Is this a first in advertising? Nanotechnology used to engrave names of fans into the threads of All Blacks Adidas Jerseys? Seriously - nanotechnology!

I'll let TBWA\WHYBIN explain:

Here is the latest work from our office in New Zealand for adidas and the All Blacks. This year we are going to engrave the names of thousands of fans onto the actual thread that makes the All Blacks jersey, with ‘AdiThread’.

All is revealed on www.thisisnotajersey.com.

The Fibre Imprinting Nanotechnology was developed by Professor Richard Blaikie of the University of Canterbury and the MacDiarmid Institute of Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology. The technology has been commercialized by Canterprise Limited, the Commercialization and Technology Transfer Company of the University of Canterbury. Canterprise CEO, Raiyo Nariman says “Adi Thread demonstrates how state of the art technology coming out of the University can be incorporated into innovative applications in fields outside technology-based products”.

Attached is an image from a test run of an actual thread with the names of 1073 All Blacks on it.

So in short, fans can go to www.thisisnotajersey.com and put their name on the virtual thread, then when we have thousands of names, they'll be engraved onto the actual thread going into the jersey that will be presented to the team. Nanotechnologyadvertising everyone!

I hope they read the names before adding them to the thread. I predict many Seymore Butt's or other prank names otherwise. ;9

TBWA\WHYBIN also says that:

The full campaign includes print, OOH, viral and online as well as the nanotechnology.

Client: John Beckett, Greig Bramwell, adidas NZ
Agency: TBWA\WHYBIN New Zealand
Executive Creative Director: Andy Blood
Creative Director: Guy Roberts
Creative team: Guy Roberts, Corey Chalmers, Robert Harvey
A/M: Blake Crosbie

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