly rejecting our superstardom, or telling people that their definition of superstar is wrong, because...some reason?

I'm reminded of sitting in portfolio class when I was lucky enough to have Luke Sullivan as a teacher. When someone would put up an ad that made no sense, he would say to them something like "if this were produced it might help if you stand by the ad and explain to everyone what it means."

Agency Johannes Leonardo
Chief Creative Officer Jan Jacobs
Chief Creative Officer Leo Premutico
Executive Creative Director Tom Martin
Executive Creative Director Julian Schreiber
Creative Director Ferdinando Verderi
Creative Matt Edwards
Creative Wes Phelan
Business Director Carter Collins
Account Director Sam McCallum
Account Executive Gulru Soylu
Broadcast Executive Producer Cedric Gairard
Print Executive Producer Maria Perez
Integrated Producer Peisin Yang Lazo
Strategist Jennifer Colman
Head of Design Andrea Gustafson
Designer Dave Kerr
Designer Annette Lay
Photographer Josh Olins
Photographer Agency CLM
Production Company NORTH6
Post Production Hempstead May
Fonts Yomar Augusto