Responses by Mads Rasmussen, creative director, AKQA

Background: Part of Oakley’s 2020 For the Love of Sport campaign, the “One Love” music video” was originally meant to roll out during the Tokyo Olympics. Midway through the production, everything shifted with the pandemic and the cancellation of the Olympics. Yet, the message felt just as relevant. Lately, our love of sports has been challenged more than ever before, being unable to practice, compete and follow. Though, our love of sports has proven what it can endure, with “acts of love” such as athletes inviting their communities virtually into their homes for workout sessions and challenges.

Reasoning: We arrived on the idea of a love story, as it’s a story that has never been told through the lens of sports before, and, yet, we found that sports has never needed love more. Up to 35 percent of elite athletes are suffering from a mental health disorder at some point in their career and even kids are giving up sports at an unprecedented rate. Our love story is a reminder of why we do what we do, in the shape of an ode to the love of sports that inspires athletes, sports lovers and beyond.

Favorite details: Overall, we’re proud to put forward a message that is cowritten by the Oakley athletes themselves including Caroline Buchanan, Diamond DeShields, Oksana Masters, Ítalo Ferreira and Ryan Sheckler, ringing true to their stories. We’re proud to see both the athletes and the Marley family standing behind and endorsing this message as a story that deserves to be told in this current time.

Visual influences: The director, Valentin Petit, has a unique ability to create visual connections and uses unusual camera techniques to convey and evoke certain emotions. Therefore, we found him the ideal talent to tell this human story with a touch of magic in the visual narrative. He goes far to bring his vision to life. Here, it meant both chasing skateboarder Ryan Sheckler on rollerskates and hanging off a cliff to get the perfect shot of a rock climber.

Anything new: We’ve learned that composing and writing a song is easier said than done. It is not an easy task to reinterpret an iconic and meaningful song like “One Love” by Bob Marley. We wanted to keep the essence of the track—the positive feel and the anthem vibe—while trying to give it a fresh breath, fitting our concept as an anthem to the love of sports. We were fortunate to have the soulful voice of Celeste, who is a big admirer of Bob Marley herself. The process of rewriting the lyrics was interesting as we got to deep dive into the athlete’s stories through several interviews before translating those into lyrics. These stories furthermore helped shape our three-minute film.

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