London in 1981, as depicted in Linton Kwesi’s Brixton riots poem ‘Di Great Insoreckshan,’ was an unimaginably different place from the London presided over by Sadiq Khan.
A lot has changed. One would expect a crippling recession, the string of terrorist attacks and a brutal tide of gentrification to dampen the united spirit of our capital. But Londoners, like Bostonians, are bound by an unruffled character and not be trifled with.
This isn’t an ode to adland, but the tone of Wieden+Kennedy and Megaforce’s ‘Nothing Beats a Londoner’ does a cracking job of capturing the defiant spirit of our capital, the culturally rich, rough-around-the edges-exuberance of our people and its varying cultures – that it’s easy to forgive Nike’s mercenary flogging for a minute.
If one thing remains unchanged since the 1981 riots, it’s the strength of our capital’s collective spirit.
