Sports and Sneakers
Athletes as the medium. Nike and Adidas, the endorsement deal, Just Do It, the sneaker launch, and sportswear campaigns that stopped being about sport.
Part of Advertisements
12 moments in this segment.
- - Nike "Just Do It". 1988. Wieden+Kennedy's "Just Do It" tagline for Nike, supposedly inspired by murderer Gary Gilmore's last words ("Let's do it"). The most successful sports-brand slogan ever; Nike's share of the US athletic-shoe market went from 18% to 43% in 10 years.
- - Nike "Just Do It" Launch. 1988. Wieden+Kennedy's "Just Do It" launch, 80-year-old Walt Stack jogging across the Golden Gate Bridge: "I run 17 miles every morning." First ad to use the tagline; Nike's US market share went from 18% to 43% in 10 years.
- - Nike "Bo Knows". 1989. Wieden+Kennedy's "Bo Knows" campaign for Nike Cross-Training with Bo Jackson, two-sport athlete shown excelling at every sport. Reshaped what athlete-endorsement ads could do; voted Time's greatest commercial of the 1980s.
- - Air Jordan "Mars Blackmon". 1988-1991. Spike Lee's "It's gotta be the shoes" Air Jordan ads as Mars Blackmon. Defined the basketball-shoe + cultural-figure crossover; Spike Lee's breakthrough as both director and pop-culture figure.
- - P&G "Thank You, Mom" Olympics. 2012-2018. Procter & Gamble's "Thank You, Mom" Olympics campaign, Wieden+Kennedy. Six editions across Summer + Winter Games. Won the 2012 Emmy for Outstanding Commercial; one of the longest-running Olympics brand sponsorships.
- - Always #LikeAGirl. June 26, 2014. Always' "Like a Girl" ad, flipping the insult into a celebration. 75M YouTube views. Won the Emmy + the Cannes Glass Lion Grand Prix. Defined the purpose-driven viral campaign of the mid-2010s.
- - Beats by Dre "The Game Before the Game". June 2014. Beats by Dre's World Cup ad with Neymar, Suarez, Lebron, Bartoli, and Daft Punk soundtrack. 25M views in days. Defined the modern sports-brand cinematic-ad template.
- - Lacoste "Life is a Beautiful Sport". 2014. Lacoste's "Life is a Beautiful Sport", BETC Paris's slow-motion ballroom-dance commercial. Won 18 Cannes Lions; defined the late-2010s "luxury sport-lifestyle" advertising aesthetic.
- - Sport England "This Girl Can". January 2015. Sport England's "This Girl Can", real (un-airbrushed) women working out, "I jiggle therefore I am." Won the 2015 Cannes Glass Lion Grand Prix; got 1.6M British women more active.
- - Nike "Equality". February 12, 2017. Nike's "Equality" 2017 ad with Lebron, Serena, Kevin Durant. Aired one month into Trump's presidency. The opening shot of the late-2010s wave of "brands taking political stances."
- - Nike "Believe in Something" (Kaepernick). September 3, 2018. Nike's "Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything." with Colin Kaepernick. Stock dropped 3% on day one; recovered to a record high within 2 weeks. The defining political-brand ad of the 2010s.
- - Havaianas - Brazil's Global Sandal. 1962-present. Havaianas' transformation from cheap Brazilian flip-flops (the 1962 launch) into a global premium brand (1990s rebrand under Carla Schmitzberger). The most successful brand-positioning pivot in Brazilian commercial history.
