Under Armour Rolls Out New Campaign With Spot Featuring Steph Curry, Jamie Foxx

Under Armour "unveiled Thursday its newest basketball shoe, the 'Dark Matter' Curry One, and a new global brand campaign, 'The Book of Will,'" featuring Warriors G Stephen Curry and actor Jamie Foxx, according to Colin Campbell of the Baltimore SUN. UA said that the Curry shoe beginning Friday "will be sold" on its website for $119.99. It has been "promoted in a minute-long YouTube advertisement" with Curry and Foxx, with a longer version of the spot, titled "Volume One: Shakespeare Got It All Wrong" set to "air during the NBA All-Star game Sunday." The spot features Curry "shooting 3-pointers on a stage in a dark theater, with highlights and old home videos of him playing on a giant screen behind him," as Foxx "walks the stage behind Curry and narrates the clip." The ad "is the first in a series" directed by Peter Berg (BALTIMORESUN.com, 2/12). UA said that the new campaign "will be its biggest ad effort to date." AD AGE's E.J. Schultz noted the campaign "channels Aristotle and Shakespeare in a pair of TV spots," the one featuring Curry and another with a pair of track-and-field athletes, Manteo Mitchell and Natasha Hastings. "Book of Will," which was created in-house, "puts a new twist on the brand's 'I Will' tagline, which is meant to convey an underdog mentality fueled by a relentless will to succeed." UA Senior VP/Creative Steve Battista said that the idea of "Book of Will" is to "rewrite clichés or mantras 'to fit our current day athletes'" (ADAGE.com, 2/12).

CURRY RISING IN A HURRY: USA TODAY's Sam Amick notes Curry is second in jersey sales among NBAers, behind only Cavaliers F LeBron James, and wonders how a player like Curry can "find himself rivaling the likes" of James and Thunder F Kevin Durant as "the league's most popular player." Curry is a "magnet for marketing deals of every kind," including UA, Degree, State Farm, Kaiser Permanente, Express and Muscle Milk. All-Star Weekend in N.Y. is "as good a sign as any that his star continues to shine." Curry's schedule "includes appearances on" NBC's "The Tonight Show," ABC's "GMA," and a "YouTube cooking segment with his wife, Ayesha" (USA TODAY, 2/13).