Like the players on the pitch—well, most of them—advertisers all around the world seem to have elevated their game significantly with their various World Cup-pegged campaigns. There have been a few stinkers, obviously, but for the most part the many attempts at harnessing Brazil 2014’s viral potential have been more Lionel Messi than Freddy Adu.
That said, if they gave out a trophy for best World Cup spot, then that competition would have been over a month ago. And—sorry, Jeremy Stahl—it wouldn’t go to Nike. In case you missed it the first time around (like we did), the commercial—which you can watch above—is an advertisement for Banco de Chile, entitled “Nothing is impossible for a Chilean.” Fittingly, the stars of the campaign are the now-famous Chilean miners, whose 69 days spent trapped in a mine garnered global attention.
The ad shows the miners standing shoulder to shoulder in the Atacama desert—above the mine where the 33 men nearly lost their lives—while Mario Sepulveda, the man who became the public face of the miners, gives a moving speech about the relentlessness of the Chilean spirit. According to the AP, he tells the Chilean national team that they can beat the odds in the World Cup, reminding them that the miners “overcame death itself.”
Chills. All of the chills.
Chile has a tough road ahead if it hopes to advance out of the group stage, as they’ve drawn powerhouses Spain and the Netherlands. But, as Sepulveda points out, Chileans have been known to beat the odds.
