Four 18-wheel trucks-overflowing with scaffolding, set pieces and cables-packed into the lot separating Cameron Indoor Stadium from Card Gym Monday.
"Is Dave Matthews here already?" a female student asked as she walked past Cameron. But her hopes were dashed when she learned the trucks were contracted by Nike for its newest advertising campaign.
For the past two days, the sports apparel company has been shooting footage in Cameron's locker rooms, a classroom in Card Gym and a rearranged Krzyzewskiville for a series of television advertisements rumored to air around the time of the men's national basketball tournament.
"We at Nike feel that there's an amazing amount of excitement and enthusiasm surrounding the Duke basketball tradition," said Simon Pestridge, a Nike spokesman. "We are very proud of our relationship with Duke and Coach K."
Although Nike officials were reluctant to reveal any of the specifics about the advertisements, they said Tubby Smith and Jim Calhoun-head coaches of the University of Kentucky and University of Connecticut men's basketball teams, respectively-will also be part of the series.
Extras participating in the campaign reported that it would focus on the "search for the March Madness bug."
While they outfitted University students in Nike apparel, spread Nike backpacks throughout the scene and tied pairs of Nike sneakers to low-hanging branches, Nike officials carefully arranged two black Hummers and two black Chevrolet Suburbans, all equipped with sirens, in K-ville.
Just after 4 p.m., four actors clad in white biohazard suits paced around the woods separating the Cameron parking lot from the tennis courts.
Pestridge said the dormancy of K-ville was not a particular obstacle for his crew.
Nike rearranged the remaining tents and set up several of its own to recreate the legendary atmosphere. It also contracted about 20 University students as extras for Tuesday's shoot in the tent city.
Head line monitor and Engineering senior Al Prescott circulated information about the opportunity over several e-mail lists.
Other observers reported that a large sandbox with a sand castle in the shape of a dome were built in the center of the men's locker room for the session on Monday.
The visit comes at an interesting time in the political climate of the University-the Students Against Sweatshops protest last week was directed, in part, at University contractors like Nike.
Pestridge, who is also Nike's labor relations manager, said he is trying to schedule a meeting with SAS founding member Tico Almeida later today.
"The students share the same concerns that we do as a company," he said. "We all want to improve working conditions."
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