This is why Nike's Copywriters Get Paid More than Me

1/5/2010 8:19:57 PM #

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1/5/2010 8:26:24 PM #

if controversy is showcasing athletes who push to get their best in an ad, then i'd like more controversy please.

zegshy

1/5/2010 8:29:24 PM #

I'm probably stating the obvious but Nike is targeting athletes, not fatties thus no controversy.

St

1/5/2010 8:38:32 PM #

Only controversy for me is the token treatment of women in the ad. Show me some ripped beach or indoor volleyballers and some chicks on snowboards. That swoosh is looking awfully male to me.

Katherine

1/5/2010 8:41:35 PM #

St, I disagree.  

Nike is targeting people who need a push to believe they can do it, who might otherwise leave their power buried under a pile of excuses (like destiny and fate)  They have no need to target athletes: athletes already know that their bodies and power weren't created by destiny.

People like me (a suburban Mom, for the the love of all things holy, who up until a year ago subsisted on coffee, doritos, and red wine, gasping for breath at the *thought* of getting off my ass to run a few miles.)

Kristin

1/5/2010 8:46:44 PM #

Crap the last line of my comment made no sense.  I meant to say that the ad is inspiring to people like me: those who want more from themselves, and are willing to push hard to reach their goals, no matter what they might be.

Kristin

1/5/2010 8:56:27 PM #

Yeah, I think what I love so much about this ad is that for me it just reinforces the ideas that have come to mean a lot to me about overcoming difficulties and changing the course of my life through hard work. It speaks to me about physical goals, sure, but all kinds of other achievements as well. It reminds me that it's my job to get out there and make good things happen. "If it is to be, it is up to me."

I'm bookmarking it for the times when I start to succumb to the BUT I CAAAAN'T feelings I'm prone to.

Sundry

1/5/2010 9:03:12 PM #

You are both athletes.  I'm not talking about professional athletes or team athletes only.  This ad is targeting you.  

St

1/5/2010 9:07:24 PM #

Let me explain a little further.  Your post was specifically directed at the unfit and the overweight.  You wrote it in response to an overweight person.  Nike is not targeting fat people and telling them they could do it if they really wanted to, they are targeting their demographic.  That's not to say that other people *can't* be motivated by the ads, just that they are not the target audience.

St

1/5/2010 9:15:17 PM #

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Destiny, yeah right! « Eve FM

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1/5/2010 9:24:07 PM #

Awesome! Beautiful! Inspiring!! Thanks so much for sharing, oh and hmm I had to show the video on my blog as well.. thanks again for sharing.

Eve
http://evefm.wordpress.com

Eve

1/5/2010 9:32:12 PM #

St., let's be real: the ad is targeted for people who are in the market for buying athletic clothes/gear, which runs the gamut from athletes to people who need gym clothes to freaking rappers. Their market includes people of all sizes. But don't nitpick about what audience the marketing machine at Nike had in mind when they made it, just let yourself react to it without the baggage from the previous post. I think Kristin's trying to clarify her message—one of inspiration and the belief we can overcome difficulties, regardless of the goal—and make up for unintentional miscommunication on the last post. Take this post and the video as "This is what I should have said", because I think that's what she's trying to get across.

Sundry

1/5/2010 9:49:51 PM #

Are any of the people in the ad famous?  Makes no difference to it's FREAKING AWESOMENESS, just wondered and am at an American disadvantage.

CharlieSue

1/5/2010 10:03:18 PM #

Sundry, AYE the hell MEN.  If I were Nike I would hire YOU as my chief copywriter.

CharlieSue, yeah, Jerome Iginla (in the first sequence and throughout) is one of Canada's most famous hockey players and an alternate captain for the Olympic Canadian Hockey team.  Dion Phaneuf is also a bright young hockey star for the Calgary Flames, also known to be Elisha Cuthbert's boyfriend (she's Canuck too)

Unfortunately, I don't know who the woman is in the ad but I wish I did because she looks like she kicks serious ass.

Kristin

1/5/2010 10:09:08 PM #

Yes! Yes! Yes!!

Kaitlyn

1/5/2010 10:19:48 PM #

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1/5/2010 10:28:09 PM #

"just let yourself react to it without the baggage from the previous post."  

Kristin brought up the previous post, I was just responding to that.
Sundry, I'm not trying to be snarky or whatever but she asked the question.  With my original comment I was just being silly because, duh, we've already hashed out why the last post didn't go over well.  I wasn't trying to nitpick with the follow-up comments, just clarifying my point which was a response to her statements about controversy.  Oy.  It's a nice commercial.

St

1/5/2010 11:31:00 PM #

I LOVE that there were kids in that commercial! How inspiring for other kids who might be too shy to sign up for a sport to see other little guys kicking butt along with the grown-ups!

Rachel

1/5/2010 11:31:03 PM #

Katherine said: "Show me some ripped beach or indoor volleyballers" ----the women are Canadian Olympic hockey players.  They are strong as hell.

It's a hockey/Canadian culture ad so other than the fact that there should be a little girl in there too, I think the representation of women is pretty good.  Anyway check out this NIke ad for women.  I LOVE IT!  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3NIQMSS3aQ

I am SO excited for the Olympics.

Lindsay

1/6/2010 12:44:21 AM #

I've observed something interesting in myself.  When I exercise vigorously every day, I find I want to exercise vigorously every day.  My heart's in it, I feel thrilled about, I just want to do it.   When I'm in a period where I'm not exercising every day or fairly regularly, I find I don't want to exercise, find myself finding reasons not to, I feel down about exercise, my heart's not in it.  I just want not to do it.

