These Sport Chek spots tickled our funny bones, as they deliver a cynical take on the real deciding factor behind a lot of athletic wear purchasing intent. Let’s be honest, when we buy sports gear, we want to look authentic, and, via highly technical duds, possibly fool people (and ourselves) into illusions of athletic grandeur likely not warranted by actual sporting performance.

Bud Light Institute founders Downtown Partners have tapped this insight for ‘The Power of Sport,’ a new tagline and campaign comprising a pool of three spots and retail ads.

In ‘Running,’ a woman jogger, seemingly carried away by too much Olympics marathon viewing, swipes a glass of water off a sidewalk café customer, has a gulp, then sloshes the rest over her face and tosses the cup. In ‘Hockey,’ a guy coming off the ice confounds a woman delivering the usual ‘good game’ kudos, when he starts behaving like he’s being interviewed by a sportscaster. The woman – his significant other – seems slightly ticked off, but, in a nice bit of understated performance (and realism), not too alarmed by this behaviour: ‘I’ll be in the car.’ Both close with the super ‘When you look like a pro, you feel like a pro.’

There’s also a kids hockey spot, ‘Tight Fit,’ that focuses on the consumer insight that kids grow out of skates – every year – and a retail trade-in program that deals with that annual surprise.

Launched late August, the spots run on Much Music, OLN and TSN through this month.

client: Sport Chek

sound: Pirate Radio & TV