The Encouraging Dark Roots of Nike's 'Just Do It'

Once upon a time, two companies in Oregon were working hard to establish a reputation for themselves. Those two, Nike and Wieden & Kennedy, surely succeeded in every aspect of their goal as nowadays it’s a challenge to go from dawn to dusk without being exposed to one or the other, or even an hour for that matter. More interestingly though is the fact that they built a platform for their success together, forming a relationship between the two that has lasted for over thirty years to date.

As Wieden & Kennedy’s first client, which they brought with them following their departure from McCann-Erickson in 1982, the nearly 20 year old Nike had begun to gain considerable market share and helped fuel the first billings realized by the agency. By the middle of the decade Nike decided that it was ready and able to roll out its biggest advertising budget in company history, a whopping $25 million, which seemed like a giant amount at the time.

Wieden recalls working late into the production of the campaign, which featured six-to-eight commercials. While the adman should have been anxious about the rapidly approaching launch date, he instead was humbled with the feeling that something important was missing from the ads. He described some shots as humorous, others as aggressive, and some as heroic, though felt that the campaign needed a common voice. Wieden argued that while the individual ads were good, they lacked a uniform identity and didn’t really add up to anything as a whole. He admits that he thought of taglines as old school and wasn’t really trying to think of one, though while trying to find a common ground between the spots he realized a slogan that would go on to define his legacy in the advertising industry.

At home one night, Wieden sat down to review the various spots and see if he could muster up anything worth pitching to his partners and client before the campaign’s release date. With no promising leads, Wieden remembered his thinking about a man named Gary Gilmore who was sentenced to execution by firing squad in 1977 for the murder of two people in Utah. While this may seem odd, it’s likely because the fact that it is. However, what Wieden would soon pull from his wandering mind turned out to be solid gold. He recalled the stunning last words Gilmore would speak before having his head covered to carry out the execution in which he purely said, “Let’s do it.” Gilmores willingness and courage to face life’s most precious uncertainty hit hard in the mind of Wieden, a moment he described as “a good peak into the unconscious.”

While the ‘let’s’ part didn’t stick well with him, the ‘do it’ was something Wieden felt he could build on. By replacing the ‘let’s’ with ‘just’, he argued the short slogan encompassed a message that could appeal to almost any degree of athletic lifestyle. When he took the slogan to his client and partners the next day, uncertainty filled the atmosphere of whether or not to use the line. Wieden admits that he himself wasn’t ever sure about what would become of it, but the agency decided to take a chance and it’s still paying off today.

Following the campaign release, the agency and shoe manufacturer began to receive letters and calls telling them how the slogan had inspired them in one way or another. One man stated that it gave him the courage to ask a girl out that he had been too afraid to talk too, though reports that it worked out for the best. Countless others wrote of the way it helped them deal with depressing times and changed their outlook on life. One woman ever noted that it gave her the strength to “leave the bum,” though I’ll bet a divorce was the last thing anybody would have expected to come from it.

The Nike brand is now worth close to $37 billion, making CEO Phil Knight the 58^th richest man in the world following the end of 2010 with an estimated net worth of $12.7 billion. That period has seen Nike become the official sponsor of some of the world’s most famous sport figures including Michael Jordan, Lance Armstrong, Kobe Bryant, Tiger Woods and Lebron James. It’s a pretty funny situation when considering that Knight was originally an avid hater of advertising, though I highly doubt he still is today. Below are two short video interviews that inspired this post in which Wieden discusses the genesis of his most notable work. Enjoy!

The World's Billionaires. (2011). In Forbes. Retrieved March 25, 2011, from <http://www.forbes.com/wealth/billionaires#p_6_s_arank_-1__-1>