THE dramatic cartoon images in the new Nike commercials for the Air Jordan and Air Force basketball boots are the work of Hong Kong-born animator Peter Chung.
Mr Chung, who is at the Wieden and Kennedy advertising agency in the United States, said: ''The style is very much motivated by my desire to tell a story taking place in a kind of moral vacuum where it isn't really clear, until the end, who is the good guy and who is the bad guy.'' Teresa Leung, marketing director for Nike Hong Kong, said cartoons were used because Nike wanted to keep its advertisements at the cutting edge of creativity.
''We saw how popular and effective this type of approach was in children's and youth programming in the US . . . [and] we thought we could adapt it to make our trademark innovative,'' she said.
Mr Chung suggested that since cartoons were a world of limitless fantasy, Nike should use them to create a series of stories with a strong moral message.
Ms Leung said there were strong ties between Nike's customers and celebrities such as the basketball superstars in this campaign - Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley, and David Robinson, Tim Hardaway and Alonzo Mourning.
''So, the Wieden and Kennedy idea was to pit Good against Evil in a series of scenes that set out to test the limits and to challenge the impossible.'' The TV ads were created to mirror the qualities of the real men: Charles Barkley must fight past the Rockman, guardian of the Golden Hoop, before slamdunking a triumphant basket, while Michael Jordan, swifter and lighter, literally flies through the air to evade the evil, vulture-like Harpies.