Nike Advertising Campaign Essay

Nike’s “Just Do It” Advertising Campaign According to Nike company lore, one of the most famous and easily recognized slogans in advertising history was coined at a 1988 meeting of Nike’s ad agency Wieden and Kennedy and a group of Nike employees. Dan Weiden, speaking admiringly of Nike’s can-do attitude, reportedly said, “You Nike guys, you just do it.” The rest, as they say, is (advertising) history. After stumbling badly against archrival Reebok in the 1980s,

Nike rose about as high and fast in the ‘90s as any company can. It took on a new religion of brand consciousness and broke advertising sound barriers with its indelible Swoosh,

“Just Do It” slogan and deified sports figures. Nike managed the deftest of marketing tricks: to be both anti-establishments and mass market, to the tune of $9.2 billion dollars in sales in 1997.

—Jolie Soloman

“When Nike Goes Cold”

Newsweek, March 30, 1998

The Nike brand has become so strong as to place it in the rarified air of recession-proof consumer branded giants, in the company of Coca-Cola, Gillette and Proctor & Gamble. Brand management is one of Nike’s many strengths. Consumers are willing to pay more for brands that they judge to be superior

It was being swamped by Reebok’s quick initiative on designing aerobics shoes and needed to respond dramatically and forcefully. It could be argued that the “Just Do It” campaign was not only about sneakers but about Nike’s own renaissance. No longer content to be the choice running shoe of a few thousand marathoners and exercise nuts, Nike wanted to expand its operation to target every American, regardless of age, gender or physical-fitness level. “Just Do It” succeeded in that it convincedAmericans that wearing Nikes for every part of your life was smart (the shoes are designed for comfort) and hip (everyone else is wearing them, you too can belong to this group.) Nike took its own advice and “Just Did It” by directly