H&H Classics will be selling David Beckham’s England scooter (1962 Moto Vespa 150S), from ‘Road to Lisbon’ from the 2004 Adidas campaign ‘Impossible Is Nothing’ for an estimate of £9,000-£10,000 at their next sale at the National Motorcycle Museum on April 6th.
This is the actual scooter used in the 2004 Adidas advertisement kept by David Beckham for a period of time at his home after filming, as confirmed by the shoot production team at Adidas.
Beckham liked the scooter so much he had it shipped to his house in Hampshire where it stayed for two years. The scooter was then used as a competition prize and won by a member of the public.
Paul Diamond, who heads H&H Scooter Auctions, says: “This scooter is of major interest to sports memorabilia, scooter, England Football and Adidas collectors. It would make a fantastic addition to any scooter or bike collection.”
The scooter runs and has a UK V5 for use on the road. It is complete and in very good general condition with correct chassis and engine numbers for the model. Tt has a standard engine and is unmodified except for the creative decorations for the TV advert.
The action television advertisement ‘Road to Lisbon’ starred 13 of the top footballers in Europe and was devised jointly by 180 Amsterdam and TBWA the creative advertising agencies and major global brand Adidas who were awarded advertiser of the year in that year.
Arriving from across Europe at a rustic local Portuguese football game on their individually ‘nationally’ designed classic scooters were David Beckham, Zinedine Zidane, Ashley Cole, Michael Ballack and the other leading European soccer icons of 2004. The advertisement cost 4.5 million euros just to produce and was part of the global ‘Impossible is Nothing’ Adidas campaign.
The art production on all of the scooters was directed by multi-award winning creator Nicholas Foley-Oates who has a reputation as one of the top collaborative producers in television advertising. He has worked on behalf of leading global clients brands including Lego, Audi, Virgin Trains, Nike and Stella Artois to name just a few.
The ‘English Beckham Vespa’ in the advertisement is actually a Spanish built 1962 MotoVespa 150S but was designed in English style and kit colours in white with a number of typical English decals and badges. It also has ‘mod style’ accessories including a front rack with lights and mirrors, rear rack with spare wheel and a whip aerial (now broken).
All of the scooters for the advertisement were acquired beforehand by Widescope Productions and a garage workshop located in Seville, Spain prepared and decorated the machines there. The mirrors for this scooter were sent from England.
The English St. George cross badge on the front mudguard shows signs of age and has deteriorated but the other badges and decorations seem to still be in very good order. The scooter featured in the July 2004 issue of Scootering Magazine with behind-the-scenes photography by commercial photographer Jake Chessum who was on set.
MotoVespa was the Spanish Vespa licensee for Piaggio. This 1962 150S is a standard scooter on 12 volt electrics as was standard for the Spanish models and is in good all round mechanical and physical condition. The Motovespa 150S was a unique combination of Italian GS body styling but with different forks and headset than the Italian models. It is a fine looking scooter in its own right. Properly registered on the UK system in 2018.
Since the advertisement there have been the additions of; a black UK number plate on the front mudguard, new tyres (the actual old originals do come with the scooter), the original Beckham leg shield banner was missing and a replacement has been added, and a (removable) mud flap has been added at the rear of the front mudguard. It is notable that the Piaggio/target badge under the headlamp has been airbrushed out of the poster, possibly due to copyright branding, but is clearly visible in the behind-scenes photographs and other Adidas promotional material of the scooter.
The scooter also comes with an official match ball from the tournament, a copy of the 2004 Scootering magazine with the supporting article and an official Beckham poster from the advertising campaign. H&H also have several supporting emails from the creative directors who worked on the project.
Paul Diamond the H&H scooter expert has also located the actual silver helmet worn by David Beckham on the scooter in the advertisement. This would complement the whole display and might be also for sale privately from another official source.
Paul Diamond comments: ”This is the first time since 2004 the the scooter has been seen in public. Footballing history at its best. An absolute must for sports memorabilia, scooter, England Football or Adidas collectors. A fantastic addition to any collection and a solid ‘A-list’ investment.”
Coventry Road
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