When Michael Phelps broke the all-time record for most career Olympic gold medals won , Visa was the first to congratulate him. Did you catch that? Immediately after the 200 meter butterfly Visa aired “Congratulations Michael”, an ad which is part of Visa’s “Go World” Olympic campaign. Michael Phelps is an amazing athlete and I thought this ad campaign was pretty awesome too.

The campaign uses still photographs in sepia tone and features the voice of Morgan Freeman. I’m sure you’ve seen one of the ads if you’re watching the Olympics but below is the Michael Phelps one.

I decided to post about it here because someone (a friend on a chat board I’ve been a member of for years) mentioned that the timing of this ad was “icky” and in “bad form”. I’m not arguing with her but I really don’t understand those comments. Michael Phelps was favored to do well in the Olympics, right? In my opinion it was only natural for Visa to have something like this ready to go if or when Michale Phelps broke that record. I also compared it to the super bowl or world series. They always print t-shirts for the champions before knowing who the champions are. So, what’s the difference with this?