📢 Caniggia's creative influence.
nutmeg fc #48
One of the great mysteries of humanity is how the creative part of the human brain works. It's almost on a par with how Haji Wright scored the goal for USA vs Netherlands in the Qatar World Cup.
I'll illustrate this with a recent personal story (the creative part, not the Haji goal).
For some reason, during the holidays an ad I saw when I was a kid popped into my head several times. It was a TV commercial starring former (then still active) Argentinian striker Claudio Paul Caniggia for the Argentinian-Brazilian sports brand Topper.
I could perfectly relive the excitement of watching that production that mixed football with elements worthy of The NeverEnding Story, but I could only remember flashes of what happened: Caniggia running through strange worlds and the moment when a giant turtle turns around and asks him ‘Cani, what's that headband?
For those who don't know him very well, Caniggia is one of the best players in the history of the Argentine national team and Maradona's perfect partner at the World Cup in Italy in 1990.
However, the Argentine press was more obsessed by the extra-football part of his life: a suspension for smoking a cocaine cigarette, long and messy hair held back with a small headband and a wife who liked to generate controversy to get in the media.
In that context, Topper did this:
For those who don’t speak Spanish, here’s what Caniggia, the turtle and the voice over guy are saying:
Caniggia: After I signed with Topper, everyone started asking me the same old questions. So I tied up my boots and ran away. Looking for a place where they only talk to me about football and where I can do what I like to do most: play ball.
Turtle: Cani, what's that little headband?
Caniggia: Is there such a place?
Announcer: Topper wants you to play.
Caniggia: And you, what do you want?
So, upon seeing it again, almost twenty-eight years later, I discovered that what I thought I had forgotten had not only continued to live on in my brain rent-free, but had been a major influence on my career.
The Happy Robbery.
In 2011 I was asked for an idea to promote a Pepsi and Lay's offer and I wrote a story featuring Juan Román Riquelme, then a Boca Juniors footballer. What I didn't realise, until now, was that I had stolen the premise of the Caniggia ad.
In this case, the one who escapes the same old questions is Riquelme, who, in 2011, was accused of not being happy playing football because he didn't smile with the ball, as Ronaldinho did. Like Caniggia, Román decided to run away.
There is an obvious difference in tone (epic vs. everyday), but the similarities are many.
Apart from the starting point, the structure is identical. The press asks a repeated and annoying question and Caniggia/Riquelme escapes, going through different situations. The scarecrows that Caniggia dribbles are the girls who shout ‘Ramón’ at Román Riquelme.
The ending is also different.
Topper gives Caniggia the boots to keep running away. Riquelme finds a reason even more absurd than the question not to escape any more.
Robbery or unconscious homage, my version is less magical, but it had far more impact. It changed the perception of Riquelme and became so popular that it made the front page of newspapers and even the president of Argentina, when she won the elections, said: We are happy as Riquelme. And this goes on. If you read the comments on the Youtube video you will see that, eleven years after the advert came out, someone proposed that I should be given an Oscar.
I accept this award with honour, I dedicate it to my family, my agent and my colleagues and I will keep Will Smith's wife's name out of my mouth.
