nike advertising
woohoo i like this ad campaign! the way the type is laid out. they boost the message well.As for the content of the ad...I guess Nike is tryin to place a more 'socially responsible' image onto thier corporation and products.
i know heaps of woman who exercise heaps and they dont have stick figures. I think this ad conveys that reality. To me its saying 'we dont care that you dont have the 'ideal' figure to wear our merchandise... in fact.. we made it to fit your stubby knees etc...as long as your fit and healthy its all good'
There is another Nike womans ad which has a similar stand to those below. Nike Australia's 'Run Yourself Ugly' ads. (saw it on the website) is also about loving yourself and not caring about what others think about you when your hot and sweaty and staying healthy. however, i didnt like that one as much. Not sure why but somehow just wasnt working for me.
image and comments(below) sourced from: http://www.rm116.com/2005/08/nike_hearts_rea.htmlNike hearts 'real women', too.
An article on AdAge.com talks about new work from Wieden + Kennedy (Portland) that "celebrates 'Big Butts, Thunder Thighs and Tomboy Knees.'" Similar to the Dove ads in targeting "real women", the article actually talks about how this campaign follows the same trend as the Dove ads but how it also goes beyond Dove and is setting itself apart. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the Dove ads are for women who are just larger, and the Nike ads are for women who are larger (or who feel something about them is different) because of the countless hours they put in playing sports and exercising?
I like the approach. I like all but the "My Butt is Big..." ad. The copy didn't get me like in the other two. I'm also not too sure about the art direction (what are those water colored designs in the background?), but I think this campaign does a good job targeting the type of "real women" they are going after.
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I think the main difference between this and the Dove stuff is that Dove is saying, "It's okay that you're not as pretty as the models we usually use. Here's some stuff to help you make do with your rolls, girl" whereas Nike is not talking about women who've let themselves go, but who have rather sculpted themselves into strong, athletic women who couldn't give a damn what some pasty, pot-bellied man deems visually pleasing. Dove is showcasing a "curvy" woman, shot from below, standing proud just like I've seen kids with Downs syndrome photographed to publicize the special olympics. ("Yay, fat chick! Good for you! You're all winners. We're proud of you! Here! Have a snack-pack.") Nike's communications hail from the school of owning your body, not making excuses for it, lowering your standards or trying to cover it up.
Now, while I'm happier about the Nike stuff than I am about what Dove did, I still think the next step is to incorporate real, everyday women into visual media without having to segregate them into their own "special" campaigns. (Holla, Bryan and Luissa. Lux '04, son.)
Posted by: John | Aug 16, 2005 6:15:00 PM
Art Director was Mira Kaddoura, adcenter alum.
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The problem is no one wants to see ordinary woman. Ordinary women don't want to see ordinary women. No one aspires to ordinary. That's advertising.
I don't dig this new campign. I don't buy it. Allan Iverson might have freakishly big hands... that allow him to palm basketballs, so what? His hands are freakishly big, and help him earn millions a year. Whatever. Nike, you're not telling me anything interesting at all...
Posted by: chris | Aug 18, 2005 11:07:25 PM
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My take:
All the ads succeed in doing is making the point that Nike is trying to be politically correct. Ok – we get it Nike, you don’t want us to think you promote “female body as fantasy object”. Inevitably the ads will be compared to Dove’s “Real women, Real curves” campaign but the only real comparison is that Nike “Wants to be like Dove”.
The Dove ads are emotive because they are demonstrative. Dove makes a statement without being preachy. Alter the copy of the Dove ads and they’d fail. Failure would read something like this: “Here at Unilever, we feel that fat butts and bellies can look good too”. Or, how about if they quoted some fictitious average chick with copy like: “I like my fat butt because I use Dove to make my excessive skin look great”.
"Real" people promoting product is a great strategy for connecting to the emotions of a target market. If Nike demonstrated the healthy success of real women with copy like, “I want to be like Jill” followed by images of women cast from your local gym, the campaign would have succeeded. I see impressive “normal” women every day at my gym. Tell people that they should like their Thunder thighs because Nike says they are OK, and you don’t connect to anything but corporate BS. Get the difference?
Posted by: Bruce DeBoer | Aug 24, 2005 11:59:25 AM
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Posted by: Marissa | Jan 16, 2006 6:24:00 PM
Waitaminute. Let's get something straight. These are not "real women" in these ads. These are EXCEPTIONAL women who have worked hard to attain the bodies (and the scars) they have. This isn't about women asking the world to accept them as they are. (great analogy re: Special Olympics) This is about EXCEPTIONAL women telling the world that WE exceptional women:
**Define ourselves by our achievements, and building a healthy body is damn hard and something we consider to be an achievement to be proud of
** Don't give a damn about what conventional beauty is. STRENGTH = BEAUTY. And we don't care if that scares you, young men and starving women.
Unfortunately, I think I understand why the art direction is what it is... it's an attempt to be hip and soft at the same time. But I think that if these ads had gone in a more photographic/americana direction instead of trying too hard to look graphically hip, it would have taken away that "hollowness/aloneness" that I think people are reacting to. It's OK for these ads to be soft. But they also need to look comfortable, because that's what we're talking about here...women putting their foot down and staking a claim in being comfortable in our own skin and being "Hell Yeah I'm An American" proud of ourselves. And the art distances that feeling (IMHO) from the text. Anyway, that's my 2 cents.
Posted by: ME | Feb 15, 2006 7:36:18 PM
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posted by cyn* aka symphonieee @ 11:19 AM
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