When it comes to sports footwear, perhaps no other brand is as synonymous as Nike. Founded as Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964, it adopted its more famous name in 1971, naming themselves after the Greek goddess of victory. It became apparent that the name was fitting, with Nike shoes having been worn by some of sports’ greatest athletes over the course of fifty-six years. Today at right.video, we wanted to take a look into the commercial history of Nike and see how its been able to hold its dominance over the course of several decades. We think, as you’ll soon discover, that not only do they rely on the immense power of athlete celebrity, but also on the drive of normal everyday people to emulate their sports icons. It’s this precise message dedication that allows Nike to keep ‘doing it’.
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy
Kicking off with the creation of Nike’s synonymous slogan, the first “Just Do It” commercial featured local San Francisco running hero Walt Stack as the company’s first ad man. At eighty years old at the time of the commercial’s release, “Just Do It” poignantly illustrated the dedication and drive that Stack exemplified, boastful about his running seventeen miles every morning. With gorgeous aerial shots of the Golden Gate bridge, Stack helped usher in Nike’s entrance into commercial advertising in a masterstroke that would influence the shoemaker for decades to come.
Director: Jim Riswold
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy
In the same year they launched the “Just Do It” campaign, Nike began the first of many commercials to feature the basketball superstar Michael Jordan. Promoting the brand-new Air Jordan III sneakers, the commercial featured the character of Mars Blackmon from She’s Gotta Have It, played once again by acclaimed American director Spike Lee. The commercials with Blackmon, with enthusiastic support from Lee, would cement the Air Jordans as a footwear fashion statement, transforming the sub-brand from a celebrity endorsement shoe line to something far greater going into the 1990s.
Director: Jim Riswold
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy
Michael Jordan wasn’t the only celebrity athlete that lived in Nike’s good graces in the late 1980s. Bo Jackson held the distinction of being both a well-known football player but also an acclaimed baseball player in his prime. Nike’s ad agency partner, Wieden + Kennedy, took advantage of Jackson’s versatility and leaned into his skills for a campaign focusing on the versatility of Nike shoes. From basketball to hockey and football to baseball, “Bo Knows” promised that no matter what sport you played, you were guaranteed that Nike shoes would help you no matter what.
Director: Joe Pytka
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy
We’ve talked about this pair of commercials previously, but it’s worth repeating for how creative and surreal they were. Out of all the ads Michael Jordan made for Nike, it’s these ads that light up a certain generation’s eyes, not least of which because they feature animation icon Bugs Bunny. The popularity of “Hare Jordan” and “Aerospace Jordan fueled the development of the live-action/animated sports film Space Jam in 1996. The movie would become a runaway box office smash and helped sell the Looney Tunes cast of characters as street fashions icons in the late 1990s/early 2000s. Such is the staying power of these ads, that a sequel to the film they inspired is currently in development with Lebron James.
Production Company: Joint Films
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy
Nike gained a brand-new athlete superstar spokesperson in the form of golfer Tiger Woods and set about introducing him to the world with this ad campaign. Featuring a montage of images underscoring Woods’ life up until 1996, “Hello World” proudly showed off the young golfer’s sporting achievements. Woods had already gained renown in the American golf scene for his prowess, but it was with this ad that Nike both showed off his mastery of the sport and set the stage for dominance at the dawn of the new millennium.
Director: Paul Hunter
Production Company: RSA USA
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy
With Nike at this point firmly established as an urban fashion accessory, it was only a matter of time before the street sounds of hip-hop and the world of basketball collided when this ad first aired in 2001. With a music beat consisting of basketball thumps and sneaker squeaks, “Freestyle” was a visually striking campaign. It helped that at the time that hip-hop was quickly becoming the most popular genre of music at the turn of the century, further melding Nike with a dominating force in American culture. With a pulsating beat against a dark empty basketball court, this was an ad that was built for style.
Director: Jim Riswold
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy
By 2003, Michael Jordan was ready to finally retire from the world of basketball, but Nike wasn’t quite done with him just yet. The final ‘Jordan’-focused ad on the list, “Goodbye Mars” fittingly goes back to the “Hangtime” ad from 1988, once again featuring Spike Lee as his signature character Mars Blackmon. One final earnest badgering from Mars and a sincere thank you note at the end helped mark the end of an era for Nike, but also reflected the beginning of a new generation for the shoemaker.
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy
Soccer, or football as it's more commonly known worldwide, had not always been a popular sport in the United States. The tide began to turn towards the late 1990s when Nike began to heavily invest in the sport. By 2005, the company was firmly committed to promote the merits of soccer (along with their cleats) to an American audience. “Go tell the world” was their rallying cry, showing off snapshots from across the US that soccer had a place in the country and that it was there to stay.
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy
In late 2009, Tiger Woods found himself engulfed in an infidelity scandal, causing a sea of sponsors to step away from the master golfer. However, Nike declined to drop Woods, electing to stick with one of its famous spokesmen. Damage control came in the form of this commercial from the next year, shot in black and white with an onlooking Woods staring at the camera. With the only audio of the tape of Woods’ father speaking to his son, the ad proved to be both a spin on modern performance art and a tac acknowledgement that even the greatest of athletes are still bound by human flaws.
Directors: Lance Acord, Emmanuel Lubezki, Christian Weber
Production Company: Park Pictures
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy
We round off the list with a nod to the very first “Just Do It” commercial, but a variation on the theme that created substantial noise when it first premiered. Showcasing a montage of inspiring sports images combined with ex-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s narration, the 30th anniversary reimagining sought to remind audiences that the dreams of inspiring athletes are only limited by their imagination and to ‘just do it’. It caused a stir upon first release due to Kaepernick’s protests against American racial injustice, but has come to be seen as timely for the right reasons.
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We hope that you enjoyed this list of Nike ads here on right.video. As always, we have these ads and numerous others with just a quick search away on our search engine. Whether you’re planning to use famous athletes or aspiring amateurs, don’t be afraid to ‘just do it’.
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