Wear your wounds like a badge of honour, Chinese kids

This Children's Day (last week), Nike launched the “Badge of Honour”, a series of specially designed bandages accompanied with comic-strip stickers telling fictional stories of young athletes who played hard, fell down and then found the courage to get back up again.

Nike athletes such as Chinese sprinter Su Bingtian, the goalkeeper of the China Women’s football team Zhao Lina, popular high jumper Zhang Guowei and veteran basketball player Yi Jianlian make 'cameo' appearances in the work.

They come in four sets of 14 bandages, and are available free after the purchase of Nike 'Young Athletes' products.

It's true that Chinese kids feel they need "permission" to play sports, mostly because overprotective Chinese parents are nervous about the possibility of them being injured. There's an irony, in that China as a nation idolises its sportspeople and grooms them from young ages under a 'Juguo Tizhi' or 'whole-country system', roughly translated as “nationwide support for an elite sporting system".

Ad Nut doesn't know much about naming products, but why not 'Bandage of Honour'? People react better to a juxtaposition of two incongruous elements, Ad Nut thinks. But Ad Nut agrees with the overall sentiment here. When it comes to Ad Nut's little Ad Nuts, Ad Nut also stresses that wounds, while painful, also represent bravery and strength.

The art is amazing, so hope you don't mind if Ad Nut shares a lot of it here: 

 

Credits

Agency Credits

WIEDEN+KENNEDY SHANGHAI

Executive Creative Director:  Ian Toombs
Creative Directors: Terence Leong, Shaun Sundholm
Art Directors: Timothy Cheng, Max Pilwat
Copywriter: Liu Wei
Designers: Deer Sheng, John Yao
Executive Producer: Bernice Wong
Producer: Fang Yuan
Assistant Producer: Juni Zhu
Digital Producer: Angela Liu
Editor: Leon Yan
Head of Integrated Production: Jacob Lincoln
Senior Planner: Leon Lin
Account Manager: Chuck Xu
Account Executive: Xueer Ren
Business Director: Dino Xu
Project Manager: Nicole Bee
Business Affairs: Jessica Deng, Kathy Zha
Production Manager: Vic Zhang
Digital Imaging Artist: Changqing Lee
FA Artist: Austin Hu, Stone Xue

External Credits

Print:
Production Company: Amanacliq
Producer: Edie Zhang

Artists:
Wassim (Football)
Pete Sharp (Running)
Lili Des Bellons (Basketball)
Stevie Gee (Skateboard)

Animation:
Football
Production Company: Passion Pictures
Animation Studio: Le Cube
Creative Director: Ralph Karam
Director: Mariano Fernandez Russo

Running
Production Company: Amanacliq
Director: Tom Bunker
Artist: Pete Sharp
SFX: Ryan West

Basketball + Skateboard
Production Company: Brand New School - Los Angeles
Director: Brumby Boylston

Music + Sound
Audio Post: Green United Music SH
VO Sound Studio: LISTEN Studio

Bandage production:
Nantong City YOJO Medical Products Co., Ltd.
Shanghai Yu Kai Packaging Materials Co., Ltd.

Ad Nut is a surprisingly literate woodland creature that for unknown reasons has an unhealthy obsession with advertising. Ad Nut gathers ads from all over Asia and the world for your viewing pleasure, because Ad Nut loves you. Check out Ad Nut's Advertising Hall of Fame.