There's definitely a connection between mind and body there, but it seems as though my mind responds to how my body's feeling, not the other way around. When my body is energized, electrified, my mind seems to say "This is fun! Let's do this!"  But when my body is lethargic, my mind says "Yuck, not this again."

Yesterday I really wanted to work out and couldn't because my muscles needed to rest after being viciously pummelled.  I felt so down about it. Odd eh?  

Lesley

1/6/2010 3:04:46 AM #

Too funny, there is usually a debate raging on some of the fitness forums I follow about whether or not athletes are really born with talent (destiny??) or it's all down to hard work and wanting it really badly.  Im pretty sure it's both!  But maybe we could get another cracking good debate going over here....

I love Nike ads, always have.  I tell myself to "Just Do It" all the time, I have that up on my wall.  I am an athlete, so that may be why they speak to me.  But I am totally with Linda; the spirit of the ads is not limited to physical accomplishments.  I'm a high school dropout who is now a successful lawyer.  I believe in inventing and reinventing myself, I believe that I have only scratched the surface of what I am capable of.  I think that is the spirit of those ads and I think it is inspiring.

Leigh

1/6/2010 5:05:51 PM #

More Exercise is Better

  Dr. Paul Williams of the University of California at Berkeley thinks that the American Heart Association's recommendation of "half an hour a day of exercise" is way too little.  He has followed more than 100,000 runners for 20 years and has shown that exercising much more than that will dramatically reduce the high incidence of heart attacks, strokes, certain cancers, glaucoma, diabetes, cataracts, macular degeneration, gout, gall stones, diverticulitis, and many other ailments (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, March 2009).  Dr. Williams found that running 40 miles per week can lower risk of stroke by 69 percent, heart attacks by 37 percent and diabetes by 68 percent.  To prevent progressive weight gain with aging, the runners needed to add 1.4 miles a week each year.

  How inactivity kills: Human muscles get their energy by extracting sugar and fat from their blood supply.  When muscles are at rest, they need insulin for sugar to pass into their cells.
However, when muscles contract, sugar passes into their cells without requiring insulin.

  Extra fat blocks insulin receptors so insulin can't do its job of driving sugar into cells and blood sugar rises to high levels.  This causes sugar to stick to the surface of cell membranes. Once stuck to cell membranes, sugar can never get off and is eventually converted to sorbitol which destroys the cell
to cause all the terrible side effects of diabetes.  

  The extra sugar outside cells is converted to fat, which blocks insulin receptors even more and prevents insulin from doing its job, leading to more weight gain and eventually to diabetes.  Thirty-five percent of North Americans will become diabetic because they exercise too little and eat too much.
Also see http://www.drmirkin.com/fitness/1678.html  

  Why more exercise is better: Contracting muscles remove sugar rapidly from the bloodstream, without needing insulin, during and for up to one hour after exercise. The effect tapers off to zero at about 17 hours (American Journal of Clinical Nurtrition, July 2008).  You are protected maximally from high rises in blood sugar and fat during and immediately after exercise.  Therefore, the more time you spend contracting muscles, the longer you will be protected from the cell damage that leads to cancers, heart attacks, strokes, and other consequences that shorten your life or impair its quality.

Lesley

1/6/2010 7:47:41 PM #

I love a good, inspiring sport-y ad; thanks for sharing this, Kristin.  

I think my two all-time favorite commercials are (1) the Gatorade one from a few years ago that featured a runner puking his guts out all over the track -- gross, but RAW and KICKASS; and (2) the Nike one also a few years back that showed New York in a state of chaos -- a giraffe loping down the street, an ATM shooting money out, sirens blaring -- and a lone dude just calmly out for his morning run, oblivious to it all.  

Man, am I incredibly psyched to get back to running as soon as this baby is out of my ribcage (srsly, what is she DOING up in there?) and here in the world.

Lawyerish

1/10/2010 8:21:54 AM #

Great article Lesley!

I love the ad.  I love Nike and their inspirational messages. Their motto - "Just do it." - is kind of my mantra.  In fact, I'm thinking of getting a tattoo of the Nike Swoosh.  Just a little one...an inch or so.  Is that cheesy?

Thanks for sharing Kristin!

Kate @ Life As I Live It

1/10/2010 6:01:11 PM #

The two women are specifically Jayna Hefford and Gillian Apps, both from Canada's national women's hockey team. There are a few chicks in the various clips, too.

And I friggin' love this ad, as both a Canadian and a female hockey player. The message that it takes hard work to meet your goals is one that, like Kristin, I now embrace. I lost 53lbs over the last year, and it shows in my hockey. I don't for a second think that "destiny" or "fate" (or for that matter genetics) have anything to do with it; it's me. I got off my couch and worked hard to be a better player. To me, this commercial just reinforces that.

And while I'll never have the skill necessary to play at the national level, it's certainly in my power to play to the best of my abilities in the level I'm at.

Stephanie

2/3/2010 8:43:04 AM #

I am late to the party here, but found this blog through a friend of mine and have been perusing it.   I just couldn't bring myself not to respond to this post.  

I LOVED this commercial.  Awesome.  I think that it does take hard work to achieve your goals, and I think that this ad targets those who believe that, regardless of size.  

For reference, I am 34-yr old fatty, at well over 50 lbs overweight.  I am also female recreational-level ice hockey player, who started playing at age 28 in the Southeastern US no less, and a non-runner who is training for a half-marathon.    I will be walking most of it, but it is in my hands whether or not I finish, and no-one else's.  

Kristin, you rock.

Kathryn