Surfing is funny. It has a different commercial aspect to it than most other sports. Take this clip from Nixon, for example. It is a great clip about John John Florence; a more human approach instead of shot after shot of JJF doing impossible things on waves. He is more than just someone who rides waves incredibly well–he’s a traveler, a sailor, a photographer, a pilot, and more. He goes about his life quietly, surfing his best and doing the things that he wants to do. It’s a personal look at a superstar in the professional surfing world.
It is also an ad for Nixon’s John John Capsule Collection. And although we know that, it will be framed across countless sites like this one as simply a new clip from one of the world’s greatest surfers. No other sport blurs the lines of commercials and video parts more thoroughly than surfing does.
It’s interesting, though. When an ad like this comes along–one that is, by any standards, a very good profile–it begins to not only blur the lines of between advertisements and simple video parts, but begins to create something else entirely: an advertisement worth watching.
