Take the basic premise of Space Jam, swap basketball for soccer and add the production value of Armageddon. What do you get? This creative new Samsung ad.
The spot cooks up a fictitious scenario in which Earth's only chance to survive a gathering menace from outer space is by assembling an epic soccer squad to play one match for the freedom of humanity. There are no half-measures in this project: the ad is nearly four minutes long, while the "Galaxy 11" campaign has a very slick and robust website of its own.
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If you're wondering just who Samsung picked to hypothetically save the human race in this hypothetically most important sporting event of all time, the roster is: Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Aleksandr Kerzhakov, Landon Donovan, Wayne Rooney, Iker Casillas, Lee Chung-Yong, Radamel Falcao, Victor Moses, Stephan El Shaarawy, Wu Lei, Oscar (he's Brazilian, hence the single name) and Mario Götze.
The all-star lineup and Hollywood premise means the ad has already scored a golazo with fans online. The video has already racked up more than 3.3 million YouTube views since Wednesday.
But it's not the only creative, ambitious and rather lengthy sports-themed spot to hit the web this week. This ad for Molson beer, below, tells the apparently true story of two Canadian buddies who trek halfway around the world to surprise a third friend living in a remote Indonesian village with everything he needs to watch the 2014 Winter Olympics.
It's an ad, of course, so the trip isn't possible without Molson's help:

Image: Samsung