Nike's Print Advertisement Campaigns

Nike is one of the most influential businesses in the world today. According to Forbes.com, Nike is the twenty-fourth most valuable brands in the world and it carries over in the way they advertise. The popular swoosh sells itself, but the media plays a valuable role in how they get their message to the public. When analyzing a few print advertisements, we see how the messages are communicated and how the media interprets what the advertisement means.

For the past twenty-five years, we have seen one of the most popular brand sayings become a part of our daily life. Nike started its “Just Do It” campaign in 1988 with the simple commercial advertisement of an 80-year-old man, Walt Stack, who runs seventeen miles each morning. This campaign is said to be one of the simplest slogans, but yet one of the most effective ones. While athletic apparel companies are struggling to captivate the attention of potential buyers, Nike has influenced the minds of its consumers with three simple words. As a consumer, we are persuaded though this campaign by several high-profile athletes throughout the years such as, Ken Griffey Jr. and Michael Jordan in the 90’s to Tiger Woods and the Williams sisters in the 2000’s. After too many celebrity scandals, Nike decided to campaign their “Just Do It” ads with everyday athletes. The media has interpreted the ‘Just Do It’ ads in many different forms, but mainly contributing a negative connotation with the athletes Nike selects and their irresponsible behavior. Ethically, this advertisement has been provided a confidence boost to a younger generation. Whether it was bad or good, this has been the outcome from this campaign.

In today’s culture, ethics has taken a backseat to making an extra dollar. Examples ...

... middle of paper ...

...fected by print advertising even if they don’t realize it. Nike uses all different forms of advertising to appeal to all audiences.

Nike attempts to convey themselves as an ethical and loyal company within their print advertising, by contributing multiple factors to appeal to their customer base by using tactics such as sexual appeal and tugging at people’s hearts with emotion. While Nike does not appear to be unethical, some of the techniques they use are questionable to the media and the public. When it comes down to how Nike evaluates their print advertising, they should think more so about who is endorsing their products and showing a value in character and overall community leader, then how athletic the athlete is to the public. Nike is not an unethically advertiser, but a questionable judge of character with the athletes they plan to endorse their products.