The best Nike commercial ever

I’m an emotional guy and I like my share of sad movies, but it’s not very often that a commercial gets me weepy and gives me the chills.

It’s the 20th anniversary of Nike’s ‘Just do it’ campaign and their AOR, Portland’s Wieden + Kennedy, developed this 60 sec spot:



Chills. Watch it again.

More chills.

The perfect syncopation of the tenor of the images to the rhythm of ‘All these things that I’ve done’ by the Killers, the raw emotion immortalized in the footage of international Olympians and athletes, and the simplicity of the message really converge in a perfect storm.

How about the fact that with the exception of the campaign url, nike.com/courage, there is no voiceover and only nine words of text appear throughout the entire sixty seconds?

How about that in a series of probably 200 images, no Nike logo, shoe, or apparel item is conspicuously displayed? The logo flashes on some athletes but only for a few milliseconds each time.

Advertising Age has done a terrific job of explaining the strategy behind Nike’s Just do it anniversary and the relevance of brand strategy to this commercial. So I’m not going to be a bad blogger and rehash content, you can read the original on their site.

Overall, my reflections are that this spot successfully conveys Nike as a brand for the lives of all people. It deepens Nike’s accessibility to its customers in a highly human and emotional way.

The director is Ralf Schmerberg. Way. To. Go.