The NHL lockout is well over 100 days old now, and even with the players' union delivering another counteroffer to the league on Wednesday, hopes for a salvaged season appear dim. More than half of the season has so far been obliterated.
The NHL has already stoked fans' ire with an Instagram meme fail pimping its Pinterest page, while negotiations in early December spawned a pair of parody Twitter accounts. Over the past few weeks, however, another piece of digital media has encapsulated fans' defiant feelings as well as anything.
The Nike ad embedded above has been viewed on YouTube more than 500,000 times since being uploaded Dec. 19, and is still going strong on the social web this week. In it, Canadian fans, amateur hockey players and even a few NHLers tell the camera that hockey can't be taken away by any league power struggle.
It's a truly excellent piece of populist sentiment leveraged in the name of corporate sneaker dollars, so check it out above for more.
Do you think this is an effective ad -- or does it fall flat? Give us your take in the comments below.