When you're an elite world class athlete like Kobe Bryant and you start running out of challenges, how do you keep from being bored? Jump over a fast moving Aston Martin? Check. Jump over a large snake filled pool. Check? [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaJglK4IAf4]
The "alternative" commercials such as the these here--a perfect blend of a popular media distribution vehicle (YouTube), Internet memes ("wow" stunts), and celebrities (Jackass crew)--are a brilliant example of marketing and advertising appropriation of counter-culture activities and adopting it to astutely manage its brand, endorsers, and product. Pretty deft move for a goliath of a company like Nike.